{"id":1082,"date":"2019-03-11T22:01:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T22:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?page_id=1082"},"modified":"2019-10-21T14:23:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T13:23:42","slug":"hiroshima-and-after","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/hiroshima-and-after\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiroshima and after"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
October 1945, U.K.<\/a><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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Another date has been added to History’s gruesome chronology of \nhorror. Hiroshima, August 5th 1945, marks the application of a new \ntechnique in the sordid science of slaughter. In one catastrophic flash a\n city has been destroyed and “all life seared to death”. While the \nmonument of dust still towered above the ruins, the news was released \nupon a world almost satiated with carnage.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nYet it is significant to observe that although the use of the atomic \nbomb hastened the end of the war in the East, the announcement was \nreceived with little popular enthusiasm.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBefore 1939 it was comparatively easy for the ruling class to convince \nthe workers of the need for a large navy, army, and air force. \nArmaments, they maintained would ward off would-be aggressors and \nthereby ensure peace. Their solicitude for our safety seemed almost \ngenuine. Years of grim experience, however, have proved the Socialists’ \ncontention that armaments are no insurance against war. New methods of \npersuasion will be needed next time to herd the population into the \nfuture shoddy equivalents of Anderson shelters, particularly since we \nare told by the US War Department that “an atomic bomb could be made \n1,000 times more powerful than the type used on Japan”.\u2014(Sunday \nDespatch, London, August 12th, 1945). There will be very few near miss \nstories!\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe reaction of the military mind is summed up by General Ismay, who in \n1941 stated on behalf of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, “although \npersonally, I am quite content with the existing explosives, I feel we \nmust not stand in the path of improvement”.\u2014(Times, London, August 7th, \n1945).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nLet there be no mistake! The disastrous effect of this latest device to \nuplift humanity will in no way prevent its use. In fact because of the \npower of destruction, it becomes obvious that the element of surprise \nwill be a major advantage in war. It may well be that a matter of hours \nwill decide which group of capitalists will emerge victorious from the \nnext edition, which gang will be jet-propelled on the next Crooks Tour, \nto sit at the fleshpots of some future Potsdam Conference.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nUnfortunately for the British and American capitalistic class it will be\n impossible to monopolise the development of nuclear power. Sir James \nChadwick, chief scientific advisor to the British members of the \nCombined Allied Policy Committee in Washington, has admitted that any \nnation with reasonable industrial facilities could start now and produce\n an atom bomb in 5 years’ time, without assistance from Britain and the \nUSA. Its antecedents are the past ages of patient research. From the \n1890’s when the Curies conducted experiments in radio-activity, up to \nthe recent perverted achievement, the efforts of such scientists as \nProfessor Rutherford of Manchester, Niels Bohr of Copenhagen, Dr \nLawrence of California University, Professor Joliot of France, and \nothers in Germany, Japan, Russia and elsewhere, prove indisputably that \nin the modern world production is a social function. In brief, as \nreported by the US War Department the bomb was created “not by the \ndevilish inspiration of some warped genius, but by the arduous labour of\n thousands of normal men and women”.\u2014(Sunday Despatch, London, August \n12th, 1945), i.e., members of the working class.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nGeneral Fuller in the Sunday Pictorial, commenting on the cause of war, \nsays “there are several . . . but in the economic age in which we live, \nthe one which seems to me to tower above all others, is the ‘profit \nmotive'”. To socialists the profit motive is the only explanation of war\n in the modern world.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAs long as Capitalism remains, there will be no slackening of research \nfor even “better and more beautiful” methods of destruction, no \ntightening of the purse-strings which have already disgorged \n\u00a3500,000,000. Meanwhile the producers of wealth will be sampling the \nelusive fruits of rationed victory amid Portal shanty-towns and \nunemployment queues.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThere is no need to enlarge on the physical results of atomic warfare. \nCombined with jet-propulsion, mass-murder is possible by remote control.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIt is, however, relevant to examine a few of its effects on the current \npolitical fallacies of the defenders of “private enterprise”.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe USA is now as vulnerable to attack as the rest of the world. \nGeographical situation offers no advantage, and in consequence the last \ncrumbling bastion of isolationism is breached. This is clearly \ndemonstrated by her policy of expansion especially in the Pacific.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAll ideas of warfare are obsolete, or at least require drastic revision,\n and already, at the end of the worst war in history, the spectre of the\n next conflict haunts the celebrations of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Back to the History Index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Back to the World Socialist Movement home page<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
October 1945, U.K. Another date has been added to History’s gruesome chronology of horror. Hiroshima, August 5th 1945, marks the application of a new technique in the sordid science of slaughter. In one catastrophic flash a city has been destroyed and “all life seared to death”. While the monument of dust still towered above the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2655,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1082","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2654,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1082\/revisions\/2654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}