The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 7 | Issue 33 | Number 1 | Article ID 3203 | Aug 17, 2009

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The Nuclear Age at 64: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Struggleto End Nuclear Proliferation

Jeff Kingston, Tadatoshi Akiba, Tomihisa Taue, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann

The Nuclear Age at 64: Hiroshima,Nagasaki, and the Struggle to EndNuclear Proliferation

1. Hiroshima Mayor 's Statement(http://www.city.hiroshima.jp/shimin/heiwa/pd2009e.html)

PEACE DECLARATION

That weapon of human extinction, the atomicbomb, was dropped on the people of Hiroshimasixty-four years ago. Yet the hibakusha’ssuffering, a hell no words can convey,continues. Radiation absorbed 64 years earliercontinues to eat at their bodies, and memoriesof 64 years ago flash back as if they hadhappened yesterday.

Fortunately, the grave implications of thehibakusha experience are granted legalsupport. A good example of this support is thecourageous court decision humbly acceptingthe fact that the effects of radiation on thehuman body have yet to be fully elucidated. TheJapanese national government should make itsassistance measures fully appropriate to thesituations of the aging hibakusha, includingthose exposed in “black rain areas” and thoseliving overseas. Then, tearing down the wallsbetween its ministries and agencies, it shouldlead the world as standard-bearer for themovement to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020to actualize the fervent desire of hibakusha that“No one else should ever suffer as we did.”

In April this year, US President Obama

speaking in Prague said, “…as the only nuclearpower to have used a nuclear weapon, theUnited States has a moral responsibility to act.”And “…take concrete steps towards a worldwithout nuclear weapons.” Nuclear weaponsabolition is the will not only of the hibakushabut also of the vast majority of people andnations on this planet. The fact that PresidentObama is listening to those voices has solidifiedour conviction that “the only role for nuclearweapons is to be abolished.”

In response, we support President Obama andhave a moral responsibility to act to abolishnuclear weapons. To emphasize this point, werefer to ourselves, the great global majority, asthe “Obamajority,” and we call on the rest ofthe world to join forces with us to eliminate allnuclear weapons by 2020. The essence of thisidea is embodied in the Japanese Constitution,which is ever more highly esteemed around theworld.

Now, with more than 3,000 member citiesworldwide, Mayors for Peace has givenconcrete substance to our “2020 Vision”through the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, andwe are doing everything in our power topromote its adoption at the NPT ReviewConference next year. Once the Protocol isadopted, our scenario calls for an immediatehalt to all efforts to acquire or deploy nuclearweapons by all countries, including theDemocratic People’s Republic of Korea, whichhas so recently conducted defiant nuclear tests;visits by leaders of nuclear-weapon states andsuspect states to the A-bombed cities; earlyconvening of a UN Special Session devoted toDisarmament; an immediate start to

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negotiations with the goal of concluding anuclear weapons convention by 2015; andfinally, to eliminate all nuclear weapons by2020. We will adopt a more detailed plan at theMayors for Peace General Conference thatbegins tomorrow in Nagasaki.

The year 2020 is important because we wish toenter a world without nuclear weapons with asmany hibakusha as possible. Furthermore, ifour generation fails to eliminate nuclearweapons, we will have failed to fulfill ourminimum responsibility to those that follow.

Global Zero, the International Commission onNuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmamentand others of influence throughout the worldhave initiated positive programs that seek theabolition of nuclear weapons. We sincerelyhope that they will all join the circle of thosepressing for 2020.

As seen in the anti-personnel landmine ban,liberation from poverty through the GrameenBank, the prevention of global warming andother such movements, global democracy thatrespects the majority will of the world andsolves problems through the power of thepeople has truly begun to grow. To nurture thisgrowth and go on to solve other majorproblems, we must create a mechanism bywhich the voices of the people can be delivereddirectly into the UN. One idea would be tocreate a “Lower House” of the United Nationsmade up of 100 cities that have suffered majortragedies due to war and other disasters, plusanother 100 cities with large populations,totaling 200 cities. The current UN GeneralAssembly would then become the “UpperHouse.”

On the occasion of the Peace MemorialCeremony commemorat ing the 64thanniversary of the atomic bombing, we offerour solemn, heartfelt condolence to the souls ofthe A-bomb victims, and, together with the cityof Nagasaki and the majority of Earth’s peopleand nations, we pledge to strive with all our

strength for a world free from nuclearweapons.

We have the power. We have the responsibility.And we are the Obamajority. Together, we canabolish nuclear weapons. Yes, we can.

August 6, 2009

Akiba TadatoshiMayorThe City of Hiroshima

2. Nagasaki Mayor's Statement

2009 Nagasaki Peace Declaration

We, as human beings, now have two pathsbefore us.

