Yet, powerful forces within the U.S. continue to fight against the American people understanding this history. In 1993 the Smithsonian, for example, suggested the launch a major exhibit as an opportunity for people to understand more deeply the effects of the atomic bomb and to surface the circumstances surrounding its use. Controversy ensued for two years and included twenty-four members of Congress sending a letter on August 10, 1994 to the Smithsonian expressing "concern and dismay" that the planned exhibit portrays Japan "more as an innocent victim than a ruthless aggressor" in World War II.
The Smithsonian canceled the greater exhibit on January 30, 1995 and began work on a completely different plan, one that displayed only the Enola Gay, the airplane that dropped the bombs.
When even that trimmed down, more palatable exhibition finally closed in May 1998, it had drawn almost four million visitors. Imagine if the original exhibit had gone ahead as envisioned. Four million Americans would better understand how deeply enmeshed we are in war as a nation and a society. Perhaps then we would face real facts...and remove our sense of legitimacy in preparing for nuclear holocaust.
Voices in the wilderness
As Direction of Programs of the American Friends Service Committee in New England and AFSC'ss National Disarmament Coordinator Dr. Joseph Gerson advances U.S. and international movements for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the ratification of the limited "New START" treaty. He served as co-convener of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review International Planning Committee, a network of 25 leading disarmament organizations created to help ensure a successful NPT Review Conference.
During this service a U.S. senator's aide told Gerson that "the Bombing of Hiroshima was Right."
" This," he says, "just reflects enormous ignorance" sixty-five years after the cataclysmic events in Japan. "The reality is that each thermo-nuclear weapon today has the capability to kill far more people than were killed at Auschwitz. Yet, such genocidal, if not omnicidal weapons are the cornerstone of U.S. policies. It is in every American's interest to understand this element in our society and to transform it."
The opportunity is there. For the last 55 years there has been an annual international conference to commemorate what were, says Gerson, "war crimes and the memory of the victims of those war crimes..and to press for the abolition of nuclear weapons."
In a recent Raising Sand Radio interview Dr. Gerson told of his first visit to Hiroshima twenty-five years ago. "I fully engaged with the pain of what happened there and with the ongoing damage, including genetic, from radiation."
While there, however, he did not dream at all. After he returned to the U.S. his dreams resumed and, at first they were crowded with images of cinders and destruction. But, "The "waking image I had was of the colors and angles of the peace cranes symbols of peace and affirmation of life."
The letter versus the spirit of the law
The U.S. signed the
Non-Proliferation Treaty. Essential elements of this, one of the
seminal treaties of the 20th century, are that:
1) non-nuclear
nations - excepting Israel, Pakistan, and India - commit not
to obtain nuclear weapons;
2) nuclear nations promise they would
a) provide technology and recognize the inalienable right of all
nations to produce nuclear power for peaceful purposes and b) engage
in good faith negotiations to completely eliminate their nuclear
arsenals.
When non-nuclear nations see the nuclear nations ignore this second promise (Article 6) they suggest it undermines their commitment when they are threatened by nuclear nations. So, despite President Obama's rhetoric, the May 2010 conference saw the U.S. beat back the non-aligned and other non-nuclear nations pressing for a mandate that nuclear nations negotiate to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.
As signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (the Senate has never ratified the CTBT) the U.S. abides by the letter of the law by following the moratorium on above-ground testing. It does not, however, abide by the spirit of the law when it tests nuclear weapons' components, simulates explosions, and extrapolates the results to develop yet more deadly weaponry.
During May's review conference the Arab League initiated a demand followed by the non-aligned nations toward a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Israel balked. Dr. Gerson said that the Obama Administration in not particularly interested in this either although if finally agreed to the demand in order to advance Obama's larger strategies and to avoid the collapse of the conference. Israel finally agreed and is now named in the document.
Glimmers of hope
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