How has the US managed to usurp moral high ground despite Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
A very intriguing
riddle of recent history is, how, after dropping from air, two atomic bombs on
heavily populated cities of a surrendering Japan, the United States, was able to
usurp the moral high ground in international relations, in the subsequent period
of history? This question must be answered to conjure a correct picture of the
world as it exists today. ...
But the pacific ideas of Hindu philosophers
including Buddha, and of the Chinese philosophers and the various pro-human
messages of universal applications of Islam, certainly had their roles to play
in the shaping of the world. The conduct of war and the management of its
after-effects had improved appreciably over years through the laws of war. Some fault lines did lie within the
Europeans, despite the chastening messages of the Prophet Jesus Christ, which
they have followed somewhat by the name of Christianity, and so those fault
lines visited upon them in the form of the two meaningless Great Wars that
totally enfeebled the stream of world history as it existed then. -- Manzurul
Haque
By Manzurul Haque
Has the history always been in
favour of the cruel? Or, this was an exception!
A very intriguing riddle of
recent history is, how, after dropping from air, two atomic bombs on heavily
populated cities of a surrendering Japan, the United States, was able to usurp
the moral high ground in international relations, in the subsequent period of
history? In the humble opinion of this writer, this question must be answered to
conjure a correct picture of the world as it exists today.
There is something called the
appropriateness of an occasion. Is this the right occasion to ask this
question? The answer could be both -
yes and no. Yes, because this question could not have been asked before. The
reason why it could not, is to be found in the option that follows - No. But
even the negative answer does not banish the question. What can be said is - the
time to put the question has not come yet.
But a beginning could be made,
because there is an urgency to seek to have a clear picture of the world to make
way for the things to move. Some quick recounting of the facts is
necessary.
The World Wars
The World War II started on
01.09.1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany. But as we all know the seeds of World War II
were carried forward from World War I (1914 to 1918). In WWI the axis powers were Germany,
Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and the opposing powers were Britain,
France, Russia, Italy etc. (USA had played a hit and run, but mostly run game towards the very end of War in 1918; alas it did not have the opportunity
to do anything spectacular such as poisoning of a river, or may be, its time had not come, but to give credit to
it - the US, where due, it must be
acknowledged that its AEF commander shoved his Harlem Hell fighters, all
negroes, in frontal assaults of the
enemy, while saving the white US boys in waiting).
In WWII the axis powers were
Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary Romania, Finland, Bulgaria etc. and the opposing
powers were Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands etc. USA, as an off-shoot of
imperial Great Britain had broken off in 1783 (which it likes to call as the War
of American Independence) from the mother country but it was more like the
peeling off from the old of a new born. For a long time the English speaking
residents of the American states (the number and consequently the boundary of
the country was not fixed until very late in the history) continued to live
their way as an exile from the land mass of Europe.
That explains the peripheral roles of USA in
world affairs interceding largely on behalf of Britain diplomatically here and
there, and supplying provisions, which means selling war and peace merchandise
(They acted more like a businessman of fortune).
The first US troops to go into action anywhere
on the ground, against the Axis were, in the first quarter of 1943 – after the
war in Europe had already moved into more than three years, and Russians had
started reversing the advances of Germany. The theatre they preferred to enter
in the company of the British was the northern coasts of Africa – the very
periphery of the battle grounds, where they were badly beaten and bruised taking
time out to further train themselves for a fight.
No gainsaying that USA was a
rich country in terms of natural wealth, agricultural wealth and wealth per se,
because of the abundance of the land mass of the New World that constituted its
territory. But the same cannot be said of the human resources and cultural
traditions, which on a deeper analysis are the two sides of a coin. There is reason to believe that a community
of uprooted beings could not have been made of the finest stock, especially when
the cause of uprooting was no natural disaster but simple human greed.
In the growth of US during its
150 years of history, followed by the Great Depression of its economy in the
1940’s (a result of the continuing greed, accentuated by the opportunity thrown
for the American goods in the world, in the aftermath of World War I), we see a
certain historical stream developing which was destined to meet another
historical stream, the very stream of the world history which was then nothing
more than the history of Europe. Whether the history of the greed of USA
deserved to intermingle with the history of the world is a different point
altogether because the fact is that it did intermingle in the closing years of
the Second World War.
Emergence of US
For thousands of years the bulk
of humanity had grown along a well charted continuous path which included almost
everything, like the Pharaohs, the birth of Moses, the Roman Empire, the rise of
Christianity and Islam, the outreach to India and China etc. etc. In this
continuity lies buried the accumulated wisdom and decencies of humanity even
while on the surface, all the frailties of human beings were in full play. Thus
wars could never be stopped fully.
