Wednesday 27th of November 2024
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remembering the future by the prime minister of japan....

On 6 Aug, 1945, approximately 200,000 people in the hitherto untouched town of Hiroshima perished in the worlds first use of a nuclear weapon in anger. On 9th Aug, a somewhat smaller number in Nagasaki likewise perished. Only the authority of secretary of state Stimson, who had visited the city of Kyoto, famous for its ancient temples, prevented that city from being bombed, and from further use of nuclear weapons.

 

Remembering the US atomic bomb that demolished Hiroshima, killed 200,000    By John Hallam

 

The bomb that demolished Hiroshima and caused the death of approximately half its population was a 15Kt ‘gun-barrel’ design, in which a slug of uranium was fired into a larger piece of uranium, causing both pieces to go ‘prompt critical’. The design was deemed so simple and dependable it hadn’t even been tested.

The Nagasaki bomb was a larger and more efficient ‘implosion’ design, similar to the device tested at Trinity. However, Nagasaki was a smaller city than Hiroshima, and the bomb went off-target when it was dropped resulting in a smaller number of casualties.

Both bombs would now be considered as at the small end of ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons, with most nuclear weapons these days being of a thermonuclear design (i.e., fusion, using a fission device the size of the Hiroshima weapon as a ‘trigger’), and a typical strategic weapon would be in the range of 300-700Kt, with some weapons as large as 1000Kt. In the past, multi-megaton warheads have been more common. The largest weapon even exploded was the USSR’s ‘Tsar Bomba’ (King of Bombs), at 50,000Kt or 50Mt.

What must be remembered however, is that while warheads have become gigantic and then decreased somewhat in size, and that while nuclear stockpiles have also been gigantic to the point of insanity, and then also declined by roughly a factor of 10, we have never been so close, for so long, to nuclear weapons use as during the last 12-24 months.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 lasted a mere 13 days, in which some particular days saw the risk spike dramatically as there were mini-crises within the crisis.

The September 26 1983 event in which Russian computers said the US had launched and in which Colonel Stan Petrov guessed they had not, lasted a mere half hour – though half an hour in which Petrov aged visibly.

An event in the US in 1974 in which a relatively lowly officer inadvertently sent the ‘go’ codes to the entire US arsenal likewise lasted for minutes, though it permanently traumatised many of those involved. 1979 and 1981 incidents in which computers indicated a full-scale Soviet attack likewise lasted hair-raising minutes.

In none of these incidents were explicit or implicit nuclear threats made. No one on either side threatened ‘consequences you have never seen in your history’.

Indeed both sides were overwhelmingly keen to end the crisis and for absolutely nothing to happen, and made that clear.

However, nuclear threats, and threats of nuclear weapons use, or not so subtly veiled threats of nuclear weapons use, are now a regular occurrence. True, the arsenals are significantly smaller now, but the use of ‘nuclear blackmail’ has become a regular occurrence.

Its not surprising that the Doomsday Clock is now at 90 seconds to ‘midnight’ (the end of civilisation), closer than it has ever been, including at the height of the cold war.

The danger of a miscalculation (or a deliberate decision, insane though that would be) taking us to the launch of thousands of warheads all much much larger than Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the consequences of the immediate death of over a 1-2 billion in burning cities (including in Australia), and over half of those humans who remain in the the freezing nuclear twilight that would follow (largely in non-combatant countries), and the end for at least centuries of what we call ‘civilisation’.

The recent Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty Preparatory Committee at the UN in Geneva ended not unexpectedly, in no agreement. However, some NGOs were somewhat gratified to see that the draft chairs summary did include language we had pressed for including the reiteration of language in the G7 and G20 meetings that ‘the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible’, and that ‘nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’, as well as a stress on nuclear risk reduction measures of all kinds. This is a small glimmer of light in an otherwise gloomy picture.

Hiroshima Day will be commemorated/has been commemorated by a large number of events within Australia, listed below.

 

John Hallam

Nuclear weapons campaigner, People for Nuclear Disarmament, Human Survival Project, Co-Convenor, Abolition 2000 Working Group on Nuclear Risk Reduction, Member, Global No First Use Steering Committee.

