Adv. VB Binu
This year’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day commemorations come at a time when the clouds of world wars that have wreaked havoc on humanity are frightening through the Russia-Ukraine war and the Sino-US conflict. It is horrifying to the people of the world that the same United States that dropped the deadly atomic bomb on innocent people for the first time in world history is on a side in the Russia-Ukraine war and China-Taiwan conflict.
In a world that thought the Cold War had ended with the demise of the Soviet Union, the expansion of the NATO alliance beyond Europe to the Asia Pacific region is causing great concern. The U.S. arming Ukraine to counter nuclear power Russia, escalating the conflict, and the helplessness of the United Nations add to the concern at this time. Despite the fact that the Russia-Ukraine war on February 24 has claimed tens of thousands of lives and caused hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to flee the country as refugees, the United Nations has been unable to intervene significantly to end the war or defuse the conflict. The long-running war between Russia, the leading exporter of natural gas and oil, and Ukraine, known as Europe’s food pantry, has left the world reeling with misery, inflation and debt. As a result of these conflicts and wars, countries including India are spending billions of rupees and purchasing advanced nuclear weapons and missiles in the name of national security, despite the ongoing covid epidemic, hunger and misery. Arms trading imperialist nations are amassing huge wealth under the guise of these conflicts.
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On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 in the morning, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and on August 9, 1945, at 10:55 in the afternoon. More than 140,000 people were burned to death in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima in a matter of seconds. More than 80,000 people were killed in Nagasaki within seconds. Not only humans, but all living things in nature became burnt. The temperature in the atmosphere rose to more than two thousand five hundred degrees. Women and children ran for their lives, scrambling with charred bodies. The water in the river, the river and the wells all boiled over. Unable to bear the heat, people jumped into the Ohio River that flows through the city of Japan. They burned to death en masse. In seconds everything was engulfed in flames. Decades later, the side effects of the nuclear explosion, such as cancer and deadly diseases such as leukemia, continue to consume the people of Japan.
The world is now witnessing a great leap in the field of science and technology. The “Little Boy” atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was a masterpiece developed by the United States at a cost of four billion dollars through the secret mission “Manhattan Project”. Today, many nations of the world are challenging each other by developing hydrogen bombs, which have an explosion capacity of one thousand to five thousand times more than that, spending billions of rupees. Hydrogen bombs are high impact thermonuclear bombs with thousands of bombs hidden inside one bomb.
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Even when the world is facing major financial crises in the grip of the Covid epidemic, the countries of the world, including India, are spending huge amounts of money for the health sector to buy weapons. According to a report released by the International Peace Research Institute, Stockholm, India has become the largest importer of arms in the world. India’s arms imports are three times that of neighboring countries China and Pakistan. We set aside huge sums of money in the annual budget for the modernization of arms and the army. The figures for the acquisition of new submarines, aircraft carriers and fighter jets are staggering.
The base of the American economy is the arms industry. The goal of arms dealers is to create conflict and war between nations. Majority of India’s imports come from countries like America, Israel and France. After the Modi government came to power, the arms partnership with countries including the United States has been strengthened and arms imports have been increased massively. Amid corruption allegations, Rafale fighter jets were imported from France for Rs 58,000 crore. In the month of August 2021, the decision of India to buy Harpoon missiles from the United States by spending eighty two million US dollars has come out. The Modi government’s Pegasus Chara software deal with Israel has destroyed India’s heritage and democracy and brought the country into a major internal conflict.
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Not only the nations of the world, but international terrorist organizations such as the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and IS have acquired massive explosive weapons with the help of imperialist nations including the United States. The globe today reminds us of Arakilam from the Mahabharata. We must be able to recognize those who are waiting with eagle eyes around us with deadly weapons that can destroy the entire human race. A peaceful and non-conflict situation is essential in all development of the country. The Ipso message “War is death is peace is life” is significant at this time. The message of this Hiroshima Day is to build a mass movement for peace and disarmament through massive popular resistance.
(General Secretary
Ipso State Council)