Seventy nine years ago, on this day, August 6th, 1945,
Hiroshima. Roughly 100,000 Japanese people killed.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 310ppm. As of 2024 it is 424ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that the Americans were wondering about what to do about Japan. Number one, physical invasion (“Operation Olympic”) was going to be “mildly costly” let’s say, in terms of casualties. And number two, Stalin said he was coming into the Pacific War, three months after Germany’s surrender, and that three months was almost up. So if you can do something, do it quick. And crucially, Truman was well up for it. Attlee, who was UK Prime Minister by this time, was too – he later said that no one told him about the radioactive implications. They just told him it was a bigger bomb.
What we should learn is, I suppose you can make a “moral” case for using an atomic bomb to kill 100,000 human beings, civilians. in Hiroshima, which was not a military target. I mean, how they’d already firestormed Tokyo. If you want to make that “moral” argument, go ahead and fill your boots. I think the one that you really can’t do that for is Nagasaki two days later.
Fun fact – Kyoto was on a short list of four places to get nuked.
What happened next? Well, first we got the bomb. And that was good because we love peace and motherhood. Then Russia got the bomb, but that’s okay, because the balance of powers maintained that way. And here we are.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day: