MIA: History: USA: Military: Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945

U. S. Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

atomic bomb damage in Hiroshima

 


"My brothers and sisters didn't get to the shelter in time, so they were burnt and crying. Half an hour later, my mother appeared. She was covered with blood. She had been making lunch at home when the bomb was dropped. My younger sisters died the next day. My mother – also died the next day. And then my older brother died ..."

Testimony of Fujio Tsujimoto, five year old resident of Nagasaki
when the atomic bomb was dropped on that city, August 9, 1945

"Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."

U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Japan's Struggle to End the War,
1 July 1946

"The dropping of the atomic bombs was not so much the last military act of the Second World War as the first act of the cold diplomatic war with Russia now in progress."

PMS Blackett, Military and Political Consequences of Atomic Energy
(London, 1948)

 


 

Contemporary reactions

Atomic Bomb Shows Why Socialism Is Necessary, Albert Glotzer, Labor Action, 13 August 1945

The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, James P. Cannon, 22 August 1945

Only World Socialism Can Save Humanity from Atomic Destruction in Another Imperialist War!, National Committee Socialist Workers Party, August 1945

Hiroshima: "They Hate You", C. R. Brooks, Socialist Appeal (UK), September 1945

The Atomic Bomb, William Wallis, Fourth International, September 1945

Postscript: Hiroshima 1946 (from Democracy with a Tommygun), Wilfred Burchett, 1946

The Scientists and the Atom Bomb, Fourth International, March 1946

Atomic Destruction and World War III, Eugene Varlin, The Militant, 13 April 1946

Physicist Tells Horror of Bomb at Nagasaki, The Militant, 15 June 1946

Six Who Survived: What Happened at Hiroshima, Albert Glotzer, Labor Action, 23 September 1946

Atomic Scientists Find Their Conscience, Irving Howe, Labor Action, 7 October 1946

Atomic Bomb and the Hollywood Mind, Susan Green, Labor Action, 9 June 1947

 

Subsequent analyses and testimonies

Official Reports Contradict Justification of A-Bomb Use, Jack Brad, Labor Action, 1949

The Politics of Incineration, Irving Howe, The New International, 1950

Ten years after Hiroshima, The Militant, 1955

Hiroshima – who's to blame?, Raymond Challinor, Socialist Review, 1958

"Could Happen Anywhere", Tadao Watanabe, Mayor of Hiroshima, International Socialist Review, 1958

Hiroshima Re-visited, Brian Pearce, The Newsletter, 1959

Truman, Stalin and the A-Bomb, Lillian Kiezel, The Militant, 1960

The Truth about Hiroshima, Tony Cliff, Socialist Review, 1960

The Communist Party and the Bomb, Raymond Challinor, Socialist Review, 1960

The horror of Hiroshima is still felt after 23 years, Fred Halstead, Barry Sheppard, The Militant, 1968

The Atomic Crime (from Secrets of the Second World War), Grigory Deborin, 1971

Truman: The Man who Slaughtered Millions to Save Capitalism, Ed Smith, Jean Brust, Bulletin, 1973

The Soviet Union and the Problem of Banning the Atomic Bomb in 1946-1952 (from Soviet Foreign Policy, Volume 2: 1945-1980), History of the USSR Institute, 1981

Japan: Why America dropped the bomb, Steve Appleton, The Militant, 1983

The Atom Bomb: Weapon of Imperialist Blackmail, Patrick Newman, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, 1984

A horrendous crime of U.S. imperialism, The Workers' Advocate, 1985

Racism, Ani-Sovietism and Atomic Holocaust, Workers Vanguard, 1988

Was Hiroshima Necessary?, Christopher Phelps, Against the Current, 1995

Smithsonian Exhibit of the Enola Gay: The Incineration of History, Christopher Phelps, Against the Current, 1995

Enola Gay at the Smithsonian: Orgy of Chauvinism Sinks Hiroshima Exhibit, Workers Vanguard, 1995

Auschwitz, Hiroshima's histories rewritten , Kevin A. Barry, Mary Holmes, News & Letters, 1995

Hiroshima: the White Man's Bomb , Mick Hume, Living Marxism, 1995

World War II: The Good War?, Ashley Smith, International Socialist Review, 2000

"Hiroshima was no longer a city", Mikki Smith, International Socialist Review, 2000

Pearl Harbor, internment, and Hiroshima: Historical lessons, Paul D'Amato, International Socialist Review, 2001

Hiroshima Survivor Speaks Out, Sophie Shevardnadze, Socialist Viewpoint, 2018

 

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I Come and Stand at Every Door (a poem), Nāzim Hikmet Ran, 1956

 


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Last updated on 29 August 2023