The Unlearned Lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Updated

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The Unlearned Lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana - The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense.

“One cannot exist without the other. Without civil nuclear power, there is no military nuclear power, and without military nuclear power, there is no civil nuclear power.” – French President Macron – 12-8- 2020 (Emphasis added)

By Mary Beth Brangan - EON.

[Crossposted on NoNukesCA.net]

From the Memory Hole

Tuesday, August 6th is the 79^th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. August 9th we commemorate the bombing of Nagasaki, three days later.  According to historians, both horrific bombings were totally unnecessary to end WWII. 

But even more appalling facts have now been declassified and revealed about the part those two horrendous crimes against humanity played in U.S. warplanners’ even wider agenda. 

According to this summary report by Prof Michel Chossudovsky, the Hiroshima/Nagasaki crime was just a “Dress Rehearsal” for an even wider U.S. doomsday scenario that has become a permanent component of Pentagon war planning ever since.

It began in 1945 with the idea of obliterating the Soviet Union when the US and the Soviet Union were still official allies.  Chossudovsky asserts that,

“Had it not been for the September 1945 plan to  “wipe the Soviet Union off the map” (66 urban areas and more than 200 atomic bombs), neither Russia nor China would have developed nuclear weapons. There wouldn’t have been a Nuclear Arms Race.

“Numerous US nuclear war plans have been formulated from the outset, leading up to The 1956  Strategic Air Command SAC Atomic Weapons Requirements Study (Declassified in December 2015) which consisted in targeting 1200 urban areas in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and China.

“The World is at a dangerous crossroads: it should be understood that the use of nuclear weapons in relation to the confrontation between US-NATO and Russia would inevitably lead to escalation and the end of humanity as we know it.”

Public awareness if this little-known history is key. Thinking and learning about nuclear weapons, after many years of “out of sight, out of mind,” has become urgent for many reasons.

The first is that the war in Ukraine and the turmoil in the Middle East have suddenly thrust nuclear-weapons states into intense conflicts, raising the very real possibility that these weapons might actually be used, with a likely escalation to a nuclear holocaust.

A second reason is that the United States has embarked on a trillion-dollar “modernization” of its nuclear arsenal. As Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association explains, such a “modernization” will do nothing to make us (or the world) safer, but will only make nuclear war more likely.

The third reason why we should pay attention to nuclear weapons is because the UN General Assembly has now ratified a treaty banning nuclear weapons. This is the outcome of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons . While the USA and other nuclear-weapons states have yet to sign the Treaty, it remains a landmark and an aspiration for the peace-loving peoples of the world to rally around, working to bring nuclear states into compliance. (credit to Frank Brodhead for reasons 1,2,3 )

A fourth reason is that commercial nuclear power is being promoted by those such as former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz as being necessary for U.S. 'security.'  As French Pres. Macron explains in the superscript, there would be no nuclear weapons without nuclear power and no nuclear power without nuclear weapons. We have extensively documented this connection in our previous articles, including:  Outing the Nuclear Energy & Weapons Connection - Can a Fractured Movement Opposing Both Sides of the Nuclear Enterprise be Re-united? and The Hydra Heads of Armageddon Man .

Those of us concerned about the increasing risks from lax regulation of nuclear power reactors and the constant buildup of radioactive waste with no viable plans for dealing with it, must be aware of the pressure from the weapons industry to keep commercial nuclear power going.  And we must take action!  

Stealth Welfare for Warfare

Given the nuclear energy-weapons-waste connections, it is alarming that, in the past few years, the Biden administration has given the nuclear power industry billions $$ in subsidies and grants as well as official authorization to increase more use of nuclear technology. 

The Nuclear Advance Act just passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, giving the go ahead to promote foreign ownership of nuclear facilities in the U.S. as well as demanding that the ostensible oversight agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, prioritize 'efficient' licensing of nuclear stations.  This will inevitably conflict with true emphasis on safety.

Rumors of looming nuclear war abound.  Unless these unlearned lessons are widely learned – and quickly - the potential omnicidal nuclear agenda will continue its mad rush toward self-induced oblivion.

This year as usual, hundreds of vigils and events will be taking place around the world. Our San Francisco Bay Area allies from Tri Valley CARES commemorated this 79^th. Anniversary of these deliberate atomic atrocities that are still being planned at the Lawrence Livermore Labs in Livermore, CA.

Back in 2019, the late - then 88-year old - iconic warplanner-turned-whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg (1931–2023), gave the keynote speech that we videoed at the yearly protest at the gates of America’s nuclear bomb factory, Livermore Laboratory, organized by Tri-Valley Cares.  His warnings about the existential dangers of a ‘new nuclear arms race’ are even more relevant today than in 2019.  It is fitting to give him the final word.

Daniel Ellsberg on the New Nuclear Arms Race

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Mary Beth co-directs EON, the Ecological Options Network with James Heddle, who contributed to this post.  The EON feature film documentary SOS – The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy, by filmmakers Brangan, Morgan Peterson and Heddle, was awarded the Grand Jury Award for Feature Documentary at last October’s Hollywood Awareness Film Festival.  SOS has also garnered the International Uranium Film Festival’s award for Best Educational Documentary as well as two Outstanding Excellence awards. SOS is now available for on-line streaming on many platforms, including Amazon Prime.  For links to view and more information about the issue, please visit the SOS Website.