Eighty-one years ago, the US war machine incinerated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of civilians—workers, women, children, and the elderly—were killed by these acts of mass murder, the only wartime use of nuclear weapons in history.
Eighty-one years ago, the US war machine incinerated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of civilians—workers, women, children, and the elderly—were killed by these acts of mass murder, the only wartime use of nuclear weapons in history.
Eighty years have passed since the United States, under the administration of President Truman, committed one of the most barbaric crimes against humanity – on August 6th in Hiroshima and a few days later, on August 9th in Nagasaki – by dropping the atomic bomb resulting to hundreds of thousands victims and many more in the following years due to the radioactivity effects.
The explosion of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki – crimes which should never be forgotten - demonstrated to the world the ruthless nature of U.S. imperialism and the terrible and devastating consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. The U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945) were calculated demonstrations of imperialist power aimed not just at Japan but at the Soviet Union and the global communist movement.
The actual aim of the imperialist crime was to intimidate the peoples, to send a “message” to the Soviet Union and to the rising communist movement, as World War II had in fact already ended and the use of nuclear weapons didn’t play a role in its outcome.
Furthermore, the IOC decided not to call on athletes and officials to have a moment of silence during the Games at Olympic venues and elsewhere on August 6th, the day when the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb in Hiroshima 76 years ago.
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| Demonstrators in Athens. |