The Great Hiroshima Cover-Up

Yesterday we has had the 66. Anniversary of the first Nuclear Attack in Hiroshima,
this is the also the Time for Research and collecting as much Information as possible!

I want to avoid a Japan or USA Bashing because it is not helpful to avoid something similar happen again,
we as the Humankind need to find answers for a better Livings as Partners.

I found a very good Article by Greg Mitchell from the Asian-Pacific Journal
about the Cover Up from this Catastrophe at the end of the Second World War in Japan.

The purpose of this Posting is Information only,
i will give the Summary,
for the rest please visit the Journal (they have always good Infos)

The Great Hiroshima Cover-Up—And the Greatest Movie Never Made

In the northwestern corner of the Hiroshima Peace Park, amid a quiet grove of trees, the earth suddenly swells. It is not much of a mound — only about ten feet high and sixty feet across. Unlike most mounds, however, this one is hollow, and within it rests perhaps the greatest concentration of human residue in the world.

Inside the Mound the ceiling is low, the light fluorescent. One has to stoop to stand. To the right and left, pine shelving lines the walls. Stacked neatly on the shelves, like cans of soup in a supermarket, are white porcelain canisters with Japanese lettering on the front. On the day I visited, there were more than a thousand cans in all, explained Ohara Masami, a city official. Each canister contained the ashes of one person killed by the atomic bomb.

Behind twin curtains on either side of an altar rest several dozen pine boxes, the size of caskets, stacked, unceremoniously, from floor to ceiling. They hold the ashes of about seventy thousand unidentified victims of the bomb. If, in an instant, all of the residents of Wilmington, Delaware, or Santa Fe, New Mexico, were reduced to ashes, and those ashes carried away to one repository, this is all the room the remains would require.

Most of those who died in Hiroshima were cremated quickly, partly to prevent an epidemic of disease. Others were efficiently turned to ash by the atomic bomb itself, death and cremation occurring in the same instant. Those reduced by human hands were cremated on makeshift altars at a temple that once stood at the present site of the Mound, one-half mile from the hypocenter of the atomic blast.

In 1946, an Army Air Force squad, ordered by Gen. Douglas MacArthur to film the results of the massive U.S. aerial bombardment of Japanese cities during World War II, filmed a solemn ceremony at the temple, capturing a young woman receiving a canister of ashes from a local official. Later that year, survivors of the atomic bombing began contributing funds to build a permanent vault at this site and, in 1955, the Memorial Mound was completed. For several years the collection of ashes grew because remains of victims were still being found. One especially poignant pile was discovered at an elementary school.

The white cans on the shelves have stood here for decades, unclaimed by family members or friends. (In many cases, all of the victims’ relatives and friends were killed by the bomb.) Every year local newspapers publish the list of names written on the cans, and every year several canisters are finally claimed and transferred to family burial sites. Most of the unclaimed cans (a total of just over 800 as of 2010) will remain in the Mound in perpetuity, now that so many years have passed.

They are a chilling sight. The cans are bright white, like the flash in the sky over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. From all corners of the city the ashes were collected: the remains of soldiers, physicians, housewives, infants. Unclaimed, they at least have the dignity of a private urn, an identity, a life (if one were able to look into it) before death.

But what of the seventy thousand behind the curtains? The pine crates are marked with names of sites where the human dust and bits of bone were found — a factory or a school, perhaps, or a neighborhood crematory. But beyond that, the ashes are anonymous. Thousands may still grieve for these victims but there is no dignity here. “They are all mixed together,” said Ohara, “and will never be separated or identified.” Under a mound, behind two curtains, inside a few pine boxes: This is what became of one-quarter of the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

In the weeks following the atomic attacks on Japan 66 years ago, and then for decades afterward, the United States engaged in airtight suppression of all film shot in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombings. This included footage shot by U.S. military crews and Japanese newsreel teams. In addition, for many years, all but a handful of newspaper photographs were seized or prohibited not only in the United States, but also in occupied Japan.

Meanwhile, the American public only got to see the same black and white images: a mushroom cloud, battered buildings, a devastated landscape. The true human costs –a full airing of the bomb’s effects on people – were kept hidden. The writer Mary McCarthy declared that Hiroshima had already fallen into “a hole in history.”

Please continue to read the Article

Let something like Hiroshima never happen again!

