Hello people of peace and justice,
Some in our international circle of peace advocates here receive Peace Bits only on Tuesdays (happy Tuesday to all!). To everyone: Any time you want to receive Peace Bits less frequently, more frequently, or not at all, just shoot me an email and I will fix my bcc list for you!
Today, I am recommending a new piece by Michael Snell-Feikema, our fellow peace advocate in our Peace Bits circle. Those of us in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the US know Michael and Carol and greatly appreciate them.
Michael’s essay is right on the theme this week as Peace Bits focus on the nuclear attacks by the United States. Some of us are hunger-fasting between August 6 and 9 in commemoration.
Here’s more about the fast: KathleenTemple.wordpress.com
Please use some version of the following in order to bring to your legislators’ (and their staff’s) attention Michael’s short essay. It’s ever so restrained and concise. I am going to email the message to my legislators, then phone their offices to alert them re. the email. (all the contact info can be found on their websites)
“[Legislator],
One of my fellow peace advocates has written a short essay that summarizes many of the realities you must consider regarding war and peace.
As your constituent, I implore you to read the essay, to distribute it to your staff, and to take the ideas therein under advisement. The situation could hardly be more dire and urgent.
If you have trouble accessing the piece, just let me know. I can paste it into a message for you.”
Some who are receiving this Peace Bit may need me to paste the piece, for that matter. Just scroll down for it.
❤️ – Kathleen
(you know the usual ways to get Peace Bits: KathleenTemple.wordpress.com displays some of the ways!)
Hiroshima Anniversary: To Remember Hiroshima is to Commit Ourselves to Peace
Most Americans believe what they were told by the Truman administration, at the time, that the atomic bombings were necessary in order to “save lives” by forcing Japan to surrender and avoiding any need for a US invasion of Japan. Most Americans do not know that the US Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that Japan would have surrendered without the atomic bombings and that a long list of US military generals and officials, Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur among them, believed that it was not militarily necessary. The US had long before decoded Japanese communications which indicated that the only real obstacle to the unconditional surrender demanded by the US was the Japanese desire to retain their emperor, a condition the US ultimately agreed to anyway.
The ugly truth is that the bombs were dropped to send a message to the Soviet Union and the world that the United States had this terrible new weapon and was willing to use it. In his book, “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear Planner”, famed whistle blower Daniel Ellsberg lists the many instances in which the United States used the threat of nuclear war as a tool of US foreign policy.Ellsberg also wrote an article in 1981, entitled “Call to Mutiny” about this. It is available online. Just to give one example: did you know that Eisenhower secretly threatened the Chinese with nuclear war in order to bring an end to the Korean war? There are a shocking number of other examples provided by Ellsberg that conclusively demonstrate that threatening nuclear war is an integral part of US foreign policy.
Most Americans do not realize that the United States does not have a “no first use” of nuclear weapons policy. US nuclear policy includes attacking non-nuclear nations that threaten our or our allies “interests.” The US has spent billions of dollars to develop “first strike” weapons in order to try to make its nuclear threats credible and be able to use them as a tool of its foreign policy.
US withdrawal from key arms control agreements with Russia the INF, ABM and “Open Skies” treaties, the eastward expansion of NATO, the placement of nuclear capable missiles in Poland and Romania and the attempt to bring Ukraine into NATO in order to place nuclear capable missiles there, are all part of an effort to create a US first strike capability that could credibly threaten Russia. Russian anxiety over the threat of a nuclear first strike by the United States is one of the major causes of the war in Ukraine. They do not want to be dominated or anihilated by the US. This has created an extremely dangerous situation that threatens all of humanity with nuclear war and, even worse, nuclear winter.
To truthfully remember Hiroshima is to realize in the depths of our being that what happened to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki could happen to us all if we do not effectively demand that our government and the other nuclear powers of the world prioritize peace and human survival over war and the threat of war. We must demand that our government seriously pursue nuclear arms control and abandon Cold War policies that recklessly heighten the possibility of nuclear war.
We invite the Harrisonburg community to join us in remembering the lives lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in committing ourselves to a serious confrontation with the truth about the past actions of our government so we can fully commit ourselves to the changes needed to survive and thrive in a peaceful world.
Michael Snell-Feikema taught world history at Mt. Marty College. He is a member of Peace Praxis – the Shenandoah Valley Antiwar Coalition . Hyperlinks with supporting references can be found on the Peace Praxis – Shenandoah Valley Antiwar Coalition Facebook Page or at Peacepraxis.org.
kathleen temple 
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