"Today marks the 69th anniversary of that fateful day in 1945 when the US B29 Stratosphere bomber nicknamed "Enola Gay" opened its bomb doors at approximately 810am in the morning from some 35000 feet altitude above the peaceful and non-military city of Hiroshima, Japan. At that point, an elongated Uranium powered nuclear explosive device known as "Little Boy" fell from the aircraft and begun its approximately 4 and 1/2 minute fall to the ground below. At almost exactly 815 am, Japan time, the device exploded in the atmosphere just above Hiroshima in a fireball measuring some 300 yards across. The resultant heat and blast from that 12.5 kiloton explosion leveled approximately 4 square miles of Hiroshima killing some 100000 people instantly and leaving another 100000 to eventually perish due to burns and radiation exposure.... It was the dawning of a new era of nuclear warfare and one that this planet's inhabitants still fear to this very day....
I have long known that the usage of that Uranium powered device on Hiroshima was absolutely unnecessary and that Japan was already a beaten nation and absolutely willing to surrender to the United States... Japan was already being bombed day and night by B29's operating out of bases in both the Marianas and China, and their industrial and manufacturing facilities were collapsing... Worse, due to the incessant bombing there was fear of famine and massive starvation for its 90+ million wartime inhabitants... The Japanese government knew the "jig was up" and had been approaching the US, through neutral nations, wanting to surrender since the beginning of 1945.
The reality is that the Konoye cabinet in Tokyo had already informed the United States government of its acceptance of every single term as laid out in the US surrender demands with the one request that the Japanese be able to keep their Emperor, Hirohito, as their head of state in a post-war Japan..... It is not surprising and in some ways very barbaric that the US purposely delayed the surrender of Japan just so they could drop these two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and then have the audacity to agree to the exact terms that the Japanese had requested 5 days after the Nagasaki bombing, on August 14th 1945!
It is sickening when we reflect back now at that period of history and now realize that the atomic bomb was not necessary and in fact was an act of genocide on innocent people. The constant lies that the atomic bomb was used to "save American lives" has now been proven to be a facade and a massive lie....
Now with the world again on the verge of a new global war based on lies, history's lessons are forgotten...
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Paper lanterns with messages for peace were released during the event, which was attended by more than 45,000 people (AP Photo/Kyodo News).
"Japan marks Hiroshima anniversary, invites leaders" Associated Press August 07, 2014
TOKYO — Japan marked the 69th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday, with the city’s mayor inviting world leaders to see atomic bomb-scarred cities firsthand to be convinced that nuclear weapons should not exist.
At least it might give them pause not to use them.
Speaking before a crowd of survivors, their descendants, and dignitaries including US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, the mayor urged President Obama and others to visit, referring to a proposal made at a ministerial meeting in April of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative in Hiroshima.
Related:
“Kennedy’s heroics may have been for naught without Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa, two Solomon Islanders. They found Kennedy and his crew six days after the wreck, subsisting on coconuts on a small island.The two took a message from Kennedy, which he etched into a green coconut, and paddled at great risk 35 miles through Japanese territory to deliver it to the nearest Allied base. A rescue was launched. The crew, and the future president, were saved. [Not for long] Thomas J. Putnam, director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, said, said schoolchildren love the story of the rescue. From the romance of eating coconuts on a deserted island, to the heroics of the dashing young Jack Kennedy in the dark night, to the men on a canoe bearing a secret message, the story conjures a sense of wonder. “It captures the vagaries of life and history,” Putnam said. “What if JFK had died on that boat? And what if those two natives had not been passing that island at that time? And what if they had been intercepted by the Japanese? It reminds us that history isn’t preordained, that small things can occur that can completely shape the course of world history.”
What if he had lived?
‘‘President Obama and all leaders of nuclear-armed nations, please respond to that call by visiting the A-bombed cities as soon as possible to see what happened with your own eyes,’’ Mayor Kazumi Matsui said. ‘‘If you do, you will be convinced that nuclear weapons are an absolute evil that must no longer be allowed to exist.’’
About 45,000 people stood for a minute of silence at the ceremony in Hiroshima’s peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 bombing that killed up to 140,000 people. The bombing of Nagasaki three days later killed another 70,000, prompting Japan’s surrender in World War II.
That's the official and conventional version and narrative.
The number of surviving victims, known as ‘‘hibakusha,’’ was just over 190,000 this year. Their average age is 79, and many of the attendants at the ceremony were their younger relatives and descendants. Hiroshima officials said 5,507 survivors died in the past year.
