From The Ramparts

   

                                                 From The Ramparts

                                                Junious Ricardo Stanton

                                             The Depths of US Depravity

            August 6 2016 marked seventy-one years since the United States unleashed the first of two atomic bomb attacks on two Japanese cities killing, maiming and disfiguring hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians. It cannot be stressed enough that both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not militarily significant, they were civilian cities! The US did this dastardly deed despite the fact Japanese resources had been so depleted they were unable to counter the relentless and destructive US bombing runs over Japan the months preceding the dropping of the atomic bombs. The Japanese bombing campaign like the US bombing of German cities was devastating to both the Japanese war effort and their morale. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were killed by that bombing campaign. The two atomic bombs amounted to deliberate overkill, war crimes of the highest magnitude!

             Records indicate the Japanese were actively seeking negotiations to end the war as early as  January of 1945. Their only condition was that their Emperor not be touched. The US ignored their efforts.  In fact the US boosted their aerial assaults on Japanese cities! The Japanese continuously pressed for a way to save face in their surrender. In July of 1945 the US and Britain issued the Potsdam Declaration demanding an unconditional surrender, saying if they did not Japan faced "prompt and utter destruction."

            The Americans knew the Japanese wanted to end the war as soon as possible but were unwilling to accept a dishonorable surrender! "America's leaders understood Japan's desperate position: the Japanese were willing to end the war on any terms, as long as the Emperor was not molested. If the US leadership had not insisted on unconditional surrender -- that is, if they had made clear a willingness to permit the Emperor to remain in place -- the Japanese very likely would have surrendered immediately, thus saving many thousands of lives." Was Hiroshima Necessary? Mark Weber http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v16/v16n3p-4_weber.html

            The US goal was to humiliate the Japanese, not allow them to save face and demonstrate the full power of the US military for all the world to see. By that reckoning the atomic bombs were acts of terrorism!  That US position cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, non-combat men, women and children! Months prior to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US conducted massive bombing runs on Japanese cities reducing them to ruble.

            Looking at the various records, communiqués and memos the dropping of atomic bombs was not necessary! The first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6 1945, three days later a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. When Russia attacked the Japanese positions in Manchuria on August 8, 1945 reneging on their 1941 treaty of non-aggression against the Japanese, the Japanese were in no position to continue the fight. They were totally overwhelmed by the US bombings of Tokyo and the other Japanese cities.

            What lessons can we glean from this knowledge? We can easily conclude the US civilian and military leadership are psychopaths who have no regard for human life. We see this same contempt for life in the Vietnam War, in Kosovo and the "Middle East". Now the US military routinely bombs the civilian infrastructures of nations it deems terroristic regimes, targeting their water treatment plants, electrical generating plants, roads, oil refineries, airports and rail lines inflicting massive suffering on civilians. The US leadership enjoys killing civilians. Look at what the US has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and now Syria.

            This is the history of the United States. We must never ignore or dismiss this history when we look at the US government and military.

                                                            -30-