Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 230

Bezos a Libertarian?

David Remnick at The New Yorker with a good piece on the Amazon CEO buying the Wash Post.  But quite a ways into it we hear about his mysterious politics:  has donated to only a few candidates (even Pat Leahy), mainly far-flung Democrats, big funder for gay rights, major First Amendment guy, and so forth.  But Reason calls him an out-and-out  "libertarian" and says he has donated heavily to their foundation.  So we'll see.

American POWs Died at Hiroshima

The deaths have been known for awhile but the reports still shock most people.  I've written about it for years, in my book Atomic Cover-up and in this article from last year. Few Americans know that among the tens of thousands victims in Hiroshima were at least a dozen and perhaps more American prisoners of war. This was kept from the American people—even the families of the victims—for decades, along with so much else related to the atomic bombings (that's one victim, John Hantschel, at left).  One night,  as a pair screamed in pain in their cells—asking to be put out of their misery—the other Americans asked the Japanese doctors to do something. “Do something?” one of the doctors replied. “You tell me what to do. You caused this.” The two men died later that night.

Three days after the Hiroshima blast, perhaps as many as a dozen Dutch POWs were killed in the bombing of Nagasaki. One American soldier there, a Navajo from New Mexico, survived in his cell.

A Small Mound in Hiroshima

My latest piece at The Nation recounts my visit inside the Memorial Mound in Hiroshima, perhaps the most telling site in the entire city, where the ashes of 70,000 are kept for eternity--mixed together in pine boxes and in tiny canisters on shelves, still unidentified to this day.  Killed in a flash, the first high-tech massacre. 

Also see my recent book Atomic Cover-up , my piece at The Nation on that, and my popular brief video below.

68 Years Ago Truman Opened the Nuclear Era--With a Lie

My new piece at The Nation.   On the day the "countdown to Hiroshima" ended.

Shooting at Town Meeting

Three killed and four wounded at a town meeting in small eastern Pennsylvania village.  Will check on possibly controversies that might have sparked it, none known so far.  Gunman in custody. Saylorsburg.  Gunman fired through wall, with automatic weapon, then at random people--went out to car to re-load and tackled when returned to kill more. Full account here.

No idea yet if connected but tiny Saylorsburg just last month drew many protesters to home of a controversial Turkish cleric accused of trying to turn Turkey into an Islamist state--and allegedly bring "sharia law" to the U.S. via charter schools connected to the Gulen movement. UPDATE from AP:  "State police in Lehighton confirm three people are dead and say the gunman had an ongoing dispute with township officials over the possible condemnation of his property."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/05...

Death Row Inmate in Ohio Commits Suicide

An inmate on Death Row in Ohio committed suicide over the weekend just days before his scheduled execution--not knowing that a new appeal had been filed offering at least a chance for a stay in his execution.  (See my book  on the sad history of capital punishment in the U.S. up to the present day.) 

Werneke said she and Wilhelm prepared an appeal to file with the Ohio Supreme Court seeking to halt the execution based on the new information. McGinty’s office agreed not to oppose the request for a stay, Werneke said. But his attorneys never got to give Slagle the news.

McGinty’s office advocated at his clemency hearing that the killer be given life without the possibility of parole, reasoning that the crime, under today’s law, would not be considered punishable by death.

Slagle hanged himself with an item from his cell, but prison officials wouldn’t say what he used

First of the Baseball PED Suspensions Announced

UPDATE:  ARod penalty comes down, through end of next year, 211 games.  He is appealing, with arbitrator.  Scheduled to play tonight for Yankees, apparently "in the best interests of the game."  John Kruk on ESPN just said every single player he has talked to glad players suspended and wants no defense of players.  Unlike some sportswriter who claim to speak for players and union who back ARod playing while arbitration goes on.  Check out MLB statement:

Rodriguez's discipline under the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program is based on his use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including Testosterone and human Growth Hormone, over the course of multiple years. Rodriguez's discipline under the Basic Agreement is for attempting to cover-up his violations of the Program by engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct and frustrate the Office of the Commissioner's investigation.

Earlier:  Word emerging slowly.  A few surprises:  Bartolo Colon and Melky Cabrera get off, having served 50 games suspension based on prevous wrongdoing.   Jordany Valdespin of the Mets a new name to get penalized.  Nelson Cruz, Johnny Peralta, Jesus Montero and Everth Cabrera among the bigger names to accept the 50 games off, rather than fighting it.   Also, Yankees' injured catcher Francisco Cervelli.  No word for sure yet on ARod but presumably he will fight suspension to cover all of this year and next.  Anyone else fighting it?  Gio Gonzalez cleared.

Obama Breaks Mold on Marking Hiroshima

Sensitive to world opinion about the use of atomic weapons against Japan in 1945, no American president has ever visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki while in office. Except for Dwight D. Eisenhower, the former general, none of them has expressed any misgivings about the use of the bombs in 1945. Shortly after becoming president, however, Barack Obama took the surprising step of at least expressing a desire to go to the two cities.

Then, in 2011, for the first time, a US ambassador to Japan, John Roos, attended the annual August 6 commemoration in Hiroshima. And in 2011, for the first time ever, the United States sent an official representative to the annual memorial service in Nagasaki—the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Tokyo, James P. Zumwalt. He read a statement from Obama expressing hope to work with Japan for a world without nuclear weapons, a goal the president expressed early in his term but has made little progress on achieving.  “I was deeply moved,” Zumwalt told reporters after attending the ceremony. “Japan and the United States have the common vision for a world free of nuclear weapons, so it is important that the two countries make efforts to realize it.”

Naturally, many conservatives accused Obama of "apologizing" for Truman dropping the bomb. 