While one can lead us to “a world withoutnuclear weapons,” the other will carry ustoward annihilation, bringing us to suffer onceagain the destruction experienced in Hiroshimaand Nagasaki 64 years ago.

Doves fly in Nagasaki on August 9, 2009 at11:02 a.m.

This April, in Prague, the Czech Republic, U.S.President Barack Obama clearly stated that theUnited States of America will seek a worldwithout nuclear weapons. The President

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described concrete steps, such as theresumption of negotiations on a new StrategicArms Reduction Treaty (START) with theRussians, pursuit of the U.S. ratification of theComprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), whichbans all nuclear explosions in the air, the sea,underground and in outer space, and seekingto conclude a treaty to ban the production ofhighly enriched uranium and plutonium, bothessential components of nuclear weapons. ThePresident demonstrated strong determinationby saying that “as the only nuclear power tohave used a nuclear weapon, the United Stateshas a moral responsibility to act,” whichprofoundly moved people in Nagasaki, a citythat has suffered the horror of atomic bombing.

President Obama’s speech was a watershedevent, in that the U.S., a superpowerpossessing nuclear weapons, finally took a steptowards the elimination of nuclear armaments.

Nevertheless, this May, North Korea conductedits second nuclear test, in violation of theUnited Nations Security Council resolution. Aslong as the world continues to rely on nucleardeterrence and nuclear weapons continue toexist, the possibility always exists thatdangerous nations, like North Korea, andterrorists will emerge. International societymust absolutely make North Korea destroy itsnuclear arsenal, and the five nuclear-weaponstates must also reduce their nuclear weapons.In addition to the U.S. and Russia, the U.K.,France and China must sincerely fulfill theirresponsibility to reduce nuclear arms under theNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In a bid for thorough elimination of nucleararmaments, we urge the strongest effortstowards the Nuclear Weapons Convention(NWC), which the U.N. Secretary General BanKi-moon last year called on governments tonegotiate actively. It is necessary to insist thatnot only India, Pakistan and North Korea, butalso Israel, a nation widely believed to possessnuclear weapons, and Iran, a nation suspected

of nuclear development, should participate inthe convention in order to ensure that thosenations totally eliminate their nuclear weapons.

Supporting the speech delivered in Prague, theGovernment of Japan, a nation that hasexperienced nuclear devastation, must play aleading role in international society. Moreover,the government must globally disseminate theideals of peace and renunciation of warprescribed in the Japanese Constitution. Thegovernment must also embark on measures toestablish a firm position on the Three Non-Nuclear Principles by enacting them into law,and to create a Northeast Asian NuclearWeapon-Free Zone, incorporating North Korea.

We strongly urge U.S. President Obama,Russia’s President Medvedev, U.K. PrimeMinister Brown, France’s President Sarkozyand China’s President Hu Jintao, as well asIndia’s Prime Minister Singh, Pakistan’sPresident Zardari, North Korea’s GeneralSecretary Kim Jong-il, Israel’s Prime MinisterNetanyahu and Iran’s President Ahmadinejad,and all the other world’s leaders, as follows.

Visit Nagasaki, a city that suffered nucleardestruction.

Visit the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum andstand at the site of nuclear devastation, wherethe bones of numerous victims are stillinterred. On August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m.,Nagasaki was devastated by intense radiation,heat rays of several thousand degreesCentigrade and horrific blast winds. Fiercefires destroyed Nagasaki, turning the city into asilent ruin. While 74,000 dead victimsscreamed silently, 75,000 injured peoplemoaned. Everybody who visits is sure to beoverwhelmed with the anguish of those whodied in this atomic bombing.

You will see those who managed to survive theatomic bombing. You will hear the voices ofelderly victims, who try to tell the story of theirexperiences even as they continue to suffer

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from the after-effects. You will be stimulated bythe passion of young people, who carry outtheir activities in the belief that although theydid not share the experience of the atomicbombing, they can share the awareness thatstrives for the elimination of nucleararmaments.

Now, in Nagasaki, the General Conference ofMayors for Peace is being held. In Februarynext year, the Nagasaki Global Citizens’Assembly for the Elimination of NuclearWeapons will be held, attended by NGOs fromboth within Japan and overseas. For the nextyear’s NPT Review Conference, citizens, NGOsand cities strive to strengthen their unity.

People in Nagasaki are circulating petitionscalling for President Obama to visit Nagasaki, acity that experienced atomic bombing. Each ofus plays a vital role in creating history. Wemust never leave this responsibility only toleaders or governments.

We ask the people of the world, now, in eachplace, in each of your lives, to initiate efforts todeclare support for the Prague speech and takesteps together towards “a world withoutnuclear weapons.”

