Thank you for writing this so that more of us come closer to understanding something of this tremendously tragic turning point in human history. I will re-read it again in 3 days and think of the people of Nagasaki again too. 🙏🏼😔
One of my students' (Dutch-Indonesian) great-grandfather was prisoner of war in Nagasaki at the time of the bomb. He survived to tell the tale and continued with a heroically eventful life - so I'm encouraging my student to write about it. These are experiences that must be recorded into history, and re-read and re-visited, so that new generations know to commemorate, respect, and prevent similar catastrophes. World leaders busy carrying out or threatening war, should look more closely to history.
Thank you so much for sharing your writing. It must have been a heavy task.
Thank you for telling me about him. I truly hope your student writes about their great-grandfather. If they do, I would love to read it. It was not an easy article to write, but I’m very grateful that it gave us the chance to talk about his story.
I visited Hiroshima a few years ago, and the Atomic Bomb Dome stayed with me long after I left. What struck me then, and again reading this, was that preserving memory is itself a choice.
A city can rebuild without erasing. Perhaps that is one of Hiroshima’s most powerful lessons: remembering the past and choosing hope for the future don’t have to be opposites. Thank you for writing this detailed piece.
The largest nuclear arms race in history is underway, proliferating across the world.
It began in 2010 with Obama's 30-year $2 trillion upgrade and modernization of the US nuclear arsenal of death, and Obama's”Pivot to Asia” threat to China, which responded by increasing its nuclear arsenal. A new turning point came with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and repeated nuclear threats by Russia, and now the nuclear race has been brought into the open and vastly accelerated by the US war against Iran.
Within days of the US attack on Iran, on March 2, France announced a major nuclear weapons build-up and the extension of the French nuclear weapons “umbrella” to nine other European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom. Finland just voted to station nuclear weapons on Finnish soil. Poland announced in February it is moving to develop nuclear weapons. Sweden is debating nuclear weapons, as is Australia, South Korea (with 80% public support), and especially Japan and Germany. Why even "peace-loving" German Green Party leader, Joschka Fisher, is calling for a "Euro-Bomb" for Germany. Bundeswehr Brigadier General Frank Pieper and historian Harald Biermann, have gone even further, arguing that Berlin must urgently discuss tactical or standalone European nuclear solutions.
Right-wing Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi is expected to announce some form of renouncing Article 9 against war, and the initiation of a nuclear weapons program.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are clearly moving to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of “peaceful” nuclear power, as is likely the case with Türkiye, and perhaps countries like South Africa and Brazil, both of which previously had nuclear weapons programs.
Each day we hear more statements by more countries about the “need” to “explore” developing nuclear weapons. Naturally the reality under the table is already racing far ahead of any public statements. When the politicians say they're “considering” nukes, that means they're already working on it.
We should have absolutely no doubt as to what is coming. The imperialists certainly don't.
US imperialism has been on a course to war against rival Chinese imperialism for fifteen years now, and that march continues. The coming inter-imperialist third world war for world domination means everything will be up for grabs. Each ruling class is looking at its interests and options to grab their turf in the coming “reordering” of capitalism.
Military budgets have exploded to levels of the Cold War and approaching WWI and WWII.
Within the bigger war between the major imperialists will be many regional conflicts that intertwine. That was the case in the run-up to WWI and WWII.
We see that today in the growing conflict between regional powers over domination of the Red Sea involving Sudan and Somalia.
We also saw that with Libya, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflicts, all backed by constellations of competing rivals seeking to extend influence and further their interests. New military treaties, clandestine arming of proxy forces, etc.
The post WWII framework is dead and now a new disorder is emerging as dozens of capitalist rivals fight over turf and profits in the context of a growing crisis of stagnating world capitalism. This arises from decreasing rates of industrial profits and increasing unproductive fictitious capital and speculative bubbles. Capitalism is incapable of “floating all boats,” creating a zero sum competition that makes wars inevitable.
Everywhere we see growing preparations for wars.
The capitalists have absolutely no doubt as to what is coming. Neither should we.
Thank you so much for writing this. I had to repost it. I will join Artemisia who said she will read it again on the 9th, which is now tomorrow.
I visited Hiroshima and stayed there for a few days this winter and it was one of the places that had the biggest impact on how I felt. I explored the area around the Peace Memorial Park and some of the park the evening I arrived and spent the next day for a visit to the museum/peace centre and had a longer walk around the park. It feels like even a day is somehow not long enough. I did not feel very good before I arrived there for completely different reasons, but that lost a lot of it's heaviness when I was in the city.
I hope a lot of people will read your post! Thank you again.
Thank you so much for reposting the article and for telling me about your time in Hiroshima. I will keep doing what I can: sharing what happened and holding on to hope for peace. I’m glad to have heard from you. Thank you for reading.
