Hiroshima commemoration utilized for propaganda: Vietnam to containment
Hiroshi Saito and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Japan marked the 77th anniversary of Hiroshima while not only being protected by the US nuclear umbrella: but being protected by the nation responsible for countless conflicts since this period and still the main instigator in military conflicts on several continents. Therefore, on the one hand, nationalists within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) who pray at Yasukuni Shrine (War Criminals and ordinary soldiers honored); are the same individuals that ply victimhood and utilize the appalling events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to embolden the re-writing of history.
Japan since Hiroshima and Nagasaki – peace?
Japan (notably Okinawa – Ryukyu) was utilized by America in the brutal bombing of Vietnam and other regional intrigues – for example, against Communists in Indonesia that led to over one million deaths in the 1960s.
The military machine of America used the geopolitical space of Japan to kill millions on the Korean Peninsula and during the Vietnam War, where America used Agent Orange year after year against this country. America even dropped Agent Orange on Cambodia and Laos despite not even being at war with either nation.
Concerning the Vietnam War, The Asia Pacific Journal reports, “The Pentagon had used Okinawa to stage the 1950-53 Korean War but it was during the Vietnam War that its military build-up truly bore fruit. The first combat troops to be dispatched to South Vietnam – including members of the 3rd Marine Division – came from Okinawa and, over the following years, hundreds of thousands more Americans transited through Okinawa. Tragically, many of those killed in action also passed back through the island, which hosted some of the military’s mortuary services.”
The Asia Pacific Journal continues, “Kadena Air Base served as the Pentagon’s key transport hub. During the war, it racked up one million flights making it one of the busiest airports on the planet; starting in 1968, B-52’s also took off from the base to bomb Southeast Asia. In Okinawa’s capital, Naha Port processed 75% of all supplies for the conflict – including fuel, food and ammunition. Moreover, the port handled surplus and damaged materiel from the war zone. A section of nearby Makiminato Service Area, for example, earned the nickname “The Bone Yard”, due to its piles of jeeps and trucks – many covered in blood and bullet holes – which had arrived for repair from Vietnam.5 So vital was the island for the Pentagon that, in 1965, the Commander of U.S. Pacific Forces declared, “Without Okinawa, we couldn’t continue fighting the Vietnam war.”
The Washington Post reports, “The Pentagon said yesterday that a hydrogen bomb lost at sea by the Navy in 1965 lies on the floor of the Pacific Ocean about 80 miles from Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, much closer to land than earlier disclosed. But defense officials said the H-bomb, carried by an U.S. A4 attack jet that accidentally rolled off the deck of an aircraft carrier, came to rest in nearly 16,000 feet of water and posed no danger.”
Yet Hiroshima and Nagasaki are utilized to gloss over Japan’s role in allowing America to kill millions of people in Asia either directly or by supporting proxies (Korean War, Vietnam War, murder of over one million communists or leftists in Indonesia, and so forth). Each event links Japan by stealth – irrespective of the economic, military, or other angles that witnessed a rubber stamp to the deeds of America that utilized the geographic space of Japan (military bases).
Of course, the horrendous events of 140,000 civilians dying in Hiroshima within the year will always remain a solemn occasion. Equally, cancer-related deaths in Hiroshima – and other brutal side effects can never be forgotten. The same obviously applies to Nagasaki and the carpet bombing of major cities by America that killed vast numbers.
The Nautilus Institute says, “The Nautilus Institute’s East Asia Nuclear Policy Project, a far-ranging project aimed at promoting open debate over the role of nuclear weapons in the Asia-Pacific region, has for the past year sponsored detailed research into the history of U.S. nuclear weapons practices in Japan. U.S. government documents recently declassified under the Freedom of Information Act and obtained through this research add substantial weight to previous assertions that the United States routinely brought nuclear weapons into Japan during the Cold War despite Japan’s non-nuclear policy. These documents also shed light on suspicions that Japanese government officials knowingly accepted these deployments. Perhaps most surprisingly, the declassified documents also reveal the previously unreported extent to which the United States also conducted nuclear war planning in Japan.”
Turning to 2022 – the military bases of America in Japan are aimed at containing China and embroiling Japan into the Taiwan Question. At the same time, America utilizes Japan related to the Russian Federation in the Sea of Japan and the regions of Northern Japan. Therefore, not only is Japan protected by the enormous nuclear umbrella of America – just like Japan was utilized during the Korean War, Vietnam War, and other regional conflicts – today the geopolitical space of Japan is utilized by America to contain China and create problems for the Russian Federation concerning the Far East.
However, unlike in the past, recent leaders of Japan are returning to nationalism and seeking to boost the armed forces of Japan. Hence, the commemoration is utilized for propaganda to an even higher level.
Once, Hiroshima and Nagasaki covered up the reality of Japan during the Cold War concerning America’s militarism. However, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is now playing the anti-China and anti-Russia cards in order to double the military budget. Therefore, by playing the anti-Russian card and the nuclear angle of the Russian Federation (while negating the obvious nuclear umbrella) – while raising the Taiwan Question – a new military dawn is opening up for Japan that will rubber stamp the geopolitical ambitions of America to a higher degree while re-militarizing.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are now part of the propaganda machinery – from the LDP and war revisionism to Kishida playing the anti-China and anti-Russia card. Astonishingly, Kishida negates the angle of America – from nuclear bombs to Agent Orange and so forth – and instead is utilizing the nuclear and military scare of China and the Russian Federation to double the military budget.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorations would do well to focus on the victims and look at the bigger picture: if not, then the LDP and America will “whitewash” history for new geopolitical games aimed at China and the Russian Federation.
The victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are being sullied by powerplays that will utilize all and sundry to further their internal and external ambitions.
It is time for peace activists in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to call out America and Japan for tolerating America’s usage of the nuclear angle since these two horrendous events – and the utilization of Japan that is aimed at other Asian and Eurasian nations (Russian Federation).
It is shocking to think that despite America using nuclear bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Japan would then be utilized by the same nation that dropped Agent Orange on several Asian nations.
https://nautilus.org/supporting-documents/japan-under-the-us-nuclear-umbrella/ – Japan under the United States nuclear umbrella – NAUTILUS INSTITUTE
https://apjjf.org/Jon-Mitchell/4308.html
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