Some 64 years have passed since the atomicbombing. The remaining survivors are growingold. We call once again for the Japanesegovernment, from the perspective of theprovision of relief for atomic bomb survivors, tohasten to offer them support that correspondswith their reality.

We pray from our hearts for the repose of thesouls of those who died in the atomic bombing,and pledge our commitment to the eliminationof nuclear armaments.

Taue TomihisaMayor of NagasakiAugust 9, 2009

3. UN Secretary General Brockmann'sStatement

The gruesome reality of atomic destruction haslost none of its power to inspire grief andterror—and righteous anger . . . toward theelimination of nuclear weapons.

Remarks by H.E. Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann,Pesident of the United Nations GeneralAssembly at the Hiroshima Peace MemorialCeremony, August 6, 2009

Dear brothers and sisters,

1. I am honoured, and deeply moved, to bewith you on this most solemn occasion, inwhich we remember one of the greatestatrocities the world has ever witnessed. 2. I am here today as President of the GeneralAssembly of our United Nations, but also in mypersonal capacity. 3. As a Roman Catholic priest, and a discipleof Jesus of Nazareth, I want also, from thedepth of my heart, to seek forgiveness from allmy brothers and sisters in Japan for the factthat the captain of the fateful B-29 Enola Gay,Paul Tibbets, now deceased, was a member ofmy Church. I am consoled, to a certain degree,that Father George Zablecka, the catholicchaplain of the mission, recognized, after theevent, that this was one of the worst

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imaginable betrayals of the teachings of Jesus.In the name of my church, I ask yourforgiveness. 4. Sixty-four years later, the gruesome realityof atomic destruction has lost none of its powerto inspire grief and terror -- and righteousanger. 5. We cannot, have not, and will not succeedin eliminating the danger of nuclear weaponsbeing used again, unless and until we haveeliminated nuclear weapons from the face ofthe earth and until we have placed the capacityfor making those weapons under reliable andlasting international control. 6. I understand that this is a tall order, full oftechnical and political complexities. Yet, if weare to keep faith with the victims and survivorsof the first nuclear terror, we must resolve,here and now, to take convincing action tobegin working toward the explicit goal ofcomplete nuclear disarmament. 7. Taking into account that Japan is the onlycountry in the world that has experienced theatrocity of nuclear bombardment, and thatfurthermore, Japan has given the world amagnificent example of forgiveness andreconciliation, I believe that Japan is thecountry with the most moral authority toconvene the nuclear powers to this emblematicCity of Peace, holy Hiroshima, and begin inearnest the process to lead our world back tosanity by starting the way to Zero Tolerance ofnuclear weapons in the world.

Thank you.

Rev. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, born in LosAngeles, is a Nicaraguan diplomat, politicianand Catholic priest.

4. Under a Cloud: Lessons and legacies ofthe atomic bombings

Jeff Kingston

Jeff Kingston revisits the epochal events ofAugust 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki anddraws on interviews in Japan, India andPakistan to assess their ongoing political andsocial fallout.

Ground Zero, Hiroshima, August 6, 1945.

Global fashion icon Issey Miyake recently madeheadlines by divulging in a New York Timesarticle he penned on July 13 that he is ahibakusha, a survivor of the atomic bombingsof Japan.

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Grassy knoll: The Atomic Bomb MemorialMound in Hiroshima holds the ashes of

70,000 unidentified victims of the bomb.

Only 7 when he witnessed the incineration ofhis hometown of Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. onMonday, Aug. 6, 1945, he recalled: "I still seethings no one should ever experience: a brightred light, the black cloud soon after, peoplerunning in every direction trying desperately toescape — I remember it all. Within three years,my mother died from radiation exposure."

Miyake had remained quiet all these years, notwanting to be defined by his past or to becomeknown as the "hibakusha designer." But he wasinspired to speak out after an April 5 speech byU.S. President Barack Obama in Prague, inwhich he announced his intention to worktoward abolishing nuclear weapons, declaring," . . . as a nuclear power, as the only nuclearpower to have used a nuclear weapon, theUnited States has a moral responsibility to act."

Miyake explained that he wants to support thisprocess by reminding people of the nightmarehe hopes nobody else ever endures. Like otherhibakusha, he also hopes that during Obama'sfirst official visit to Japan, tentatively scheduledfor November, the president will go toHiroshima to jump-start his avowed quest fornuclear disarmament by viscerally remindingeveryone of what is at stake.

On last Thursday's 64th anniversary of the firstatomic-bombing, Hiroshima Mayor AkibaTadatoshi lent his support, saying that mostpeople in the world want the elimination ofnuclear weapons. He declared: "We are theObamajority. Together we can eliminatenuclear weapons. Yes we can."

