The Nagasaki Principle

As a follow-up to the post this morning, you won't regret checking out this article from James Carroll in the Boston Globe, The Nagasaki Principle. Here's the first graph:

"Today is the anniversary of what did not happen. Sixty-one years ago Sunday, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The scale of nuclear devastation was apparent at once. The next day, no decision was made to call off the bombing of Nagasaki. Why? Historians debate the justification of the Hiroshima attack, but there is consensus that Nagasaki, coming less than three days later, was tragically unnecessary. President Harry Truman's one order to use the atomic bomb, given on July 25, established a momentum that was not stopped."

This phenomenon of "momentum" is a brilliant theory, especially as it pertains to foreign and military policy. Momentum carries us to places where we don't assume responsibility for our actions, both before and after the fact. I'm reminded of Abu Ghraib, or those soldiers who killed and raped innocent Iraqis. See what the War on Terrorism yields? And without stopping and examining the moral consequences of these policies, we just stoke the disasters to come.

I'll go back to something I raised this morning, about why people forget about Nagasaki. Perhaps the fact that it didn't have to happen leaves us uncomfortable...so uncomfortable, it's just easier to ignore it, or ignore that a full three days took place between Hiroshima and Nagasaki.