I just read the book Hiroshima a little while ago and it basically paralyzed me with fear of nuclear weapons. It was raining fire in the city in the aftermath of the bombing, and when some people tried to jump in the river for safety, they were boiled alive. Most of the doctors and nurses that were in the city were killed, either instantly or from radiation sickness days later (symptoms include no appetite, hair loss[all of it], fever, vomiting, etc.). Basically, a slow and painful death. Communication to the rest of world was gone, and the survivors were left wondering the streets in terrible pain, with no medical help at all (the rest of the Japanese had no idea what had happened to the city – all they knew was their communication lines had gone dead in an instant). If someone was wearing a checkerboard style garment, the black squares would be burned onto their skin (dark colors absorb more energy). Thousands more would die later from cancer associated with the bomb, and children born from survivors would have terrible health problems including deformed bodies. There were also 11 American POWs in the city at the time, who all perished. By December of 1945 (the bombing was on 8/6), over 120,000 people were killed from the bomb, with thousands more dying from cancer and other complications over the next few years. The U.S. said we dropped nukes to save American lives, which is most likely did, but I can’t help but feel that dropping nuclear weapons was the wrong way to go about this.
From 1946 – 1958, the U.S. also conducted nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll (this is actually where bikinis as we know them today got their name), which is in the Pacific Ocean northeast of Australia. They (we) detonated over 20 nuclear bombs in the atoll, and the indigenous population of the islands were forced to leave to a nearby island due to the entire ecosystem (especially the food chain) being contaminated by nuclear fallout. Nuclear weapons were one of the worst inventions humankind has created and I really hope Obama can work with the rest of the world to get rid of all of them (though sadly – I am not expecting any type of progress - the strive for power is too great).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Bikini_Atoll
I was talking about nuclear weapons with a friend the other day and asked him If he really thought that nuclear weapons had made the world safer? His response was yes, because they are a deterrent.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's true, but I still feel that they cause more problems then they are worth. Nuclear proliferation is the major concern these days and for good reason.
Fortunately, most of these weapons are in the hands of responsible, stable governments. But the few that are not are enough for major concern. And until all are secure, we must maintain a stock to for the sake of our own security. That's a sad fact.
Agreeing with the above poster that although nuclear weapons serve as a deterrent, I don't really feel comfortable knowing that all it takes is some dictator to completely miss the point and send a huge amount of people to their deaths with the simple push of a button.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine how the scientists that discovered the bomb felt after it was put to use in Nagasaki and Hiroshima... I don't know if I would be able to live with myself knowing that I'd been indirectly the cause of so much death...
You put into perspective how deadly nuclear warfare is. The reason for their existence is that in the event of a threat, we as a country must be able to defend ourselves, and the best way of doing this is threatening the opposing nation (or network). But who came up with this idea to obliterate everything? I mean in the art of war, I understand that you have to debilitate your enemy. Weaken their spirit and demoralize their human existence and all that jazz- yeah, war is not fun. But, geez you can’t even let the animals live? I thought it was completely messed up that we went to someone else’s turf and destroyed their ecosystem. What gives us that kind of liberty and right? The absurdity of this nation sometimes stupefies me.
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