We can argue about whether the use of the atomic bomb 64 years ago today — and again three days later — was justified (I think more and more evidence has come to light raising questions about our need to drop it to end the war), but our inability to ween ourselves from it leaves us vulnerable.
Author: hankkalet
Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.
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Hank Kalet 
Unfortunately, the gooferment writes the history book. And, now teaches the young to bey. Secrets are hidden almost forever. A sad day for the American experiment in so many ways. Did the experiment end with the bloody \”civil\” war? If not, Shay's rebellion? We're just kidding ourselves that we control this monster called government. That's why I call government the meme that kills and enslaves us. Time to update out thinking?
Sorry Hank, I disagree. We need to put ourselves into the mind set of the way things were in 1945. The war was not over by a long shot and the Japanese were not surrendering. The war in the Pacific was especially bitter and fierce, the Japanese gave no indication that they were anywhere near an unconditional surrender and they were fighting tooth and nail to the bitter end on all the islands that we had to fight them. They were a divided government regarding surrender; some wanted to surrender but on Japanese terms with conditions favorable to them and most of the other militarists wanted to fight to the bloody end, from street to street to the last man, woman and child who could carry a bamboo spear at the least. In the end, the militarists did win out and the Japanese did not surrender until the A-bombs were dropped. Does anyone remember all the Japanese on the islands surrounding Japan who fought to the last man and who killed themselves rather than endure the shame of surrender? Does anyone remember the films of the men, women, even women with their babies who jumped off the cliffs rather than surrender?We were not privy to all the information that we now have available to us 64 years after the end of that war.They were not even 100% sure that the bombs would work. Sorry folks, but the A-bombs did save many thousands (perhaps a million) of American lives. The bombs ended the war more quickly and saved American lives. If we had to invade Japan and fight from town to town, city to city, it could have dragged on for many more months or even more than a year. Who knows, if we had not used the bombs maybe even more Japanese would have died than those who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was horrible beyond human belief but at that time the Japanese were fanatical to the nth degree, they were militaristic butchers, arrogant colonialists and committed horrible crimes all over Asia. Has anyone ever heard of the rape of Nanking ? The Rape of Nanking occurred during 1937-1938 and about 300,000 people were butchered to death in the most horrific and sadistic ways, most of the people slaughtered were innocent civilians, men, women, children, babies and the elderly. The Japanese performed horrible chemical and biological experiments on Chinese prisoners of war. We just seem to have forgotten what an absolute menace the Japanese were to all the peoples of the Pacific rim. They were fanatics to the bitter end and it did take 2 A-bombs to finally get through to them. The Japanese of 1945 were a totally different people than the peaceful and nice Japanese of 2009.I am not happy that we had to drop 2 A-bombs on Japan but we have to understand that we had been involved in a long, brutal and costly war with Japan and to expect us not to use a powerful weapon to end the war after all the blood, sweat and tears that we had lived through then you are dreaming.