Japan recently commemorated the 71st anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park with more than 50,000 people in attendance. The ceremony was officiated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui. "We are determined to realize a world free of nuclear weapons. This tragedy must not be allowed to occur again,"Abe said. Matsui urged world leaders to follow in the footsteps of US President Barack Obama who visited Hiroshima earlier this year and laid a wreath of flowers at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in tribute to the victims of the atomic bomb. Matsui hoped that nuclear powers would have enough courage to get rid of nuclear weapons. "President Obama's words show that he was touched by the spirit of Hiroshima and its refusal to accept evil," he said. Obama was the first US president to visit Hiroshima. His visit was welcomed by the Japanese people. Had the president apologized for the atomic bombing, he would have left a better impact on people and would have alleviated the feeling of bitterness that some Japanese people still have about the bombing. When I visited Hiroshima in the 1970s, our guide was explaining to us historical facts about Hiroshima with tears streaming down her cheeks. "How do you feel about it?" I asked a Japanese man who was standing next to me. "I don't know what to say. All I hope is that this tragedy doesn't occur again anyplace around the world," the man said. A B29 aircraft dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945, toward the last days of World War II. In a matter of seconds, more than 140,000 civilians were killed. Three days later, the same aircraft dropped another bomb on Nagasaki, wiping out 70,000 civilians. Some Americans claim that it was the atomic bomb that ended the war while many politicians doubt it, particularly former British prime minister Winston Churchill. In his diaries, Churchill wrote that it was wrong to assume that the atomic bomb determined the fate of Japan; in fact, Japan was bound to be defeated before the bomb had been dropped. He said the allies' navy superiority allowed the allies to occupy sea bases and launch the final attack, forcing the Japanese army to surrender. The Japanese navy's warships, submarines, etc., totaling a weight of five million tons were sunk. But why did the UK give its okay to the dropping of the atomic bomb on thousands of civilians if it believed that the atomic bomb was not necessary to end the war? Should the UK have opposed such an unethical act, since, after all, the war was about to end? Churchill also said that the decision to drop the bomb on Japan and force the latter to surrender was unanimously agreed by everyone who was sitting around the meeting table. Nobody opposed the decision or mentioned anything about ethics. Churchill and many American political analysts held that the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in order to end the coalition with the Soviet Union. Churchill said the complicated question was: "What are we going to tell Stalin now that we do not need his help to make Japan surrender?" The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 8, a day before the second atomic bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki. The Japanese people have never thought about revenge or tried to build a military or a nuclear might. Instead, Japan has focused on building a robust economy that has been able to complete with global economies, including that of the US. The country has worked hard to improve living standards and has ignored all calls for building up its military forces or participating in foreign wars. — Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at [email protected]
