Nagasaki: The Dirtier Bomb

With the Russians ready to move on Japan, and the blast over Hiroshima still radiating in the minds of a war-weary world, a second atomic bomb was detonated by the US military on August 9, 1945.

I firmly believe that the decision to use atomic weapons at Hiroshima was flawed, short-sighted and ignorant.

Nagasaki then, was criminal.

In an earlier post I outlined the reasons why I think the bomb was used - and why it shouldn't have been: Harry Truman had been an out-of-the-loop senator who was now trying to end the war and prove himself as capable as FDR; The Manhattan Project was enormous and no decision-maker ever questioned its use after years of investment in money and manpower; The US was preparing for the post-war world - using the bomb would give it leverage against a suspect Soviet Union; and the government, the military, and the civilian leadership didn't quite understand the destructive force that was to be unleashed on a nondescript Japanese town in early August 1945.

After Hiroshima they should have known.

They'd used the bomb they spent so much money on.
They'd shown the world their scientific and military might.
Truman was no longer a pencil pusher but a wartime President.
And they knew the bomb could kill like to other weapon in the history of death.


Why Nagasaki then?

Probably because it was already set in motion.
Groupthink had consumed everyone.
Like Hiroshima, nobody stopped and asked:

"Why?"
"Is this necessary?"

Greg Mitchell looked at the second bombing for the Huffington Post: "How Press Censorship Hid the Shocking Truth About Nagasaki A-Bomb 65 Years Ago." Early reports by George Weller - who arrived days before other journalists - never made it to press. It seems, for the most part, the military didn't want the world to know about radiation poisoning.

I understand the want for controlling the flow of information - especially during wartime - but to censor American journalism after an event isn't protecting the country's ability to wage war, it's protecting their actions during war.

For years the US (and then the Russians) stockpiled weapons with huge immediate destructive power and tried to hide much of the long-term health and environmental consequences from the world, from citizens, from humanity.

Such arrogance.
Such ignorance.