Events in Australia marking Hiroshima Day, as compiled by ICAN below:

The 79th anniversaries of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are coming up on Tuesday 6 and Friday 9 August, 2024. Right now, multiple adverse global trends are creating the greatest risk of nuclear war since at least the 1980s. Speedily joining the global Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is the best contribution Australia could make towards reining in these nuclear dangers.

As A/Prof Tilman Ruff AO, Melissa Parke, and Gem Romuld wrote in ‘Luck Is Not a Strategy: It’s Time to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons‘ (2024): “For as long as we remain outside the treaty, promoting a role for nuclear weapons threats in our defence policies, we are contributing to the problem.”

It is pivotal that the people continue to demand signature and ratification of the TPNW. Labor has promised this since 2018. If Australia is serious about nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, nothing less will do.

We look forward to seeing you out there!

https://johnmenadue.com/remembering-the-us-atomic-bomb-that-demolished-hiroshima-killed-200000/

 

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hitler's nuke....

Hitler planned to nuke USSR – archives
The attack was set for June 1945, according to transcripts of interrogations of a senior Nazi official, declassified by the FSB

 

Adolf Hitler planned to use nuclear weapons against the USSR in June 1945, according to a transcript of testimony by Werner Waechter – a close associate of Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. The declassified document has been published by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

The unsealing of the testimony coincides with the 79th anniversary of the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan at the end of World War II.

According to photocopies of the documents related to the case of the former Nazi official, the nuclear strikes were to be carried out using “very long-range bombers capable of bombing the military construction centers of the Soviet Union in the Urals.” 

In his testimony in October 1945, Wachter told Soviet investigators that he had learned of the development of atomic weapons from an Nazi engineer in 1943, who told him that German scientists had “succeeded in splitting the atomic nucleus and that engineers were developing methods and techniques for the practical use of atomic energy as a means of warfare.”

In the late 1930s, German scientists had discovered the fission of uranium atoms and made major contributions to the foundations of atomic physics. Nazi Germany was the first country to launch a project focused on the creation of an atomic bomb.

Wachter also said that, in 1945, the editor of the secret government bulletin, Hans Hertel, told him that the German Ministry of Armaments was preparing to use an atomic bomb, which it planned to equip on board “aircraft of the latest design” that were stationed at an airfield near the town of Celle in north Germany.

While Wachter said he was unsure of the precise date for the planned nuclear strike, he believed June to be the most likely time for Hitler to deploy the new weapon, especially given that Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels had ordered the preparation of a special horoscope for the fuhrer for that month. The Third Reich regularly used astrology as a means of propaganda to craft predictions of future events and disseminate them among the population. 

As noted by the FSB, Hitler’s plans to use a nuclear weapon against the USSR were ultimately foiled in May 1945, when Soviet forces took Berlin and forced Nazi Germany to surrender.

While Germany was the first to attempt the creation of a nuclear weapon, the project was never finished. The US, on the other hand, managed to develop the bomb by the end of the war and became the first and only country to ever use it in an armed conflict, infamously dropping two nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945 – 79 years ago. The strikes killed more than 200,000 people, mostly civilians.

https://www.rt.com/russia/602290-hitler-planned-to-nuke-ussr/

 

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snubbed....

US to snub A-bomb memorial service in Nagasaki
The Japanese city has angered Western diplomats by failing to invite Israel’s envoy to the commemoration event

 

Senior diplomats representing Washington and London in Japan will not attend a ceremony in Nagasaki on Friday commemorating the victims of the 1945 US atomic bombing, because organizers declined to invite the Israeli ambassador.

British Ambassador Julia Longbottom announced her decision to skip the upcoming event at a press briefing on Tuesday. She lashed out at the move by city authorities to exclude Israel from the ceremony. Japanese officials said in June that they wished to pressure the Jewish state to seek a ceasefire in its military operation in Gaza.

The British diplomat said Israel has the right to defend itself, so the snub was wrong – unlike the omission of Russia and Belarus. The city of Nagasaki hasn’t invited those two countries to the annual commemoration since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, and local peace activists have reportedly accused the mayor’s office of double standards in relation to Israel.

US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will likewise skip this week’s event, with the diplomatic mission telling the media that he did not want to “politicize” it. He will instead attend a smaller-scale ceremony in Tokyo, the statement added. A lower-level official from the consulate in Fukuoka will attend in place of the ambassador.

