Posted on by qscrisp

Black Rain

Today is the 62nd anniversary of the first use of atomic weaponery on humans; the bomb known as 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima at 8.15 AM.

Japan has the second largest economy in the world, but no nuclear weapons. Japan maintains a threefold non-nuclear policy against the possession, production and import of nuclear weaponry. This is self-imposed. The American-drafted constitution of Japan, in its Article Nine, also forbids Japan from unprovoked military intervention. Article Nine was compromised recently when the Japanese were persuaded to send forces to Iraq to aid the American invasion.

If you would like to learn more about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you could do worse than to start with Ibuse Masuji's Black Rain

28 Replies to “Black Rain”

  1. From North Korea? I thought Japan’s self defense force was quite big, even though it should, in theory, only be deployed defensively. I had heard, at least, that it was larger than the British military, which is not a small force.

  2. Its nteresting.we Japanese have a right to tell about war for the next generation.we have the article 9, however there is the US millitary so i hope they protect us from fuckin’ crazy enemy.

  3. I decided to delete a number of comments here because they were tedious, off-topic, anonymous, and served no purpose other than to clutter this space.

  4. Anonymous writes:I thought that the bombing was just a horrible act, i mean the civilians in japan had nothing to do with wHAT those that were in the army did, or even with what their president did.

  9. Anonymous writes:

    i think that the hiroshima bombings were horrible and completley pointless. first of all, the civilians had nothing to do with the war. second, japan would’ve eventually surrendered anyway. yes, the us wouldve lost more lives but what they did was say “better them then us” even though the japanese were people too.

  10. maryann writes:I would suggest the Germans killing the Jews, Itinerants etc was far worse than the Hiroshima bomb. The Japs had to be stopped as they were as bad as the Germans. An appalling country with an appalling government.

  12. Well, that’s numerical. And I don’t really see how Hitler comes into it, in a way, in the sense that it’s not a competition. Or maybe I’m missing something here. Of course, 11 million people being killed in horrible ways is likely to have produced more suffereing than 200,000 being killed in horrible ways. But Hitler didn’t live in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, so I’m not quite sure what the point of that is.

  13. Mouser writes:

    “I’m not really sure how you grade these things. It all seems pretty appalling to me.”11 Million Hitler vs 200,000 TrumanGives you a scale to work from!

  14. Anonymous writes:You can’t measure the value of life with numbers. When 1 life is taken, it is an atrocity. I used to believe that the bombs killed to save lives rather than allowing the war to continue; however, those deaths were mostly civilian. If the US did not drop the bombs, there is no telling how long it would have taken to end or how large the death toll would have been, but at least most of those who would have lost their lives would have died honorably fighting for their countries. It is sad that so much damage can be caused by the hatred of men. I’m surprised we haven’t destroyed ourselves by now.

  15. No, I don’t really think you can measure these things numerically, either. These things seem to happen because people have the idea that it’s okay to commit evil acts as ‘a means to an end’.

  16. Rink writes:It makes me very sad whenever i think about Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings… so many innocent people died cos of it… There should never ever be any war again!

  17. Anonymous writes:

    From what I understand, many of the Japanese citizens were ready to do battle with Allied soldiers – with shovels and pitchforks if necessary – if we ever stepped foot on their island. Nothing seemed to deter their spirit to fight, not even the firebombs. I don’t see too many other alternatives other than to drop the bomb. America did what we did to end a war…the Nazis did what they did to start one.

  18. “From what I understand, many of the Japanese citizens were ready to do battle with Allied soldiers – with shovels and pitchforks if necessary – if we ever stepped foot on their island.”There was apparently a lot of propaganda in Japan at the time that if the Americans invaded Japan they would rape all the women and torture the men. I believe this led to mass suicides when the Americans landed in the Ryukyu islands. The militarism of Japan was, well, fairly disgusting. It also seems to be something that the Japanese have not addressed in the way that the German people have addressed their own history. Nonetheless, I remain personally unconvinced that the use of the atom bomb was the only solution. Three questions loom large. Would the Japanese really have never surrendered? Is it ever justifiable to attack civilian targets? Were the motives behind the bombing really as they were portrayed? In other words, was the American military simply taking advantage of the situation to test its new toy on live subjects? I’ve already posted the link here, but I’ll post it again:http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1DE1131F935A3575BC0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1It's a detailed and thoughtful article in which Akihiro Takahashi, survivor of the bombing, and director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, gives his opinion as to whether or not the bombing was justified.

  19. Anonymous writes:I also agree that you can’t measure loss numerically, but the 200 thousand mentioned earlier doesn’t take into consideration the many who have died since then or the miscarriages caused by radiation poisoning. Also I don’t think it’s a matter of saying one tragedy is worse then another, The persecution and execution of people by the Nazis was appalling, but it doesn’t justify the US bombing Japan. Also the argument that it was the only way to end the war is simply inaccurate. At the time of the bombing the Japanese government was negotiating surrender. Our war with Japan was essentially over, the bomb was about Russia. We chose to drop the bomb simply to prove we had beaten the Russians in the race to create it. But even, even if you could justify the first bomb, the second bomb was completely unnecessary. Any resistance Japan might have had was diminished with the first bomb. The second one proves that his was about showing the world our might.

