The end never justifies the means

Hiroshima is a midsize port city located in the far west of Japan's largest island, hundreds of kilometers away from the capital Tokyo. Nagasaki is also a midsize port city, located even further to the west. Both are beautiful towns, bustling with people, but the places have no real strategic significance.

That's the present reality of these two cities, and it was no different 70 years ago. And this probably explains why the towns managed to escape the initial wrath of US bombers during World War II.

Unfortunately, this also became the reason why they were targeted later on as an ideal testing ground for the US military's new wonder weapons 70 years ago. The cities enabled the American military and scientists to precisely assess the destructive power of nuclear weapons.

Over 200,000 people died - some 90,000 immediately, and the remaining a few days later. It was a perfidious test under real conditions. The city of Nagasaki was particularly unlucky given that it was not the original target. It was only selected because dark clouds covered the skies above the primary target, Kokura.

The whole world now knows the names of these two relatively insignificant Japanese cities. They stand for the "Fall of Man" and the horrors of nuclear destruction. After dropping the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, the co-pilot of the Enola Gay aircraft commented is his log "My God, what have we done?" But he wasn't the only one to realize what had happened.

By the time the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a couple of days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the whole world had become aware of the destructive power of the bomb, making this an inexcusable war crime. The Americans later justified this atrocity by saying the war in the Pacific would have lasted much longer without the bombing campaign, and that millions of lives would have been lost in an invasion of the Japanese archipelago. They claim the Japanese were only willing to capitulate after the bombs were dropped.

And although some historians argue that it wasn't the nuclear bombs that ultimately forced Japan to surrender, but rather the Soviet Union's entry into the war, the fact of the matter remains that such a crime against humanity is unjustifiable. The ends never justify the means. The United States simply wanted to test a new weapon and demonstrate its strength - toward the Japanese, and above all, the Russians.

This was the first time the US flexed its nuclear muscles, setting in motion a military build-up, the repercussions of which affect us to this day. Ever since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, every superpower, including nations which regard themselves as such, has wanted to have the bomb at its disposal. This includes states such as Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India and Pakistan.

Then there is Israel, which would rather remain silent about it, and regimes such as the one in North Korea, which, by contrast, use the nuclear trump card to stay alive. Last but not least, there is Iran, which wants the bomb, but could be prevented from getting one. These are the unholy ghosts that were conjured 70 years ago when the nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But the bombings also allowed war-mongering Japan to take on the role of victim - something the Japanese like to remember much more vividly than the countless atrocities committed by their predecessors on neighboring Asian nations.

The victim was, above all, the perpetrator. To this day, Japan has failed to confront its wartime past and promote reconciliation with its neighbors. While the Japanese PM may bow today before the victims of the nuclear bombings, he is also seeking to re-interpret Japan's 1947 pacifist constitution, which was imposed on the country by the United States.

Alongside the former wartime enemy, PM Shinzo Abe wants to bolster Japan's military capabilities in a bid to counter China's increasing assertiveness in the region. While this may be understandable from a geostrategic point of view, Abe doesn't rely on the support of the majority of Japanese.

It's not military build-ups and power displays which lead to peace and stability, but rather reconciliation and prosperity. The horrors of war should be a lesson not only for Japan's victims and perpetrators, but also to all global players.

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