Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Hiroshima Atom Bomb Impact

The documentary movie on the Impact of Atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against Japan in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After six months of intense strategic fire-bombing of 67 Japanese cities the Hirohito regime ignored an ultimatum given by the Potsdam Declaration. By executive order of President Harry S. Truman the U.S. dropped the nuclear weapon Little Boy on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed by the detonation of the bomb Fat Man over Nagasaki on August 9. These are the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare

The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945, with roughly half of those deaths occurring on the days of the bombings. Amongst these, 15–20% died from injuries or the combined effects of flash burns, trauma, and radiation burns, compounded by illness, malnutrition and radiation sickness. Since then, more have died from leukemia (231 observed) and solid cancers (334 observed) attributed to exposure to radiation released by the bombs. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians.

Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, on August 15, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers, signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, officially ending the Pacific War and therefore World War II. Germany had signed its unavoidable. Instrument of Surrender on May 7, ending the war in Europe. The bombings led, in part, to post-war Japan adopting Three Non-Nuclear Principles, forbidding the nation from nuclear armament.
(Extract from wikipedia)




object width="425" height="344">

No matter how , I am against the use of atomic bomb. Moreover, it is the use of two bombs at innocent people. If it is one bomb, I think they will have surrender, why two?. The American should bomb the palace and the army camp, why drop the bomb at innocent people. They just want to test the bomb, preparing for the future role as superpower. That is the agenda behind, why don't they use it in Germany first? Is it because the scientists are German, and they have secret agreement not to use it on their mother land?. So the alternative is the Japan....

I dislike WW2, and Japanese occupation, two of my uncles died during WW2(one was with the railway in Thailand). My maternal grandpa died during WW2, all died at relative young age. The Japanese armies has committed war crimes of killing, raping and burning down houses, many innocent people all over Asia suffered.

But not all Japanese are bad, some Japanese were supporters of Dr Sun Yat Sen during the Chinese revolution. We are sad for the Japanese during the war , just like the German, their herding mentality caused that. They are blinded to believe in their leaders. We should blame the military leaders and the King. The bombs should be on them. There are good Japanese. Not all Japanese are the same. So why bomb on innocent people?



But the worst thing currently , is that the right wing are erasing the historical record of WW2 in Japanese school text books, and find ways to justify their war crime, that cannot be accepted, and the world should not let them do that. Japanese politic are controlled by the hawks in LDP, the formation was linked to WW2 military leaders/war criminals and Yakuza, and that is the problem. They are normally right wing or hawks that win, supported by big corporation or the uyoku (extreme right-wing political groups),and even Yakuza have great influence on the political parties. It was the political games of power and money. It is difficult for the left wing or dove to win. Some said the yakuza are part and parcel of the LDP! Its formation and the running of the party are the work of the yakuza. It is a relationship of interdependence, mutual help, friendship, cooperation and support. The hawks is now trying to brain wash their younger generation, a return to military mentality. Some Japanese have forgotten the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The crime of few military leaders and the king was compensated by the lives of many innocent Japanese people,that is not fair; the hawks has not learn the lesson.

Prime Ministers of Japan in Showa Period(1947-1989)
Showa Period (昭和時代),is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Hirohito (posthumus name : Emperor Shōwa), from December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989). There were two part (i) Pre-war and WW2 period(1926-1947) and post war period(1947-1989). The name Showa literally means "period of enlightened peace", but ironically it was the period where WW2(World War 2)happen. racial discrimination against other Asians was habitual in Imperial Japan, having begun with the start of Japanese colonialism. The Shōwa regime thus preached racial superiority and racialist theories, based on sacred nature of the Yamato-damashii. According to historian Kurakichi Shiratori, one of emperor Shōwa's teachers : "Therefore nothing in the world compares to the divine nature (shinsei) of the imperial house and likewise the majesty of our national polity (kokutai). Here is one great reason for Japan's superiority". The post war Showa period(1947-1989), was the period when war criminals/Yakuza controlled the political power in the initial years,it was also the era of LDP hawks.
The first postwar elections was held in 1948 and women were given the franchise for the first time in 1947, and the Liberal Party's vice president, Yoshida Shigeru (1878-1967), became the prime minister.