This year, Roos will again attend the Hiroshima memorial--meaning this has truly become a new tradition, at least under this president.  Next year, it appears, Caroline Kennedy will do the honors, with her special link to a former president.

While many Japanese hail the US moves, some of the survivors of the bombing and their ancestors are skeptical. Katsumi Matsuo, who lost her mother in the attack, told the Mainichi Shimbun in 2011, “What is the point in him coming now, after 66 years? His visit will only be meaningful if it promotes a world free of nuclear weapons.”

Still, Obama has broken a sad record of total denial, which has accompanied the suppression of key evidence about the effects of the bombings (as chronicled in my new book and e-book Atomic Cover-up) dating back to the 1940s.

Of course, there was no way President Truman was going to make that visit, even telling an aide, after leaving the White House, that while he might meet with survivors of the bombing in the United States, he would “not kiss their asses.” President Eisenhower did not visit the atomic cities, but he famously expressed displeasure with the use of the bombs in 1945, saying we shouldn’t have hit Japan “with that awful thing.” Richard Nixon came to Hiroshima before becoming president.

Reflecting on the visit in a 1985 interview with Roger Rosenblatt, he said the bombings saved lives, but noted that General Douglas MacArthur had told him it was a “tragedy” that the weapon was used against “noncombatants.”

Jimmy Carter visited Hiroshima after leaving office but did not take part in any ceremony or comment afterward. Ronald Reagan also invoked the notion that the bombings actually saved lives. When protests from conservatives and some veterans groups caused first the censorship, then shutdown, of a full exploration of the atomic bombings at the Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC, in 1995, President Clinton backed the suppression.

So two cheers for Obama for at least marking what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Next step: an honest American reappraisal of the bombings and real progress on nuclear abolition.

Note: Last year, President Harry S Truman’s grandson, Clifton Truman Daniel, became the first kin of the president (son of his daughter) to step foot in one of the two cities he ordered destroyed in August 1945, killing over 200,000, the vast majority civilians. Four days before the annual commemoration, he toured the city and exhibits in the Peace Museum and met with survivors who seemed pleased, while pointing out they still held his granddad in low esteem.

Then on the morning of August 6--late on August 5 in the U.S.--he took part in the annual official ceremony in Hiroshima's Peace Park (which I attended back in1984). He told journalists that it was hard to listen to the tragic stories of the survivors but he was glad he did it to gain a wider appreciation of the effects (and in some cases, after-effects) of his grandfather's action. Japanese leaders made their annual pleas for antinuclear policies, with growing emphasis on the nuclear power aspects after the Fukushima disaster.

Daniel said he did not second-guess Truman’s decision, offering the usual bromides about no-good-decisions in war. He should be congratulated for at least making the trip, but his name might he Denial, not Daniel. Some no-good decisions are worse than others. 

Countdown to Hiroshima for August 6, 1945: Bomb Ready, on a Wing and a Prayer

Each summer I count down the days to the atomic bombing of Japan (August 6 and August 9, 1945),  marking events from the same day in 1945.  I've been doing it here for more than two weeks now.    I've written  three books and ebooks on the subject:  Hiroshima in America (with Robert Jay Lifton),  Atomic Cover-Up (on the decades-long suppression of shocking film shot in the atomic cities by the U.S. military),  and Hollywood Bomb   (the wild story of how an MGM 1947 epic was censored by the military and Truman himself).

August 5, 1945:

—Pilot Paul Tibbets formally named the lead plane in the mission, #82, after his mother, Enola Gay. A B-29 that would take photos on the mission would be named Necessary Evil.

—Also on Tinian, Little Boy is ready to go, awaiting word on weather, with General Curtis LeMay to make the call. At 3:30 p.m., in an air-conditioned bomb assembly hut, the five-ton bombias loaded (gently) on to a trailer. Crew members scribbled words onto the bomb in crayon, including off-color greetings for the Japanese. Pulled by a tractor, accompanied by a convoy of jeeps and other vehicles, the new weapon arrives at the North Field and is lowered into the bomb pit.

--The bomb is still not armed. The man who would do, before takeoff, according to plan, was Parsons. But he had other ideas, fearing that the extra-havy B-29 might crash on takeoff and taking with it “half the island.” He asked if he could arm the bomb in flight, and spent a few hours—on a hot and muggy August day—practicing before getting the okay.

—Pilot Tibbets tries to nap, without much success. Then, in the assembly hall just before midnight, he tells the crew, that the new bomb was “very powerful” but he did not mention the words “nuclear,” “atomic’ or “radiation.” He calls forward a Protestant chaplain who delivers a prayer he’d written for this occasion on the back of an envelope. It asks God to “to be with those who brave the heights of Thy heaven and who carry the battle to our enemies.”

 —Hiroshima remains the primary target, with Kokura #2 and Nagasaki third. The aiming point was directly over the city, not the military base or industrial quarter, guaranteeing the deaths of tens of thousands of women and children.

— The Soviets are two days from declaring war on Japan and marching across Manchuria. (See new evidence that it was the Soviet declaration of war, more than the atomic bombing, that was the decisive factor in Japan's surrender.)

 —Halfway around the world from Tinian, on board the ship Augusta steaming home for the USA after the Potsdam meeting, President Truman relaxes. Truman’s order to use the bomb had simply stated that it could be used any time after August 1 so he had nothing to do but watch and wait. The order included the directive to use a second bomb, as well, without a built-in pause to gauge the results of the first and the Japanese response—even though the Japanese were expected, by Truman and others, to push surrender feelers, even without the bomb, with Russia’s entry into the war on August 7.

They Did It Her Way

Nancy Sinatra joined Wilco to sing her classic "These Boots Are Made for Walking," as part of the Dylan "Americana" tour in California.   An here's Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes on touring with Bob.