To this day, though, expert opinion remainsdivided between those who think the atomicbombs saved lives and caused the quickJapanese surrender that followed on Aug. 15,1945, and those who challenge those claimsand provide alternative explanations of whyU.S. President Harry S. Truman used thebombs.

Nonetheless, since 1945 both the Japanese andU.S. governments have pushed the controversyoff to the side in their shared focus onharmonious bilateral relations. For theJapanese government, too — relying as they doon the U.S. nuclear umbrella — the atomicbombings are an especially delicate issue.

Former Defense Minister Kyuma Fumio had toresign in 2007 after igniting a public outcry bysuggesting that the U.S. decision "could not behelped."

And just this week, Tamogami Toshio, theformer Air Self-Defense Force chief ousted overhis apologist views concerning Japan'smilitarist past, sparked a furor and reopenedwounds in his speech, "Casting Doubt on thePeace of Hiroshima," delivered there on Aug. 6.He said, "As the only country to haveexperienced nuclear bombs, we should go

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nuclear to make sure we don't suffer a thirdtime."

Across the once-war-torn Pacific, however,raising awareness in the United States aboutthe devastation has been a dilemma becausehighlighting the suffering endured by theJapanese is sometimes perceived as a way ofdeflecting attention away from the tormentJapan inflicted throughout the region.

Indeed, in 1995 the Smithsonian National Airand Space Museum in Washington, D.C. fueledcontroversy by planning an exhibition topresent, and challenge, the case for Truman'sdecision to drop two atomic bombs on twoJapanese cities. However, intense politicalpressures forced the axing from the exhibitionof the revisionist critique of Truman's decision.

In the wider world, meanwhile, ongoingnuclear weapons proliferation suggests that thelessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not asappreciated as they should be.

It is against this background that The JapanTimes invited a writer from Pakistan and onefrom India to discuss the implications ofproliferation, along with two Japaneseacademics asked to share their thoughts aboutthe legacy of the atomic bombs.

Jeff Kingston is Director of Asian Studies atTemple University Japan Campus in Tokyo andan Asia-Pacific Journal associate.

This five-part series of articles appeared in TheJapan Times on August 9, 2009.

5. A-bombings 'were war crimes'. 'Masskilling of civilians by indiscriminatebombing' condemned by InternationalPeoples' Tribunal

An interview with Yuki Tanaka

Guilty.

Mother and child, Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945.Yamahata Yosuke

Sixty-two years after the first atomic weaponwas tested in New Mexico, international jurorsissued a verdict on the atomic bombings,finding U.S. leaders guilty of war crimes andcrimes against humanity.

Judgment Of The International Peoples'Tribunal on the Dropping of Atomic Bombs onHiroshima and Nagasaki (July 16, 2007)

" . . . the Tribunal finds that the atomicbombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki violatedthe principles prohibiting the mass murder ofcivilians, wanton destruction of cities and

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villages resulting in excessive death notjustified by military necessity. Therefore, theseacts constitute War Crimes . . . " The followingis the text of an interview with Yuki Tanaka ,research professor at the Hiroshima PeaceInstitute, editor of "Bombing Civilians" (2009)and an organizer of the tribunal.

Why did you decide to organize the tribunal?

I wanted to place Hiroshima and Nagasaki inthe wider history of bombing civilians. They arethe worst cases, but we want to establish theprinciple that mass killing of civilians byindiscriminate bombing is criminal, anywhere.

Yuki Tanaka, an organizer of theInternational Peoples' Tribunal. Hasegawa

Jun

Also, the atomic bombings were not dealt withat the Tokyo Tribunal (the InternationalMilitary Tribunal for the Far East, 1946-48).The Allies did not want to be accused of warcrimes involving the bombing of civiliansbecause they had engaged in so much of it inEurope as well as Japan.

I worked to establish a tribunal in order toraise the issue of the criminality of the atomicbombings to counter the U.S. argument thatthey were necessary to end the war.

It is important to focus on the criminality of theacts regardless of the strategic or tacticalreasons.

What impact do you hope to have?

When I talk to groups in the United States, theysay the atomic bombings were necessary to endthe war.

I reply that if I have a sick child requiringexpensive medicine I can't afford, and then Irob and kill a neighbor to get the money andbuy the drug and save my child's life, themurder is still a crime even if it was to save mychild. So a good reason for committing a crimedoes not justify a criminal act.

Killing 70,000 to 80,000 people in one second .. . isn't this a massacre and crime that clearlyviolates international law? No matter thereason, a crime is a crime.