The following are list of Prime Minister in post war Showa period(1947-1989):

1. Tetsu Katayama(片山 哲), 46th Prime Minister from 24-5-1947 to 10-3-1948, from Socialist Party. He is a Christian and a lawyer. He was against the expulsion of Saitō Takao(斎藤隆夫)from Diet on 7-3-1940, who had make a speech against a Japan's "holy war" in China. He was the first socialist to serve as Prime Minister. He was forced to resign.
2. Hitoshi Ashida(芦田 均), 47th Prime Minister from 10-3-1948 to 15-10-1948, from Democratic Party. Two of his cabinet ministers were accused of corruption in the Showa Electric scandal, which forced the cabinet to resign.
3. Shigeru Yoshida(吉田 茂), 48th to 51th Prime Minister for 4 terms from 15th October 1948 to 10th December 1954, from Liberal Party. Throughout the 1930s and before the war ended in the early 1940s, Yoshida continued to participate in Japan's imperialist movement. After several months' imprisonment in 1945, he became one of Japan's key postwar leaders. He was also the 45th Prime Minister from 22-5-1946 to 24-5-1947. He is a Catholic.
4. Ichirō Hatoyama(鳩山 一郎), 52th to 54th Prime Minister for 3 terms, from Japan Democratic Party. He was about to become prime minister in 1946, but was barred from politics for five years by Supreme Commander Allied Powers because they thought he had co-operated with the authoritarian government in the 1930s and 1940s. He was Japan's 3rd Christian Prime Minister, a Baptist. The current Prime Minister(2009) Yukio Hatoyama,is his grandson.
5.Tanzan Ishibashi(石橋 湛山), the 55th Prime Minister(23-12-1956 to 25-2-1957) from LDP. A journalist, who had a liberal political view and espoused the Small Japan policy; the core opinion of his Small Japan policy was the abandonment of Manchuria. He opposed Kishi's politics on security, which seemed too militant to Ishibashi. Ishibashi stated that the government should endeavor to set up diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and his policy was popular among the people. Unfortunately he became sick and gave up his office only two months later.
6. Nobusuke Kishi(岸 信介), 56th to 57th Prime Minister for 2 terms from 25th Feb 1957 to 19th July 1960, from LDP. In 1935, he became one of the top officials involved in the industrial development of Manchukuo. Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, himself a veteran of the Manchurian campaign, appointed Kishi Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1941, and he held this position until Japan's surrender in 1945. Until 1948, Kishi was imprisoned as a "class A" war crime suspect. Unlike Tojo (and several other cabinet members), however, Kishi was never indicted or tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. But historian John W. Dower writes: "Even Japanese activists who endorse the ideals of the Nuremberg and Tokyo charters, and who have labored to document and publicize the atrocities of the shōwa regime, cannot defend the American decision to exonerate the emperor of war responsibility and then, in the chill of the Cold war, release and soon afterwards openly embrace accused right-winged war criminals like the later prime minister Nobusuke Kishi".
7.Hayato Ikeda(池田 勇人), the 58th to 60th Prime Minister from 19-7-1960 to 9-11-1964 for 3 terms. From LDP. Takafusa Nakamura, a leading economic historian, described Ikeda as "the single most important figure in Japan's rapid growth. He should long be remembered as the man who pulled together a national consensus for economic growth."
8. Eisaku Satō(佐藤 榮作), 61th to 63th Prime Minister for 3 terms, from LDP. Satō shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Seán MacBride in 1974, but he is anti-Chinese and pro-Taiwan.
9. Kakuei Tanaka(田中 角榮), 64th & 65th Prime Minister for 2 terms from 7 July 1972 to 9 December 1974, from LDP. His most notable achievement was the normalization of Japan's relations with the People's Republic of China. He fell from power after a long series of scandals, leading him to be described as "that paragon of post-war corruption.".The Lockheed trial ended on October 12, 1983, Tanaka was found guilty and sentenced to 4 years in jail. The Tokyo High Court dismissed Tanaka's appeal on July 29th, and the original sentence passed down in 1983 was reinstated. Tanaka immediately posted bail and appealed to the Supreme Court. While his appeal lingered in the Court's docket, Tanaka's medical condition deteriorated. He resigned from the Diet in 1989, was diagnosed with diabetes, and finally died of pneumonia at Keio University Hospital at 2:04 p.m. on December 16, 1993.
10. Takeo Miki(三木 武夫), 66th Prime Minister from 9-12-1974 to 24-12-1976. He was from LDP. He was popular with the public but not popular with the party members as he attempt to reform LDP after Lockheed bribery scandals. He resigned.
11.Takeo Fukuda(福田 赳夫), 67th Prime Minister from December 24, 1976 to December 7, 1978. He was from LDP.He lost his presidency of LDP and resigned as Prime Minister.
12.Masayoshi Ōhira(大平 正芳), 68th & 69th two terms Prime Minister from 7 December 1978 to 12 June 1980. He is the 6th Christian to become Prime Minister(after Hara Takashi, Takahashi Korekiyo, Ichirō Hatoyama, Tetsu Katayama, and Shigeru Yoshida).On May 16, 1980, a vote of no confidence was held in the Diet against him, he was forced to seek for new election. He was hospitalized for exhaustion on May 31 and died of a massive heart attack 12 days later.

