Thursday, 6 August 2020

ATOMIC BOMBINGS AT 75: Scholars Speak Out Against ‘Unnecessary’ Attacks

Japan was ready to surrender, making the atomic bombings
 of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki two days later,
 totally unnecessary and morally indefensible, say 
a panel of scholars in two video discussions.

The bombing of Nagasaki as seen from the town of Koyagi, about 13 km south, taken 15 minutes after the bomb exploded. In the foreground, life seemingly went on unaffected. (Wikipedia)
The debate over the atomic bombings—a controversy that forced the 
Smithsonian Institution to abandon its Enola Gay exhibit 25 years ago—
continues unabated in America today as we approach the 75th anniversary
 of the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

Four historians, each of whom has written extensively on the topic,
 discussed the documentary evidence and explored the current state 
of knowledge about the bombings in two sessions with TV, print, radio, 
and internet journalists from around the world. 

Among other points, they argue that the bombings were unnecessary as 
Japan was ready to surrender as long as they could keep the emperor
 (which the U.S. eventually allowed them to do); that U.S. generals, 
including Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur, were 
opposed to the bombings; and that a real aim of the attacks was to send 
a message to the Soviet Union and not to avert a U.S. invasion, which 
was still months away. 

The historians taking part are:

Gar Alperovitz, formerly a Fellow of Kings College Cambridge, the 
Institute of Politics at Harvard, and Lionel Bauman Professor of Political
 Economy at the University of Maryland, is the author of 
Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam and 
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb. He is currently a Principal of
 The Democracy Collaborative, an independent research institution
 in Washington, D.C. 

Martin Sherwin, University Professor of History, George Mason University, 
is author of A World DestroyedHiroshima and Its Legacies winner of the 
Society of Historians of American Foreign Relation’s Bernath Book Prize, 
co-author with Kai Bird of American Prometheus: The Triumph and 
Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize
 for biography, and Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from 
Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis, forthcoming in September 2020.

Kai Bird, Executive Director, CUNY Graduate Center’s Leon Levy 
Center for Biography, co-author (with Martin Sherwin) of Pulitzer Prize-winning 
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert 
Oppenheimer, co-editor (with Lawrence Lifschultz) Hiroshima’s Shadow
and author The Chairman: John J. McCloy and the Making of the
 American Establishment.

Peter Kuznick, Professor of History, Director, Nuclear Studies Institute, 
American University, co-author (with Akira Kimura), Rethinking the Atomic
 Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Japanese and American 
Perspectives, co-author (with Oliver Stone) of The New York Times best-selling 
The Untold History of the United States (books and documentary
 film series), and author “The Decision to Risk the Future: Harry Truman,
 the Atomic Bomb and the Apocalyptic Narrative.”


Former news executive at NPR, NBC, and CBS and professor emeritus at the
 University of Missouri Barbara Cochran moderated both sessions. 
The questioning in the first press briefing began with Owen Ullmann, former
 world news editor at USA Today, and current executive editor of
 International Economy Magazine, followed by former Washington Post
 columnist and current John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public 
Affairs   Journalism at the University of Maryland Dana Priest, 
Walter Pincus, former reporter/columnist at The Washington Post and 
contributing senior national security columnist at the Cipher Brief, 
Pablo Pardo of El Mundo, and Yuliya Olhovskaya of Channel One Russia

The second briefing was kicked off by New York Times Tokyo station chief 
Motoko Rich, Masato Tainaka of Asahi Shimbun, and Miya Tanaka of
 Kyodo News


The two press briefings, one for the Western press, and the other for
 journalists in Asia, can be seen here:


https://youtu.be/WkOno4ud9PQ




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