HBO Documentary - Hiroshima & Nagasaki

I wrote in my post that the producers of White Light/Black Rain are Japanese ... actually, the Executive Producer - Mr. Steven Okazaki - is an American of apparent Japanese descent.

HBO published an interview with Okazaki on their website at http://www.hbo.com. In the interview, Okazaki claims that the four Americans he interviewed who were part of the mission to drop the bomb "made powerful anti-war/anti-nuclear weapons statements at the end of the film."

I don't agree with Okazaki's characterization of their statements. What I heard those four elderly participants describe was their concern over nuclear proliferation and the potential for active use of nuclear weapons in today's world. That is a valid concern of virtually everybody in the world today, regardless of whether one is anti-nuclear or anti-war, or not - including President George W. Bush, who is obviously not anti-nuke or anti-war.

There is no inherent evil associated with nuclear weapons per se. The critical issue is, who has them, and how do we make sure that they aren't actually used, as opposed to serving as deterrents to another bloody World War.

As a deterrent, nukes proved to be extremely effective in preventing another world holocaust. The fact is, between the early 1930s, when Japan first invaded its neighbors in Manchuria, and 1945, about 76 million people were killed in war. All but about 200,000 of those deaths were due to causes other than nuclear weapons. Yet, in the 62 years since 1945, all of the war deaths in all the wars fought come to no more than a very tiny fraction of the 76 million killed in WWII.

Therefore, how many hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions, of people who lived in the last 62 years owe their lives to the existence of the nuclear deterrent? We'll never know, of course. Thankfully.

There are still people alive who credit their very existence to Truman's decision to stop Japanese aggression.

Face it, Japan was killing everyone in sight.

Great blog!

If the invasion of Japan had been necessary, it would have been the US Army GI's that had won the war in Europe that would have been the spearhead of that invasion. While fighting in Europe their hope for survival had been centered on their mutual dependence on each other and that was their reason for fighting, for the sake and life of the GI next to him in the foxhole. They had a hope, an expectation of going home after the war.

While options were being considered in Washington, these same warweary GI's were redeployed to training bases in preparation for their attack on Japan. They were made aware of the probable losses of American lives and this had a severe, psychological and physical effect on them which totally transformed their overall thought processes.

Instead of being hopeful for their future, which had been their motivation in Europe, the only attitude they could come up with that enabled them to go on, as ordered, to their next assignment while maintaining sanity, was the relegation in their minds that they were not going to survive the invasion and were, in their own minds already dead. This became the mindset of the overwhelming majority of US servicemen from Generals to privates, pilots to riflemen, cooks to nurses. It was the only logical outcome.

Can you imagine what the decision to use the bombs and the outcome of that decision did to the men and women staged to invade and their families? It was their very deliverance from a death already accepted and mentally experienced. There were hundreds of thousands who cried at the gift from God they were given by Truman.

It is a tragedy that the people of Japan were used by their war lords and emperor as fenceposts in their fortifications against the onslaught they accepted for themselves as soldiers.

Glenn Flowers