Japan affirmed again today its
committment to being a non-nuclear
state as it commemorated the 62nd
anniversary of the atomic bombing
of Hiroshima. This event killed about
150,000 people in almost an instant,
and is now pretty much forgotten
save by the historians and the
Japanese.


We live in a world with nine probable nuclear
powers today of varying degrees of might,
all owning a weapon so deadly, so ferocious,
so potentially planet-killing if madness
overtakes the species and a significant
number were unleashed at the same time
that we dare not use them. Yet, the mightiest
at present has speculated several times in
sixty years about using such horrible
weapons, including this administration,
announcing "everything in our arsenal is
on the table."

Yet, the horrible fate of Hiroshima on this
date (and Nagasaki three days afterward)
should always be a living warning about
the use of such weapons. *Only* two
cities were "killed" then, now it would be
a worldwide annihilation of the species
(and many others too) if even a quarter
of the current arsenals were unleashed.

All states that have them continue to build
and renew nuclear arms. But Hiroshima
should be a beacon to the folly of using
atomic or hydrogen bombs - will those that
lead in the nations that have such terrible
arms have enough sense to never use them,
or commit, as Japan did again today, to an
eventual nuclear-weapons-free world? VMS


Note: Written Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:45:17