The U.S. needs to admit its wrongdoing andapologize for the same reason Japan needs toapologize to the Chinese. It is important toeducate people in the U.S. that killing largenumbers of civilians is a crime not to berepeated, but it has been continuously repeatedin Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. This isnot a problem of the past, it is still a problem inthe present. This is educational for Japanesetoo, because if you want Americans to admitand atone for their crimes, Japan also must doso.

What is your goal?

Our main goal is reconciliation with the U.S. Inorder to reconcile, the U.S. must first recognizethat it committed crimes and apologize.Otherwise there can be no reconciliation. Thehibakusha (atomic- bomb survivors) want anapology, and for them this is a necessarycondition for reconciliation. If the U.S. did so itwould improve the relationship tremendously.

In Prague, U.S. President Barack Obama (in a

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speech on April 5) became the first president toaccept some responsibility for the atomicbombings, saying that the U.S. must acceptmoral responsibility by abolishing nuclearweapons. This took many Japanese by surprise,but there is s t i l l the matter o f legalresponsibility. Once the criminality of atomicweapons is established it will be easier toabolish them.

So at the government level there already isreconciliation, but not among the victims. Thehibakusha are not reconciled, and are stillwaiting for an apology. Even after they die, thepeople of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and thedescendants of hibakusha will still demandjustice and keep the issue alive, just as inNanjing the Chinese have sustained theircampaign for justice. It won't fade away. Thepast continues to haunt the present.

A woman prays in Nagasaki’s Urakami

Cathedral on Aug 9, 2009.

The U.S. has sought refuge in the concept ofcollateral damage to justify civilian casualties.It makes it seem that such deaths are aninevitable and unavoidable cost, an inadvertentconsequence — whereas they are the maintarget. Bombings of civilians has been acceptedto some extent as normal in war. It is a crime.

People here hope that Obama will visitHiroshima later this year and make a clearapology and accept legal responsibility, notonly moral responsibility, but that is unlikely.

The entire verdict of The International Peoples'T r i b u n a l c a n b e a c c e s s e d h e r e(http://www.k3.dion.ne.jp/~a-bomb/indexen.htm).

6. 'It is time to discuss this more frankly'

Kazuhiko Togo, Professor of InternationalPolitics at Kyoto Sangyo University, is a formerAmbassador to the Netherlands and the authorof 2005's "Japan's Foreign Policy 1945-2003"and 2008's "Rekishi to Gaiko" ("History andDiplomacy"). He is also a grandson of ShigenoriTogo (1882-1950), who, after serving asAmbassador to Germany and then to the SovietUnion, was appointed Foreign Minister from1941-42 and again from April to August 1945.After the war, he was sentenced to 20 years'imprisonment for war crimes, and died inprison.

What do you think are the critical issuesconcerning the atomic bombs in contemporaryJapan?

Ambassador Togo's written response is asfollows: Surprisingly, there has been littleserious debate in Japan about the Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic bombs (of Aug. 6 and Aug. 9,

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1945) in the context of Japan-U.S. relations.Conservative opinion leaders tended to look atthe issue in the context of the U.S. nuclearumbrella, while liberal opinion leaders tendedto look at this issue as an object of universalevil that requires global abandonment. ButDefense Minister Fumio Kyuma's statement inJune 2007 that "the dropping of atomic bombscould not be helped" provoked anger amongJapanese people, and his ensuing resignationshows that something is changing.

The government has no intention to politicizethis issue with the U.S. government, and Iconcur that clearly this is a wise policy. But atthe level of academics and opinion leaders, thetime has come to discuss the issue morefrankly. Here are four points that in my viewcome to the mind of many Japanese:

First, are the Americans truly aware about thenature of atrocities committed? People whowere subjected to the bomb are still sufferingfrom physical pain, and they are literally dyingbecause of the radioactive aftereffects. Theapocalyptic description of the massacre isshocking enough, but how many Americans areaware that the bombs continue to have such alingering fatal impact? Japanese victims of thebombs in general have accepted the postwarsettlement and are suing only the Japanesegovernment requesting more adequatecompensation. But does this postwarsettlement justify U.S. disinterest in thisunprecedented human suffering caused by theU.S. during World War II?

Second, in accordance with the existing normsof international law and the simple logic offairness and human rights today, how can onejustify the killing of Japanese women, childrenand elderly people for the sheer sake ofprotecting the life of American soldiers, whosedestiny was to fight and die for their country? Itis axiomatic to say that indiscriminate bombingof noncombatants and cities was a commonpractice during World War II, including by

Japan. But does this "relativization" justify thecatastrophic level of atrocities inflicted onJapanese civilians by the atomic bombs?

Third, were the atomic bombs really necessaryto end the war? Efforts made by Americanscho lars to ques t ion th i s po in t a recommendable.