I believe that not only the U.S., but the whole world felt the need to forget Hiroshima. It would be very hard to justify such an atrocity as this whilst pointing an accusatory finger at Germany for it's horrendous crimes, don't you think? Hypocrisy at its finest.

reply to post by Tasty Canadian


Wow.. Thanks OP for this, a true reminder to us all.

but Tasty made me think about WW2 in a way I hadn't for some reason.. We fought it to stop what was going on in Germany only to turn around and essentially do the same... Makes ya think. sad.

Originally posted by Jazz87
but Tasty made me think about WW2 in a way I hadn't for some reason.. We fought it to stop what was going on in Germany only to turn around and essentially do the same... Makes ya think. sad.

Really? You actually are comparing the Nazis and their death camps to be the same as the US dropping atomic weapons on Japan?

Interesting.

Originally posted by jerico65
Really? You actually are comparing the Nazis and their death camps to be the same as the US dropping atomic weapons on Japan?

That is something apologists for Japan/USA bashers try and do frequently, they try and put the blame for Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the USA, to avoid blaming the real culprits, the Japanese government of WW2.

reply to post by Human0815


At the time Truman decided to use atomic weapons the US wasn't sure how far along the Russians were with their progress and wanted to keep them from seeing any footage. Also the fire-bombing of Japanese cities wasn't making any progress to ending the war any quicker and an invasion of the Japanese mainland was estimated to cost the US one million lives. Iwo Jima cost 7,000 American lives to get a close bomber base and to rid the last Japanese fighter runways that could shoot down the B-29's before getting over the mainland.
By far it was no easy decision for Truman.........
But as far as war crimes...
Bataan, the Eastern Front (as a whole) due to treatment of wounded/POW's on both sides, Japanese treatment of the Chinese and POWs, Nazis treatment of Jews and anyone from Eastern Europe, the French against German POWs , Britians fire-bombing of Dresden (not their first attempt either), Malmady, the list goes on. It was different times and the civilian population knew they were fair game from the bombers due to factories and other strategic targets (and military) within their city limits.
I believe that the total cost of human life lost (known) from WW2 is 60 million, with many more MIA--military and civilian.
You can't judge any one military decision to end the war when there was so much more tragedy going on at the time.

Typical US hypocrisy? Possibly. Probably. Does anyone else think that dropping the atomic bombs on Japan was a move that never should have been carried out? The only nation to ever drop an a-bomb on another nation, and we are the World's leading advocate of disarmament.

I just think that dropping those bombs was a last-ditch effort to win the war. I don't like the fact that we dropped the a-bomb when our backs were against the wall, because what if another country does the same in the near future? This is the problem with nations having nuclear weapons to act as "deterrents." Sooner or later these well-intentioned "deterrents" will become the final nail in the coffin.

Originally posted by JiggyPotamus
Typical US hypocrisy? Possibly. Probably. Does anyone else think that dropping the atomic bombs on Japan was a move that never should have been carried out? The only nation to ever drop an a-bomb on another nation, and we are the World's leading advocate of disarmament.

I just think that dropping those bombs was a last-ditch effort to win the war. I don't like the fact that we dropped the a-bomb when our backs were against the wall, because what if another country does the same in the near future? This is the problem with nations having nuclear weapons to act as "deterrents." Sooner or later these well-intentioned "deterrents" will become the final nail in the coffin.

A last ditch effort........maybe ya should study some more and come back when you understand what the topic is and how the war went.

In a way I think the Japanese know that it took such a barbaric act to defeat their fanatical quest for regional dominance, but the horror is the innocent died and suffered mainly.
Children and nurturing mothers, hell came upon them in a second.
They were sacrifices in effec?
To save say a few million you kill a hundred and fifty thousand or so innocents?
Perhaps the men should have fought men?

Originally posted by Tasty Canadian
I believe that not only the U.S., but the whole world felt the need to forget Hiroshima. It would be very hard to justify such an atrocity as this whilst pointing an accusatory finger at Germany for it's horrendous crimes, don't you think? Hypocrisy at its finest.

If the bombs weren't used the Japanese would probably be extinct(or close to it) as they where planning to fight to the last man/woman and child..

reply to post by korathin


Or the QWERTY board could have been a thing of the past.

I did not have to happen.

I believe that Japan was warned a few times to surrender.......

The pride issue got you guys in trouble. Not us.

Whether or not Pearl Harbor was a set up for war or not......It happened and I believe in eye for and eye.....

Japan should have never messed with the US.