The anniversary comes as Japan is divided over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent Cabinet decision to allow the country’s military to defend foreign countries and play greater roles overseas. To achieve the goal, Abe’s Cabinet revised its interpretation of Japan’s post-WWII pacifist constitution.
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FLASHBACKS:
"Japan marks 68th anniversary of Hiroshima bombing" by Shizuo Kambayashi | Associated Press, August 07, 2013
HIROSHIMA, Japan — Japan marked the 68th anniversary Tuesday of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima with a somber ceremony to honor the dead and pledges to seek to eliminate nuclear weapons.
I'm sorry my country did that to you, Japan.
Some 50,000 people stood for a minute of silence in Hiroshima’s peace park near the epicenter of the early-morning blast on Aug. 6, 1945, that killed up to 140,000 people. The bombing of Nagasaki three days later killed tens of thousands more, prompting Japan’s surrender to the World War II Allies.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, among many dignitaries attending the event, said that as the sole country to face nuclear attack, Japan has the duty to seek to wipe out nuclear weapons. He made no mention of the dilemma this resource-scarce country is facing over nuclear energy, nor of the tens of thousands of people displaced by risks from radioactivity from a nuclear disaster in Fukushima, in its northeast.
Most of Japan’s nuclear power plants were taken off- line after the massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 damaged reactors at a plant in Fukushima, causing meltdowns.
There are over 200,000 ‘‘hibakusha,’’ surviving victims from the atomic bombings, with an average age of nearly 79. Many gathered in Hiroshima to burn incense, bowing in prayer. In a ‘‘peace declaration’’ speech, Hiroshima’s mayor, Kazumi Matsui, described the pain of those who survived, only to be shunned as contaminated by the radiation.
May God forgive AmeriKa when she dies.
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In the meantime I will personally assume responsibility and issue a profuse and heartfelt apology for the two single greatest criminal acts in recorded history.
"Criticism on Nagasaki anniversary" by Mari Yamaguchi | Associated Press, August 10, 2013
TOKYO — Nagasaki’s mayor criticized Japan’s government on Friday for failing to back an international nuclear disarmament effort as the country marked the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of his city.
Mayor Tomihisa Taue said Japan’s inaction ‘‘betrayed expectations of the global community.’’
Well, look at the new government they got.
Japan refused in April to sign an unconditional pledge by nearly 80 countries to never use nuclear weapons.
The document, prepared by a UN committee, is largely symbolic because none of the signatories possesses nuclear weapons.
Japan does not have nuclear weapons and has pledged not to produce any, although some hawkish members of the ruling party say the country should consider a nuclear option.
I'll bet that puts there neighbors at ease.
Taue said that as the world’s only victim of atomic bombings, Japan’s refusal to join the initiative contradicts its non-nuclear pledge.
‘‘I call on the government of Japan to return to the origin of our pledge as an atomic-bombed country,’’ he said at the peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 blast.
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Also see: The Worst Days in World History
Remember Saipan and the Marianas Islands?
"Coauthor of retracted stem cell papers commits suicide" by Carolyn Y. Johnson | Globe Staff August 05, 2014
The controversy over a high-profile stem cell finding by Japanese and Boston scientists that was retracted last month took a tragic turn Tuesday when a Japanese scientist who coauthored the work committed suicide, Japanese news reports said.
According to The Japan Times, Yoshiki Sasai, 52, hanged himself at the research center where he worked....
The problems with the stem cell research have put Japanese scientists under an intense media spotlight, with several issuing public apologies. Just last month, there were reports that Obokata was chased by reporters on a motorcycle and then through a hotel. She is also said to have been treated at a hospital on and off since errors in the stem cell work began coming to light this year, according to Japanese news reports.
The experiments in one of the papers were designed and overseen by Dr. Charles Vacanti, an anesthesiolgist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who originated the idea for the work. In two papers published in the journal Nature in January, the researchers reported that it was possible to create powerful stem cells able to become any type of tissue in the body simply by dipping mature cells in acid. The technique was called STAP, short for stimulus-triggered acquistion of pluripotency.
The stem cell scandal has led to uncertainty in Japan over the future of the Center for Developmental Biology at RIKEN, which an outside committee had suggested may need to be shut down. In a statement released in July when the papers were retracted, Sasai apologized....
RIKEN officials released statements expressing sorrow and shock at his death....
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Related: Rise of the Samurai
That's why they lost the war.