But the pacific ideas of Hindu
philosophers including Buddha, and of the Chinese philosophers and the various
pro-human messages of universal applications of Islam, certainly had their roles
to play in the shaping of the world. The conduct of war and the management of
its after-effects had improved appreciably over years through the laws of
war. Some fault lines did lie within the
Europeans, despite the chastening messages of the Prophet Jesus Christ, which
they have followed somewhat by the name of Christianity, and so those fault
lines visited upon them in the form of the two meaningless Great Wars that
totally enfeebled the stream of world history as it existed then.
Thus in the Second Word
War, when the US joined in the year
1943, both sides of the conflict were
already spent forces and their staying in the battle ground was merely to uphold
the age old tradition of military honour (At least towards the end of the war,
this was the picture) . While the contending powers were interlocked in a battle
of honour, the US was making a safest possible entry to the war scene from the
side of the winners. This was the exact scene when US made its move to join the
War. Any prudent and independent observer can say that the intention of US was
to grab the spoils of war.
Most of the information that we
have of World War II is from the lessons we have had from Hollywood films.
Between the 50 years of 1950 to let us say 2000 AD, all the inhabitants of all
the lands of the erstwhile sun-never-setting British Empire were the students of
the history classes of Hollywood films. These lands included some Arab pockets
that mattered, and Korea, and Japan and parts of China like Hong Kong and
Formosa, in short the whole world (and from this comes the world-view of the
Americans that their view is also the view of the world).
History alone however is not
sufficient enough to direct the course of things. Fact is that by intervening in
WWII on behalf of the winning powers of Europe, the aims of USA were served in
many more practical ways than merely bolstering the Hollywood’s capacity to
write history. It must be remembered that in the great scuffle of the age there
were fighters on two sides having their origins in Europe, there being one
exception of Japan. But USA was a clear
outsider. It had no jurisdictional presence in the fracas. It was more of the
nature of a soldier of fortune. Therefore while the contending powers were
exhausted or getting exhausted as a result of the War, USA was all fresh and was
fully prepared to usurp the spoils of war - one of the greatest spoils was the
excellent human resources of Europe. In the matter of stealing the atomic bombs,
the only country in the recorded history is US, which seems to have benefited
from the act of theft by stealing the scientists who knew how to make one. But
atom bomb was not the only thing it stole from the remnants of the scene of the
Great War. It , the US, actually stole
the mantle of European civilization – then claiming to be the world
civilization, but now increasing under challenge to forsake this notion, by the
re-awakening of China, India, Iran,
Pakistan and not the least, the Arabs.
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
It is the usurping of the mantle
of European civilization, at a time when the European states had reached the
rock bottom of their national energies in the aftermath of the two all-consuming
Great Wars, that explains the getting away of the US with all things so far and
occupying the high moral ground, needless to add - all in its own national
interest. The stream of the world history had been truly polluted by the stream
of the history of US greed – for good or for bad. So now we are told that greed has always been
the propelling force of history. But it is not true. And from this vantage point
we should revisit the atomic bombings of the two cities. So some more
facts.
On 30.04.1945, Germany had been
militarily defeated. The embers of fire had ended in Europe by 11.05.1945. That
left Japan alone in the eastern theatre of war to be defeated on various fronts
and pockets by British, Chinese, Australian troops with smatterings of US troops
on land by the end of June 1945. The US did one great thing which it is still
adapt at doing. From November 1944 onwards it resorted to relentless bombing of
the cities and industrial units of Japan by its B-29 bombers. By June 1945 about
80% of the industrial targets of Japan had already been destroyed. During the
month of July 1945, Japan’s status was that of a militarily defeated country
waiting for punishment. The entire month
of July 1945, Japan was suing for peace through the Soviets, but ‘now it can be
told’ that whereas Japan had been defeated by a consortium of Powers, the
punishment was being planned by just one country – the US.
On August 6, 1945, an atomic
bomb was dropped on the people of Hiroshima, [which was totally unprovoked,
though it can have any historical, political, sociological and even racial
justification].
Late on the morning of August
9th, the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb without a second thought, this time
on the people of Nagasaki. Rather than wait to see if the Hiroshima bomb would
bring surrender, the atomic bombing order to the Army Air Force stated,
"Additional bombs will be delivered on the above targets as soon as made ready
by the project staff." (Leslie Groves, Now It Can Be Told, pg.
308).
How USA was able to usurp the
mantle of an international moral policeman is the moot question, though I have
attempted to provide an answer in these lines feebly.
Mr. Manzurul Haque is an Advocate in Patna High Court and a regular commentator on
www.NewAgeIslam.com
10:11 PM
Sultan Shahin
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