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The Day the World Changed

August 6th, 2008
By ROBERT STEIN

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Sixty-three years ago, America won a war and lost its innocence. On August 6, 1945, the world’s first nuclear weapon was detonated over Hiroshima, and six days later, World War II ended.

I was in uniform then in Germany, one of thousands waiting to be sent as foot soldiers to invade Japan. All we knew then was that a mushroom cloud had ended our dread of going to the Pacific to storm beaches and fight through cities. For the first time in years, we could wake in the morning without feeling there was an IOU out on our lives, held by someone unknown and payable on demand.

It was weeks before we learned the moral price for our relief–that over 200,000 would die from that explosion in Hiroshima and another over Nagasaki three days afterward and that our country would forever bear the burden of being the first to use weapons of mass destruction.

Almost two decades later, in August 1963, I was interviewing John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office. “Since 1945,” he said, “we have gone into an entirely new period of nuclear weapons. Most people have no conception of what it all means. A nuclear exchange lasting sixty minutes would mean over 300 million deaths. We have to prevent the end of the human race.”

This August, as presidential candidates argue over gasoline prices and each other’s celebrity status, it’s easy to forget they are asking voters to give them a Godlike control over the lives of multitudes of people, not only in our own country but all over the world.

It’s too late to anguish over that decision 60 years ago but not too soon to remember how much power of life and death will be in the hands of whoever we choose this November and what qualities of judgment, character and human feeling he will need to make such choices for us in the future.

Cross-posted from my blog.



This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 11:59 am and is filed under Nuclear Weapons, John F Kennedy, Foreign Policy, World War II, War, Politics, 2008 Elections, Society, History. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 5 Comments

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    What we need to anguish over is how the election is playing out in the media and online. We're arguing over whether or not Obama is like Paris Hilton. We're arguing over whether or not Obama's energy policy consists entirely of inflating tires properly. We're arguing over whether or not Obama is too "uppity."

    This doesn't seem like the proper way to decide who becomes the most powerful man on the planet.

    (And it looks like we can thank the McCain camp for lowering the level of discourse. I guess they don't feel their strength is on actual issues.)
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    THank you Bob; most have never heard the thoughts of a vet who was present in other 'theatres' when this horrible loss/gain of lives took place in ways that generations since have never come to peace or certainty with. Properly so, I think given the soul holds deeper thoughts than ego does about 'conduct of life.'

    I agree with you about the trivialization of campaign coverage and advertisments by any and all. I think regardless of the circus, many will be sneaking away to vote for those who are, in their minds, substantive... away from the three rings inside each tent. Appreciate your thoughts as one of our elders at TMV

    dr.e
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    "America won a war and lost its innocence"

    Phffft. The incendiary raids earlier on Japan and destruction of German cities were worse. Anti-nuclear idiocy and PC "US self-reflection and guilt" are BS.

    As for Chris's overreaction to criticism of Obama, including the fiction, well, it's time for a "time out" if not a spanking.
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    Phffft. The incendiary raids earlier on Japan and destruction of German cities were worse. Anti-nuclear idiocy and PC "US self-reflection and guilt" are BS.


    While you are right that the firebombing of Dresden & Tokyo probably killed just as many people that the little Boy & Fat Man did, there is a qualitative difference between Nukes and standard bombs. The Bombs dumped over Hiroshima & Nagasaki were measured in kilotons, today's bombs are measured in megatons, and while we may be able to kill a whole lot of people using standard bombs, it is unlikely that we could destroy the Planet using them, the same cannot be said about Nukes.

    I know not with what weapons WWIII will be fought, but WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones. --Albert Einstein
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    "...but WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones."

    Possibly. Or, even before WWIV:

    "...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." ~ Isaiah 2:4
 
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