August 10 of this year marked 72 years after the nuclear terrorist attack committed by The United States of America on Hiroshima, Japan. This terrorist attack caused the death of over 200,000 civilians. In an attempt to make the Japanese military surrender to defeat, turned out to be the largest scale terrorist attack with deaths far exceeding any other attack dating back to the 1900’s. Before the 1900’s technology and weapon advancements would never be able to pull off an attack on this scale, making it the largest terrorist attack ever recorded. But, there is a large population within U.S. who feel as though the people and city of Hiroshima, Japan deserved to get bombed, and will defend The U.S. in doing so.
Fact: The U.S. and Japan were at war during the time of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. That being said, is it logical to murder hundreds of thousands of civilians residing within the country you are at war with? I don’t think so, in fact, The U.S. is the only country to do so. A common justification that people will use to defend the bombing is, “U.S. soldiers were being killed”. It seems to be a trend for militaries to fight and kill the soldiers of the country they are at war against, so I’m not sure why that makes it okay in people’s minds to murder the civilians of a country. In fact, Japanese military casualties were over one million, while U.S. military casualties were around 100,000. The U.S. government held more Japanese-American civilians in internment camps (about 120,000) then they had military casualties. Can you say, “put the nail in the coffin”? The U.S. military invaded Iraq after the 9/11 attacks, killing thousands of civilians, so it must be justified, using the same logic.
But, what about U.S. citizens, right? I mean besides the estimated 120,000 Japanese-Americans that were held in internment camps. Some people may believe that Japan had to be taken out to save the lives and well being of U.S. citizens. There is considered to be only one casualty of World War 2 within The United States. While Hiroshima had around 200,000 civilian deaths, but World War 2 resulted in an estimated 393,400 civilian deaths in Japan. That number, including the estimated 1,740,000 military deaths, equates to 2,133,400 deaths as a result of World War 2. This caused a -1.5 percent drop in population in 1996. The only time the citizens of North America have ever been at risk of being murdered by masses was during the conquering and massacre of Native America.
Terrorism is defined as, the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. The committee that decided to place the bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, settled on two “psychological” objectives of the first atomic bombing: to scare the Japanese into unconditional surrender and to impress upon the world the power of the new weapon. To put fear into the country of Japan. By bombing civilians. To put fear into the rest of the world, boosting the United States of America. Within a few years, they expected to have a “super-bomb”: the hydrogen (or thermonuclear) bomb. At the time, they believed H-bombs on top of missiles could destroy the world.
There has never been a case, in where a terrorist attack can be justified. To defend one is reflective of your views. To defend the largest attack in history is incredibly disgusting. The United States of America has the most horrific history. It needs to be held accountable, but people either don’t care because it doesn’t affect them or they are too egotistic to admit the truth. It is also extremely important to teach more history from the point of view of the oppressed. It tells the ugly truth of the corruption and discrimination it took The U.S. government to gain the ground it has.
Some ugly tweets were made about this topic;
https://twitter.com/lepolishdewd/status/895835729657462785
It ended the war and stopped US soldiers from dying and most likely more japanese from dying as well.
— Jon Fortner (@jon4tner) August 10, 2017
Reminder Japan wasnt planning on stopping anytime soon and they were literally crashing planes into US soldiers.
— Jon Fortner (@jon4tner) August 10, 2017