The horror of nuclear weapons is obvious, it is anathema that anyone might ever use them again. I think we can all agree on that. But it is very harsh to judge the actions of our forefathers in deciding to use the weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they were fighting a war, a total war, an all-out battle for victory over an enemy that was driven by ideology with a view that surrender wasn't an option. Truman had to consider the impact that further operations would have on the morale of the troops, the loss of more men, and materiel. Taking a decision as he was forced to do was not easy, and I am sure it was on his mind for the rest of his life, as it was on the minds of the men and women who built the bombs, and of those who deployed the weapons.

Be glad it's not you that has to make such decisions!

Originally posted by liejunkie01
I did not have to happen.

I believe that Japan was warned a few times to surrender.......

Yeah - and they refused.

Heck even after 2 atom bombs there was still an attempted coup by the military to stop the emperor's announcement of surrender.

Estimates of casualties for an invasion ranged from 100,000/500,000 (dead/wounded) to 400-800,000/1.7-4 million - and that's just allied troops - not including the likely massive casualties to Japanese military and civilian populations.

500,000 purple hearts had been made in advance......

the nukes turned out to be humane, cheap and effective compared with the alternatives

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul


the nukes turned out to be humane, cheap and effective compared with the alternatives

I would like to invite you to speak with some People of that Place
as well as from that Time!

As longs as we speak in Numbers, Calculations and which Numbers are Tolerable
we have not learned anything.

Ps: it is very difficult to understand the Road which lead to Hiroshima
but it was not only the Guilt of Japan alone.

Japan learned from The UK, from France and Germany and of course from the US of A.
(Imperialism)
that it will be impossible to play a Major Role without Territories and
"Protectorates" in the South of Asia,
also they wanted to keep Asia in Asian Hands.

This whole Historical Story is so complex and without bringing Light into it
all the Victims, no matter where they came from,
are died for nothing!

Originally posted by Tasty Canadian
I believe that not only the U.S., but the whole world felt the need to forget Hiroshima. It would be very hard to justify such an atrocity as this whilst pointing an accusatory finger at Germany for it's horrendous crimes, don't you think? Hypocrisy at its finest.

You forgot Nagasaki

en.wikipedia.org...

The a bombs were bad don't get me wrong, but realize that more people died in the fire bombing of Tokyo. As far as the US not releasing pictures, newsreels, and the like I think it was because we were ashamed that it had come to that, but that don't mean we weren't justified. One other little note the US had 1 million purple hearts made in preparation of a land invasion.

reply to post by JiggyPotamus

I don't like the fact that we dropped the a-bomb when our backs were against the wall, because what if another country does the same in the near future?

Why do you say "we"? Were you alive when the bomb was dropped? Or were you in the U.S. military at that time, or were you part of the scientific elite who created the bomb?

You shouldn't be brainwashed into identifying with psychopathic leaders and their destructive activities my friend.

They will not look at you as "one of them." They will not see you as part of their team. If the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan was int4entioned to bring the war to a speedy halt as has been propositioned then the bombs would have targeted military installations - naval bases, armament factories etc. Instead they targeted concentrated civilian populations; students, women children and civilian male workers.

IMO, this was the final stage of testing of these weapons, as the previous testing in the deserts of the U.S. had been confined to small buildings and livestock. The U.S. military had to have the knowledge of how human populations are affected by this then new terrible weapon of mass destruction.

The U.S. military also had to develop the weapon quickly and drop it on Japan before Japan surrendered, thereby nullifying an excuse to use and test it.

To argue against this fact is to protect psychopaths and their insane activities in the name of some bizarre notion of nationalism.

Originally posted by Golden Rule
If the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan was int4entioned to bring the war to a speedy halt as has been propositioned then the bombs would have targeted military installations - naval bases, armament factories etc.

they DID target military targets, why do you ignore a number of military camps were located nearby, including the headquarters of the Fifth Division and Field Marshal Shunroku Hata's 2nd General Army Headquarters, which commanded the defense of all of southern Japan. Hiroshima was a minor supply and logistics base for the Japanese military. The city was a communications center, a storage point, and an assembly area for troops
The city of Nagasaki had been one of the largest sea ports in southern Japan and was of great wartime importance because of its wide-ranging industrial activity, including the production of ordnance, ships, military equipment, and other war materials.

of course you ignore them, as you are just an apologist for the Japanese, trying to blame the USA instead of the real culprit, Japan. remember, japan could have surrendered at any time, but refused to.