Two key questions remain. First, from April1945 the Japanese government was engaged inserious efforts to end the war. Their effortsculminated in the dispatch of a formalinstruction to the Japanese Ambassador inMoscow on July 13 that the Emperor wanted toterminate the war, and asking (Soviet premierJoseph) Stalin to receive his special envoy(former Prime Minister Fumimaro) Konoe tonegotiate the terms of surrender. Stalin and(U.S. President Harry S.) Truman agreed onJuly 18 at Potsdam (in Germany) to remainevasive in responding to the Japanese request.Stalin was determined to attack Japan before itcapitulated. But why did Truman stay evasive?

The second key question concerns the finalorder to drop two bombs in early August thatwas issued on July 25 by (U.S. Secretary of WarHenry L.) Stimson and (U.S. Secretary of StateGeorge) Marshall, with, no doubt, Truman'sapproval although a written record was notfound, and the Potsdam Declaration was issuedon July 26. The key clause that might havefacilitated a Japanese surrender, i.e.,preservation of the Imperial household, was notincluded in the Potsdam Declaration despiteexperts' recommendation. It gives animpression that Truman reserved sufficienttime for the two bombs to be dropped beforeJapan's capitulation. Is this perception correct,and if so, why did he do so?

Distant echoes: The Korean Cenotaph in thePeace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, whichcommemorates some 70,000 Koreans killed orirradiated by the atomic bombings.

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Fourth, are the Americans aware that it is notthe conservatives who are now most vocal incondemning the dropping of the two bombs asviolating international law, but rather that it isthe best of Japanese liberals who havecondemned the U.S. actions as crimes againsthumanity? Saburo Ienaga (a prominenthistorian), who sued the Japanese governmentfor 30 years for not allowing more detaileddescriptions in school textbooks of atrocitiescommitted by Japanese soldiers, made it clearthat "the three major atrocities committedduring World War II are Auschwitz, Unit 731(the Imperial Japanese Army's germ-warfareunit) and Hiroshima." Another example is(Hiroshima Peace Institute professor) YukiTanaka, known as a strong advocate of comfortwomen's rights, who helped organize aninternational people's tribunal in 2006 thatfound U.S. leaders guilty of war crimes fordropping the atomic bombs.

It is difficult for me to propose some definitesolution on this controversial, political andemotional issue. In general, I support theproposal by veteran journalist Fumio Matsuofor a reciprocal wreath presentation by the U.S.president at Hiroshima and the Japanese primeminister at the (USS) Arizona Memorial inPearl Harbor as an init ia l gesture ofreconciliation. But more important may be theexpansion of exchanges among citizens' groupsfor the sheer purpose of improving mutualunderstanding during this initial stage ofreconsidering this historical memory.

8. Many in India hail its nukes

Pankaj Mishra is an Indian writer and frequentcontributor to the New York Review of Books.His most recent books are "An End toSuffering: The Buddha in the World" (2004)and "Temptations of the West: How to beModern in India, Pakistan and Beyond" (2006).

In remembrance: The Memorial Cenotaph in

the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. Built in1952, the arch shape — through which the A-bomb Dome is visible — was chosen torepresent a shelter for the souls of the atomicbomb's estimated toll of 140,000 victims,including those who died from radiationillnesses. Beneath the arch, a cenotaph bearsthe names of those who perished.

In India, have lessons been learned from theatomic bombings of Japan in 1945?

I wish I could say yes, but that is not the case.

Let's go back to the 1945 war-crimes tribunalin Tokyo (the International Military Tribunal forthe Far East, 1946-48). There, (Indian) JusticeRadhabinod Pal, who was once well known inIndia but is now all but forgotten, argued thatthe Allied powers were also guilty of warcrimes, citing the atomic bombings. Thisalienated his fellow judges at the tribunal, butas a result he became famous and respected inJapan.

In the late 1940s, Indian opinion severelyjudged the atomic bombings, but since thenpublic opinion has shifted dramatically —especially since India's first nuclear-weapontest in 1974. At that time there was not muchdomestic public reaction, but in 1998 whenIndia tested nuclear warheads there weremassive celebrations across the country andthe Indian middle class was ecstatic. Thecapacity to blow up the world was seen as agreat advance and marked India's arrival, atleast in the minds of the people, as a greatsuperpower.

It is depressing that the lessons of Hiroshimaand Nagasaki have not been learned. Theatomic bomb is just seen as a bigger, morepowerful and more destructive bomb, and thereis no appreciation for the devastatingconsequences and radioactive fallout. This iswhy officials and pundits can speak blithelyabout nuclear exchanges.

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Pal's views about atomic bombings as warcrimes are completely forgotten.