Representatives of Australia, Italy, Canada, and the European Union will reportedly follow suit.

Mayor Shiro Suzuki reiterated his determination not to host Israeli Ambassador Gilad Cohen at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial during a press conference last week. He said: “It is not a political decision. It is a decision based on our hopes to hold the ceremony peacefully, solemnly and smoothly.” The Israeli envoy has called the situation “regrettable.”

Nagasaki was the second of two Japanese cities subjected to nuclear bombings by the US military in the late stages of World War II. Officials in Hiroshima have urged Israel to agree to a ceasefire, but stopped short of failing to invite Ambassador Cohen to the annual commemorative ceremony on August 6.

READ MORE: Japanese PM makes no mention of US on Hiroshima anniversary

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida refrained from mentioning the role of the US in the nuclear attacks during a speech that he delivered at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Tuesday.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/602275-nagasaki-commemoration-ambassadors-israel/

 

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f**k y**....

 

Team genocide walks out on Nagasaki commemorations    By Eugene Doyle

 

In an astonishing “Fuck you” to the survivors of the 1945 US nuclear bombing of Nagasaki, several Western countries including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Italy and the UK have just dropped a bombshell: reportedly announcing their ambassadors are shunning this week’s commemorations in solidarity with Israel.

Last week the mayor of Nagasaki, Shiro Suzuki, rescinded Israel’s invitation to the annual peace ceremony. It was a gentle but pointed diplomatic message: Lest we forget what it was – and still is – all about.

Shigemitsu Tanaka, the 83-year-old head of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, supports the move to keep the Israelis away from the commemorations saying it was inappropriate to invite representatives from countries waging armed conflicts in defiance of calls from the international community.

As a hibakusha – “a survivor of the bomb” – his words carry, or should carry, weight. The average age of a hibakusha is 88 years old. For some this will be their last commemoration. Their lives will be book-ended by nuclear blasts killing hundreds of thousands of civilians at one end and a powerful statement of Western contempt for both Japanese and Palestinian civilian lives at the other.

It is likely that in generations to come people will look back on the governments of these Western countries as a kind of moral detritus floating across an ocean of American violence.

The atomic bomb that exploded over Nagasaki at 11:02 on the morning of 9 August 1945 took the lives of 74,000 people. As with Hiroshima a few days earlier, the Americans decided that killing civilians was a legitimate tactic to achieve a strategic victory.

The people of Gaza have had several times more US-Israeli bombs, by explosive power, dropped on them than was inflicted on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined; a staggering statistic.

The US can, rightly, condemn Hamas for killing hundreds of Israeli civilians on October 7th, but has the chutzpah to say mass killings of civilians are ok when it’s done by them. People will passionately argue every side of this but should attempt to discover some central core of consistency amongst the complexity, not least because consistency is the cornerstone of both morality and rationality.

Back in June Mayor Suzuki sent a letter to the Israeli ambassador calling for a ceasefire. He pointed out that as a child of survivors of the Nagasaki bombing he knew only too well the human cost of armed conflict.

It is worth remembering that no US President has ever apologised for the deliberate targeting of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians. With this in mind, their attendance at previous Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorations is akin to a murderer turning up at a funeral. Sorry is obviously the hardest word.

George HW Bush said the nuclear attack on civilians was right because it spared American lives. U.S. President Bill Clinton said, “the United States owes no apology to Japan for having dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” George W Bush was widely condemned for his offensive comment, “Hey let’s forget that, let’s go forward now together.”

I grew up in the afterglow of those detonations in a New Zealand that had very little sympathy for the Japanese civilians who died. Today I live in a New Zealand where our government has little practical sympathy for the similar number of Palestinians who have died due to yet more American bombs. According to The Lancet, the authoritative British medical journal, by July this year 186,000 Palestinian lives have likely been taken in the US-Israeli War on Gaza – a figure higher than usually reported because, as well as the bodies actually recovered, it calculates the bodies under the 150,000 buildings flattened in the bombings.

We still live in a world where killing huge numbers of civilians is considered justified if the aim is to achieve a strategic victory. This week Israeli Cabinet Minister Bezalel Smotrich told Israel Hayom, “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.” Latest figures: 115 hostages are being held in Gaza, several thousand Palestinian hostages are being held in Israel, including political leaders such as Marwan Barghouti and children who threw stones.