Thank you for writing this so that more of us come closer to understanding something of this tremendously tragic turning point in human history. I will re-read it again in 3 days and think of the people of Nagasaki again too. 🙏🏼😔
Thank you for reading it with such care. Your words made me truly glad that I wrote this article. I, too, will be thinking of Nagasaki on August 9. 🙏🏼
One of my students' (Dutch-Indonesian) great-grandfather was prisoner of war in Nagasaki at the time of the bomb. He survived to tell the tale and continued with a heroically eventful life - so I'm encouraging my student to write about it. These are experiences that must be recorded into history, and re-read and re-visited, so that new generations know to commemorate, respect, and prevent similar catastrophes. World leaders busy carrying out or threatening war, should look more closely to history.
Thank you so much for sharing your writing. It must have been a heavy task.
Thank you for telling me about him. I truly hope your student writes about their great-grandfather. If they do, I would love to read it. It was not an easy article to write, but I’m very grateful that it gave us the chance to talk about his story.
This is a beautiful, though poignant article, and I really appreciate how thoroughly you have managed this event here.
Thank you for reading it with such care. This was a difficult article to write, so your words mean a lot to me.
I visited Hiroshima a few years ago, and the Atomic Bomb Dome stayed with me long after I left. What struck me then, and again reading this, was that preserving memory is itself a choice.
A city can rebuild without erasing. Perhaps that is one of Hiroshima’s most powerful lessons: remembering the past and choosing hope for the future don’t have to be opposites. Thank you for writing this detailed piece.
NEW NUCLEAR ARMS RACE HEADING TO WAR
The largest nuclear arms race in history is underway, proliferating across the world.
It began in 2010 with Obama's 30-year $2 trillion upgrade and modernization of the US nuclear arsenal of death, and Obama's”Pivot to Asia” threat to China, which responded by increasing its nuclear arsenal. A new turning point came with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and repeated nuclear threats by Russia, and now the nuclear race has been brought into the open and vastly accelerated by the US war against Iran.
Within days of the US attack on Iran, on March 2, France announced a major nuclear weapons build-up and the extension of the French nuclear weapons “umbrella” to nine other European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom. Finland just voted to station nuclear weapons on Finnish soil. Poland announced in February it is moving to develop nuclear weapons. Sweden is debating nuclear weapons, as is Australia, South Korea (with 80% public support), and especially Japan and Germany. Why even "peace-loving" German Green Party leader, Joschka Fisher, is calling for a "Euro-Bomb" for Germany. Bundeswehr Brigadier General Frank Pieper and historian Harald Biermann, have gone even further, arguing that Berlin must urgently discuss tactical or standalone European nuclear solutions.
Right-wing Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi is expected to announce some form of renouncing Article 9 against war, and the initiation of a nuclear weapons program.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are clearly moving to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of “peaceful” nuclear power, as is likely the case with Türkiye, and perhaps countries like South Africa and Brazil, both of which previously had nuclear weapons programs.
Each day we hear more statements by more countries about the “need” to “explore” developing nuclear weapons. Naturally the reality under the table is already racing far ahead of any public statements. When the politicians say they're “considering” nukes, that means they're already working on it.
We should have absolutely no doubt as to what is coming. The imperialists certainly don't.
US imperialism has been on a course to war against rival Chinese imperialism for fifteen years now, and that march continues. The coming inter-imperialist third world war for world domination means everything will be up for grabs. Each ruling class is looking at its interests and options to grab their turf in the coming “reordering” of capitalism.
Military budgets have exploded to levels of the Cold War and approaching WWI and WWII.
Within the bigger war between the major imperialists will be many regional conflicts that intertwine. That was the case in the run-up to WWI and WWII.
We see that today in the growing conflict between regional powers over domination of the Red Sea involving Sudan and Somalia.
We also saw that with Libya, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflicts, all backed by constellations of competing rivals seeking to extend influence and further their interests. New military treaties, clandestine arming of proxy forces, etc.
The post WWII framework is dead and now a new disorder is emerging as dozens of capitalist rivals fight over turf and profits in the context of a growing crisis of stagnating world capitalism. This arises from decreasing rates of industrial profits and increasing unproductive fictitious capital and speculative bubbles. Capitalism is incapable of “floating all boats,” creating a zero sum competition that makes wars inevitable.
Everywhere we see growing preparations for wars.
The capitalists have absolutely no doubt as to what is coming. Neither should we.
Thank you so much for writing this. I had to repost it. I will join Artemisia who said she will read it again on the 9th, which is now tomorrow.
I visited Hiroshima and stayed there for a few days this winter and it was one of the places that had the biggest impact on how I felt. I explored the area around the Peace Memorial Park and some of the park the evening I arrived and spent the next day for a visit to the museum/peace centre and had a longer walk around the park. It feels like even a day is somehow not long enough. I did not feel very good before I arrived there for completely different reasons, but that lost a lot of it's heaviness when I was in the city.
I hope a lot of people will read your post! Thank you again.
Thank you so much for reposting the article and for telling me about your time in Hiroshima. I will keep doing what I can: sharing what happened and holding on to hope for peace. I’m glad to have heard from you. Thank you for reading.
Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you for taking the time to read it. I hope it stays with you.