Writer Pankaj Mishra, who questionsIndia's "nation rising" euphoria and thesuperpower status many there feel itsnuclear weapons bestow. Nina Subin

The media has not been helpful, and rather ispart of the problem because it has beenjingoistic and nationalistic regarding nuclearweapons. India is in the grip of a "nation rising"euphor ia and sees nuc lear weaponscontributing to the glory and internationalprominence of India, putting it on an imaginarypar with the United States, Russia and China asa great superpower. Nuclear weapons areemblematic of national pride and widelysupported by the public out of their ignoranceabout what they can do and what would happenif India launched one.

Were the atomic bombings war crimes?

In the early post-World War II era, yes, theywere overwhelmingly seen as war crimes.Today, among those who know about theatomic bombings, virtually everyone wouldcondemn them as war crimes. But most Indians

are simply not aware of this history.

Is there support in India for nucleardisarmament?

There is a consensus that using nuclearweapons is a bad idea because the neighborcan retaliate. However, there is also aconsensus that having nuclear weapons is agood idea. Back in 1998, the ruling Congressparty opposed the tests, but it has sincechanged its stance, and all parties now supporthaving nuclear weapons.

Antinuclear activists were discouraged underthe Bush administration (U.S. President GeorgeW. Bush (2001-09) and by the deal made withIndia on nuclear programs. This deal reflectedthe influence of the India-American lobby thathas a similar clout on India-related issues asthe Jewish lobby has on Israeli matters. TheBush administration deal symbolized India'srise as the central ally of the U.S. in Asia as acounterweight to China. This fantasy of India asa great superpower appeals to them because adeal with the U.S. means "Big Daddy" endorsesIndia.

(U.S. President Barack) Obama has abandonedthis Cold War thinking, and that is raisinganxieties in the Indian government. Butantinuclear activists are heartened by Obama'scomments about disarmament and the revivalof the antinuclear movement in the U.S.

9. 'No public discourse' in Pakistan aboutits nukes

Kamila Shamsie is a Pakistan-born novelist whowas educated in the United States and nowlives in London, from where she recently gavethe interview below. In her 2009 novel "BurntShadows," Shamsie explores the indelible markthat the larger sweep of history leaves onpeople caught up in its maelstroms. It is anambitious epic delving into personal sufferings

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against the backdrop of tragic historiesspanning six decades, three generations andfive countries.

Novelist Kamila Shamsie, whose latestbook addresses how unimaginable horrors

easily become possible in war. MarkPringle

The book opens in Nagasaki in 1945, where theprotagonist, a young Japanese woman namedHiroko Tanaka, falls in love only to lose herGerman fiance, Konrad Weiss, in the atomicbombing. Trying on her mother's summerkimono she steps out to the veranda just as theflash and blast incinerates the city, burning thegarment's beautiful swan design onto her back.

Nagasaki, August 9, 1945 in the aftermathof the bomb

This hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) latertravels to New Delhi to visit the family thatmight have become her in-laws, ends upmarrying a Muslim man working for them, andis then caught up in the 1947 Partition ofBritish India (between present-day India,Pakistan and Bangladesh) — eventually settlingin Pakistan.

Following miscarriages brought on by exposureto radiation, which afflicted many hibakusha,she gives birth to a son. However, the lives ofHiroko's and Konrad's families continueintersecting with devastating consequences —an allegory for what happens in a world run bywhites in their self-interest, despite any fitfulgood intentions they might have.

This is a novel that accuses, but also tries toconvey the personal consequences of war,racism and geopolitics. Shamsie connects thedots, showing how powerfully the past shapesthe present — and shadows the future. Hirokocomes to a rueful awakening, lamenting, "Iunderstand for the first time how nations canapplaud when their governments drop a secondnuclear bomb."

Her book makes us th ink about howunimaginable horrors easily become possible in

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war.

What inspired this novel?

The story idea came from the 1998 nucleartests by India and Pakistan, and then when theywere at the brink of war in 2002. I wanted towrite a story set in Asia with the shadow ofnuclear weapons in the background. It was tobe about a Pakistani man and a Japanesewoman, and that led me to Nagasaki — withthe India-Pakistan confrontation a murmurlooming behind.

I wasn't able to visit Nagasaki due todifficulties securing a visa, all the documentsthey wanted and the need for a sponsor. And Iknew that even if I went I could not see prewarNagasaki. The city itself is not the focus of mybook as much as what people can decide to doto others in the context of war.

When I was researching about the atomicbombs I was reading (U.S. Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist) John Hersey(1914-93) about Hiroshima, and he mentionedthe presence of Germans there. So then I hadmy character for Konrad, the fiance.

Nagasaki is the most cosmopolitan andChristian city in Japan, with a long history ofexchanges and contacts with the outside world.Thus it is ironic that of all cities it was one tosuffer this fate.