Except the 46th Prime Minister, all other Prime Ministers from post WW2 Showa Period are from LDP or its related parties. LDP hawks greatly influence its policies.

"What controls politics is power, and power lies in money. " Japan's Prime Minister Nobosuki Kishi(from LDP), 1956. In 1935, he became one of the top officials involved in the industrial development of Manchukuo. Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, himself a veteran of the Manchurian campaign, appointed Kishi Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1941, and he held this position until Japan's surrender in 1945. He is graduate from the Sugamo prison who was classified as a Class A war criminal(wikipedia however reported he was a suspect and never indicted or tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East). He was released together with Yoshio Kodama, but soon staged the biggest political comeback in history!. In 1955, when the Liberal Party merged with the Democratic Party to form LDP(Libral Democratic Party), he powered his way up, backed by Kodama, to become the secretary-general of the LDP, then pushed on to become the Deputy Prime Minister under the Shigeru Yoshida government, and later Prime Minister in March 1957. There are many politician including Prime Ministers of post WW2 Japan, who were involved directly in WW2 war crime, some of them were released from Sugamo prison as war criminals but were directly involved in formation of LDP. It was not prohibited by the USA because some of them can be used for their experience in China in their anti-communist strategy.

The opposition party DPJ(Democratic Party of Japan, 民主党, ) led by Yukio Hatoyama(鳩山由紀夫), has cleared majority by winning 308 seats (10 seats won by allies Social Democratic Party and People's New Party). The current Prime Minister Hatoyama is from the left wing, 2nd Prime Minister born after the WW2(born 11 February 1947),he was appointed Prime Minister on 16-9-2009. We hope that he will initiated the pacifying campaign to apologize to the world for the war crime and the Nanjing Massacre. Otherwise it will be "like a kabuki play -- the actors change over the years, but the roles they play are always the same."
Note: His paternal grandfather, Ichirō Hatoyama(鳩山 一郎), was Prime Minister and founder and the first President of the Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党),1954–1955).

That us prayed that the Hiroshima & Nagasaki incident will not happen again....as well as Nanjing Massacre....

Stop the war. Stop the nuclear weapon. Stop bomb testing.......stop political games? Yes, political games which built fanatic political dream that misled the masses of innocent people into military power, that go wild and become inhuman. It all start with crazy politician.

Related articles:
1. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
2. Japan's political thugs exposed, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/japans-political-thugs-exposed-1553629.html
3. Nobosuki Kishi, http://www.answers.com/topic/nobusuke-kishi
4. NOBUSUKE KISHI, EX-TOKYO LEADER, by CLYDE HABERMAN, New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/08/obituaries/nobusuke-kishi-ex-tokyo-leader.html

No comments:

Post a Comment