Reading Smotrich’s words, hearing those 70,000 tonnes of bombs exploding on men, women and children, the millions of bullets sprayed or sniped at those same civilians, it is not hard to understand why Palestinians fear the Israelis are planning a Final Solution to the Palestinian Question.

I note that Turkey is the latest in a growing list of countries joining South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel. Consistency would suggest that New Zealand, Australia and the rest should join them.

I commend the people of Nagasaki for keeping the representatives of Israel out of their city. I think the US, UK, Australia and the other Western nations who spat out their contempt for the hibakusha and their important moral stance should hang their heads in shame.

 

https://johnmenadue.com/team-genocide-walks-out-on-nagasaki-commemorations/

 

 

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a good reason....

Al Manar

The mayor of Nagasaki considered it "regrettable" Thursday that the American and British ambassadors refused to participate in a ceremony commemorating the atomic bombing of the Japanese city on August 9, 1945, due to the absence of an invitation for Israel.

Shiro Suzuki, however, defended the desire of this city in southwestern Japan not to invite Israel, repeating that it was not a political decision, but a way to avoid possible protests linked to the Israeli war against Gaza which cost the lives of more than 39 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children.

«It is unfortunate that they informed us that the ambassadors were unable to attend the event“, Suzuki told the press.

«We have made a decision that is not politically motivated. We want the ceremony to take place smoothly, in a peaceful and solemn environment", he added.

On August 9, 1945, three days after the first atomic bombing in history in Hiroshima, Nagasaki suffered the same fate: some 74 people were killed on site.

Both cities have a tradition of inviting dignitaries from around the world to their respective annual commemorations. Representatives of Russia and Belarus are no longer welcome there since the offensive against Ukraine in 2022.

The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the European Union – as well as Canada and Australia, according to Japanese media – will send diplomats below the rank of ambassador to the ceremony.

Only the American and British embassies made an explicit link with Nagasaki's decision not to invite Israeli Ambassador Gilad Cohen.

A source told theAFP that Italy's decision was also a direct consequence of this non-invitation.

The British Embassy said the exclusion of Israel created “an unfortunate and misleading equivalence with Russia and Belarus, the only other countries not invited to this year's ceremony».

A French Embassy spokesperson called Suzuki's decision "regrettable and questionable", while the German mission criticized the fact of "place Israel on the same level as Russia and Belarus».

source: Al Manar

https://en.reseauinternational.net/le-maire-de-nagasaki-defend-sa-decision-de-ne-pas-inviter-israel-aux-commemorations/

 

CONGRATS TO THE MAYOR OF NAGASAKI— EVEN IF NOT A "POLITICAL" DECISION......

 

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kashida out?.....

 

'They Need a Scapegoat': US Favored Japanese Leader to Step Down

 

BY Mary Manley

 

At the end of 2023, Kishida had announced that he was stepping down as the leader of the Kochikai faction of the ruling LDP following a years-long ticket sales scandal. Five LDP factions were accused of allegedly underreporting income in political funds reports.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has announced his plans to step down as leader of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The move comes after Kishida's sinking approval ratings which follow a corruption scandal surrounding the party, as well as rising living costs and a weakening yen, Sputnik reported.

In November, Kishida had reportedly taken drastic action to replace top members of his cabinet following voter anger in response to a fundraising proceeds scandal. Lawmakers in Japan’s ruling party had been accused of underreporting funds with over 100 million yen ($680,000) of fundraising proceeds failing to be officially reported on.

On Wednesday, peace activist, writer, and teacher, K.J. Noh joined Sputnik's The Critical Hour to explain how US interference has hampered Japan's economy and spurred China to continue its pacifist approach to foreign policy.

“...certainly the LDP is corrupt from beginning to end, and it's essentially a party that is run and built from slush funds. It was built by the CIA. The CIA created this slush fund, and then it put them into power along with the backing of the gangster class. It put the unrepentant militarists back into power in 1955, and they've been essentially a one-party state,” Noh explained.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240815/they-need-a-scapegoat-us-favored-japanese-leader-to-step-down-1119775163.html

 

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