My grandmother was half-German and living inDelhi during World War II. It was difficult forher as a German to live in British India at thattime. So she became the inspiration forKonrad's sister, even though her life was verydifferent. And once Hiroko left Nagasaki afterthe bomb and visited Konrad's relatives in Indiait was natural that she was caught up in thePartition, which brought her together with aPakistani man and took her to Pakistan — mycenter of gravity.

The arc of the story continues to touch on the

encounter between different parts of the world,one that was transformed, especially forPakistan, by 9/11. And so her son is also caughtup in these tragedies of history that becometragic personal histories.

I once attended a lecture and the speaker drewour attention to Nagasaki, asking how it waspossible to make that decision to drop thesecond bomb even after the consequences ofthe first were known.

Before Hiroshima, it may have been possible toimagine the horror, but it was not known. But(U.S. President Harry S.) Truman knew aboutHiroshima, knew what it had done to thepeople — and yet did not stop the second bomb.This to me is truly horrific. To make thatdecision to repeat the atomic bombing speaksto the pathologies of war. There is nothing youwon't do or justify in the context of war. Thatsingle moment, that single weapon, killing tensof thousands of people in an instant.

Do the atomic bombings shape public discoursein Pakistan?

The lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki havehad too little impact on public discourse inIndia and Pakistan. In the few days betweenthe 1998 nuclear tests by India and thosesubsequently conducted by Pakistan, hibakushavisited Pakistan and begged the governmentnot to proceed. A Pakistani filmmaker made adocumentary with riveting and horrible imagesof what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,and tried to get viewers to imagine whatPakistan's cities would look like if nuclearweapons were used.

I, too, am trying to bring forward into thepresent the echoes of this past.

But in Pakistan it is all about India. "They havethem so we need them" is the mentality. Sothere really is no public discourse about theimplications of nuclear weapons. In the schoolcurriculum nothing is taught about the

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consequences of nuclear weapons, and there isno raising of awareness about the effects ofradiation.

At the time of the tests in 1998, the statecontrol led the media so there was noquestioning or examining the government'sdecision. In the English- language media therehas been some critical opinion voiced, but thereis a consensus supporting the decision to testbecause India has nuclear weapons. They areviewed as a deterrent and a guarantee that therest of the world will step in to prevent a warbecause so much is at stake.

In Pakistan, nuclear weapons are looked on asjust a bigger bomb, and in an abstract waypeople accept the need for it without thinkingthrough the logic of fallout affecting people inboth countries. (Abdul Qadeer) Khan isdespised by Pakistan's liberal intellgentsia, butseen as a hero by the general public becausewithout his efforts (to develop atomic weapons)they believe Pakistan would be at India'smercy.

Did international sanctions after Pakistan'snuclear tests have much impact?

Sanctions by Japan were not as important asthose imposed by the United States. Pakistan isreally dependent on the U.S., and the impactwas huge, sending the economy into anosedive. Pakistan was on the verge ofbankruptcy. Then 9/11 rescued Pakistan'seconomy because suddenly it was needed forits geostrategic usefulness.

But the sanctions did not cause people towonder about whether the nuclear tests were agood idea. Instead they made them feel unfairlypersecuted, and made people aware howdependent and vulnerable Pakistan's economyis.

What message are you trying to convey throughyour writing of five novels to date?

As a novelist, I try to avoid saying there is asingle message in my books, because it is aboutwhat readers bring to the reading and see inthe novel. In "Burnt Shadows," I write aboutthe threat of what nations can do to each otherin the name of self-interest and defense.

Do you think the atomic bombings were warcrimes?

It is hard to figure out what part of war is not acrime. It's all criminal. War is the absence ofmorality, what we can get away with. Everyonein war commits war crimes.

I wish the myth of Truman as a great presidentwas challenged. How could he be great whenhe made the decision to use atomic weapons?

But I don't believe that other nations are anydifferent from the U.S. The difference is thatthe U.S. was in a position to use them and itdid. It is the imperial power of this era, andthus it is more involved in war and theinevitable crimes that entails. But it is too easyto blame the U.S. — nations and people need tolook at themselves and their actions andchoices.

Can you imagine a nuclear war might happen?

Yes. India and Pakistan were so close to war in2002. Once you engage in war — and you havethis weapon — there is the possibility of usingit. The gap between conventional and nuclearwar is not as great as people believe. If you aredesperate and losing a war, there is nocertainty it would not be used with horrificconsequences for everyone.

Recommended citation: Akiba Tadatoshi, TaueTomihisa, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, JeffKingston, "The Nuclear Age at 64: Hiroshima,Nagasaki, and the Struggle to End NuclearProliferation," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol.33-1-09, August 17, 2009.

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