  20. “At the time of the bombing the Japanese government was negotiating surrender.”Yes, I’ve heard this. I didn’t mention it before because I needed to check my facts. And as you say, even if this were not the case, and even if we suppose for a moment that some loss of civilian life was justifiable, the second bomb simply has to be unnecessary if the intention was simply to secure Japanese surrender.Another interesting question here is whether the bombs would ever have been dropped on a caucasian country. Of course, the bombing of Dresden was not far off, as far as this is concerned. Still, there is also the possibly that the non-white Japanese were simply seen as expendable guinea pigs for a military experiment and display of might.

  21. Anonymous writes:

    im just gate-crasher. I even don’t know you are gonna read this or not. First of all, sorry for your people who were innocent. But I really wanna say something about it. Yes, Japanese people have right to tell about war for the next generation. But you should remember you have duty to apolgize to the other conutries were suffering from you Japanese people. And please remember that your next generation should know about true history behind Atomic bombing 1945.

  22. Anonymous writes:

    I don’t really know everything about WWII, but I’ve studied it, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.I personally think that the use of atomic weapons in Japan was necessary. It is never a good thing when innocent, civilian lives are lost, but the Allied forces had to get the war over with, and using devastating weapons that cause that much death will force the tyrannous rulers to surrender.The Axis forces in WWII were pure evil. There is always crime among military servicemen and women, but never like WWII where the crimes went directly to the rulers of the government.Hitler killed millions of Jews…for no absolute reason at all. Just normal anti-semitism. Japanese soldiers tortured their POWs (nothing like waterboarding), Japanese soldiers committed acts of cannibalism against POWs, the Japanese killed an estimated 10 million during their military operations from 1937-1945.Picture yourself as a President. You have seen a war that has lasted for nearly six years, and led to the deaths of around 72 million people. In your left hand you have a button that will keep the war lasting, while more and more Allied soldiers die.In your right hand you have a button that will end the war quickly, by dropping two atomic bombs in civilian ares, leading to large numbers of innocent deaths, but the surrender of the problem nation, and the end of the second World War.Which button would you push?”Still, there is also the possibly that the non-white Japanese were simply seen as expendable guinea pigs for a military experiment and display of might.”The United States was nothing like Hitler. Japanese weren’t seen as guinea pigs, they were seen as a threat to the defense of the United States of America. The greatest country on Earth.Call me cold-hearted. The U.S. shouldn’t have to apologize for its place as the world superpower. It had the right to cheer and celebrate the Surrender of the Japanese and the end of World War II.

  23. Anonymous writes:

    And if a surrender was in progress…too bad for them.They were horrible humans, that did horrible things. The problem in modern times is that execution and large scale death is seen as terrible. Too many peace activists that would rather surrender to communism, than to fight against them to defend capitalism.The Japanese/German leaders should have been given a speedy trial and sentenced to execution, and the Japanese and Germans should have been subjected to military occupation for twenty-thirty years and become divided territories after that time…with no right to rule themselves.

  24. I’ll post this again in case you missed it:http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1DE1131F935A3575BC0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1Maybe I should explain that I don’t have a black and white/good and evil view of the war. I don’t think that the Japanese forces were ‘in the right’ and therefore should be immune from military action. I don’t think that the Allied Forces were ‘in the right’, either, particularly. Human beings seem to delight in having excuses for bloodshed and destruction, and this was true on both sides. If we are to have a world that will one day be free of this kind of madness, then we have to be prepared not to make excuses for it.In some cases it’s possible that people are forced into particular actions. I can’t say for sure, but on the evidence I know of, the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not a case of being forced into action. It looks like the U.S. had an opportunity to try out a new super-weapon and was eager to take that opportunity.”Too many peace activists that would rather surrender to communism, than to fight against them to defend capitalism”Why on Earth would you want to defend capitalism? Capitalism has brought the world to its knees, and we shall be very lucky if there is any future for our children thanks to the ecological rape and global injustice that capitalism has fostered.

  25. the usa only relaliated after japan attacked perl harbour and sunk their flag ship (The Arzona)If you’re going to comment, at least read the other comments first to make sure what you write is not completely redundant, as it is in this case. Thank you.

  27. Anonymous writes:

    i also think that the americans didn’t give enough time between the two bombs. What if the Japanese had sent a message surrendering but the Americans never got it? We will never know:bug:

  28. Anonymous writes:

    i also think that the americans didn’t give enough time between the two bombs. What if the Japanese had sent a message surrendering but the Americans never got it? We will never know:bug:

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