Moving Beyond the Memorials
By David Palmer*Why does the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 59 years ago still hold so much importance for us? We in Australia are half a world away from Japan. It is certainly important to commemorate the holocaust of the first atomic bomb attack in history, but we need to do more than just memorialise. We need to rethink how we conceptualise the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by putting these two terrible events in a far broader context. We need to see the destruction of these two cities and its people over half a century ago as the opening chapter in todays global power structure. At the core of this power has been deliberate misinformation and deceptive history.
Some of this deception has been exposed. We now know and have known for some time that these two atomic bomb attacks were not needed to end World War II, to bring the Japanese militarists to surrender. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, published in 1946, stated this, providing solid empirical evidence that Japanese military and economic capability had been almost totally destroyed by the fire bombing of Japanese cities all before August 6.
We now know that many scientists and top military officers opposed use of the atomic bombs on civilian targets.
We now know that President Harry Truman lied to the American public in his radio broadcast, when he declared: "The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians."
We now know that Trumans real reason for using the bomb was to send a message to the Soviet Union. The message was understood, and the Soviets entered the Pacific war within days of the Hiroshima attack but the Nagasaki atomic bomb made sure that a second, different type could also be tested before the imminent surrender. It was the opening of the modern Cold War and the last possible chance to test two different versions of this weapon one uranium, the other plutonium on real cities with real people.
We now know that the US government secretly employed a New York Times correspondent as the one so-called independent media person to report on the Manhattan Project, and to provide the official US version of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing that there was no danger of radiation. US government-employed scientists who claimed that this was true perpetuated this lie, claiming that the bombing was an air burst no bomb reached the ground so the radiation had been quickly and harmlessly dispersed into the atmosphere.
There are many other lies related to Hiroshima and the atomic bomb and the dangers of radiation that are too numerous to list here. What is just as important as exposing these government lies is to also document and publicise what I call the "hidden history" of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is the history of the people themselves the hibakusha, but also the families and others who have had a long connection with the hibakusha.
There are other facts about Hiroshima and Nagasaki from August 1945 that are true that many people dont know. For example, a majority of people in both cities were working class people, with even high school students consigned by the military as laborers in factories and in fire-lane clearing. Hiroshima had one of the largest Korean populations proportionately of any city in Japan, and many of these Koreans were subjected to forced labor that we now identify as slavery. Nagasaki had the largest Christian population of any city in Japan. Its most important church, Urakami Catholic Cathedral, was as near the hypocentre in Nagasaki as the famous Atomic Bomb Dome Building was in Hiroshima. Allied POWs were killed in the two atomic bombings, including Australians in Nagasaki who were working as slave laborers in the Mitsubishi steel mill and armaments plants.
Both the Japanese military before surrender and the US military after surrender actively censored information of all types to minimise world knowledge of the destruction and harm that the bombs did to people. This censorship covered newspaper reporting, radio reports, photographs, scientific and medical data, and even fiction and poetry.
This hidden history has enormous implications for our world today and for our understanding of US global hegemony in particular. Consider the famous photograph of Hiroshima after the bombing with the Atomic Bomb Dome Building at the centre.
Hiroshimas devastation considered in this historical and comparative way can be used as a key to uncovering other deceptions long perpetrated by the American government.
Some people are now saying that collective amnesia is setting in that Hiroshima is being forgotten by younger people. This amnesia, however, has been programmed by government authorities for decades and I believe that it began within hours of the Hiroshima attack. Consider the famous Atomic Bomb Dome photo this is the official version of the Hiroshima atomic bombing a desert wasteland, with rubble everywhere but no people. It is empty, and mirrors the focus of the US Strategic Bombing Survey of the late 1940s on building and infrastructure damage, not on damage to people, including the health effects of radiation exposure.
The official version of this side of the story as photography has vanished. True, we have the famous six photos of Matsushige from August 6, but these were taken at a distance of 2000 meters and more, and they do not record the full effect of the aftermath once the firestorms raged through much of the city or the tens of thousands of corpses everywhere. The first "official" photos were taken 72 hours after the blast and these, by Japanese military personnel, mirror the US photos taken once the Occupation was in place. The Japanese official photos convey the image of a people-less atomic wasteland just as the US official photos do and it is this image that the world knows best.
Once the city was rebuilt, with modern buildings, streets, parks, and greenery, amnesia could easily set in, given the official encouragement of this trend. In the official state version, the atomic bombing would become an historical event separate from current politics, despite the massive anti-nuclear weapons movement that emerged in Japan and around the world after World War II and despite the continued efforts by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to link their history with present dangers. Even the terrible damage to people the many diseases related to radiation and resulting early deaths have been pushed into the historical past as a new generation comes to dominate and "move on" (to use the clichι so popular these days). It is certainly true that reborn Hiroshima is a place and a people to celebrate. But this local rebirth is actually at odds with our world today a world dominated by global war and a predatory corporate economy, a world where poverty is increasing even as a wealthy elite increase their power.
The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Colombia and other countries are a result of an imperialist economic system underpinned by nuclear weapons as the ultimate destructive force. The byproducts of nuclear weapons compose the backbone of current U.S. military power both in strategic and tactical terms. Strategically the US can destroy any enemy with a national base if it has to with nuclear weapons, if conventional ones do not succeed. Those countries that have nuclear weapons such as China and Russia need not fear a US attack, while those that do not, such as Iraq, invite invasion. Tactically, the key to US success on the battlefield has been depleted uranium used for piercing armor. No enemy tank or fortress can withstand these magic bullets and missiles, which have harnessed the atom for US advantage. And of course this tactical advantage remains a state secret, and it is denied as the cause of cancers and leukemia of US and British soldiers, and of countless Iraqis, Afghans, and Kosovars who have to live on radioactive land.
Hiroshima was the opening chapter for all this. But it also was the opening chapter for the new imperial economy one driven by oil and natural gas, but one that soon will be forced to use nuclear power once these hydrocarbon resources are used up in 40 or so years. An economy a world economy based on solar power would bring a new equality that is incompatible with the dominant political economy promoted by the US government and its underwriters the major multinationals.
What can we do in Australia?
We must push for complete nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, a position the Howard government has abandoned vis-ΰ-vis the United States. The issue is not just about North Korea or Iran but more importantly must include Russia, China, Israel, Britain, France and other countries led by the example of the biggest nuclear weapons holder, the United States. Full nuclear disarmament must begin with the US before any progress can be made.
However, this also requires that we uncover all the historical legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and see it through the eyes of the people of those cities, not national political leaders who have no interest. We need to apply
the lessons of that very complex history, not just memorialise the history. We have to go beyond the easy rhetoric of "peace" by exposing the official history that serves to rationalise militarist policies in our world today. Only with an array of information, knowledge, and sophisticated analysis that is grounded in historical experience can we move forward so that future Hiroshimas can be prevented.
*David Palmer is Senior Lecturer in American Studies, Flinders University, Adelaide, and labor historian who has written about American and Australian workers.
