Was it a war crime when US nuked Hiroshima & Nagasaki?

Paaskynen wrote:

Information about Japanese overtures for peace can be found among others at http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2002/reviews/2943hiroshima.html

A word of advice, Paaskynen: you will help your credibility immensely if you don't cite publications issued by Lyndon Larouche.

Fateful flight: Pilot of Nagasaki atomic attack dies

By CHRISTOPHER WALKER and DIANA SCHOBERG
The Patriot Ledger

MILTON - There was a break in the clouds, and Charles W. Sweeney, a young pilot, changed history.

His B-29 bomber dangerously low on fuel, Sweeney finally captured a glimpse of the target below and delivered the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II. It was the second and last time an atomic weapon had been used, and the Japanese surrendered a few days after the Aug. 9, 1945, bombing.

Sweeney, a retired Air Force general, died Thursday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was 84.

He was a Milton resident and a graduate of North Quincy High School.

Sweeney, whose passion for flying was stoked at the Squantum air field in Quincy, talked frequently about his fateful flight over the years and never spoke of any regrets. He was 25 at the time and had never before dropped a bomb on an enemy target.

?'?'I looked upon it as a duty. I just wanted the war to be over, so we could get back home to our loved ones,'' Sweeney told The Patriot Ledger in a 1995 interview. ?'?'I hope my missions were the last ones of their kind that will ever be flown.''

Sweeney is believed to be the only person to fly in both the Nagasaki bombing and its predecessor, the bombing of Hiroshima three days earlier. He flew an instrument plane accompanying the Enola Gay during the Hiroshima run, and later recalled the bluish-white flash that filled the sky after the bomb's impact.

His own bomber, the Bock's Car, is not as well-known in history, but the bombing was certainly no less harrowing. The flight had fuel problems from the start, and clouds and smoke were covering the mission's primary target, the city of Kokura.

After making several dangerous passes over the city, Sweeney abandoned the city for Nagasaki. Only a break in the clouds allowed the bomb to be dropped, Sweeney said.

?'?'He ended World War II, which changed the course of history,'' Sweeney's son, Joseph said Friday.

?'?'His motto was that the best defense was a strong offense. He was very proud of the United States military and he loved the Marines because they took all the islands for him,'' Joe Sweeney said.

Charles Sweeney came from a family of Marines. Three of his brothers and two sons were in the Marine Corps.

After the bombing, he visited Japan several times and saw the devastation.

?'?'It was a terrible thing to see,'' he told The Patriot Ledger in 1995.

?'?'The city was totally devastated and the few people who were there still seemed stunned by what had happened,'' he said then.

Charles Sweeney wrote the book, ?'?'War's End: An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Mission,'' because of what he called ?'?'cockamamie theories'' that the bombings were unnecessary.

He became an outspoken defender of the bombing, appearing on the television show Larry King and speaking at colleges and universities.

He became a brigadier general in 1956, at the time, the youngest man in the Air Force to reach that rank. He retired in 1976.

Joseph Sweeney said his father loved flying.

?'?'It was his whole life. He always said he was born in the right place at the right time,'' Joseph Sweeney said. ?'?'He was the best. There was no better.''

Christopher Walker may be reached at [email protected].

Reporter Sean Smyth contributed to this story.

Copyright 2004 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Saturday, July 17, 2004

Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba lashed out at U.S. nuclear policies and called on Japan to uphold its pacifist Constitution as the city marked the 59th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima on Friday.

About 45,000 people turned up at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park for the ceremony, in which Akiba presented the city's annual peace declaration.

After highlighting the sense of danger regarding nuclear arms, including the United States' research into miniature nuclear warheads, Akiba declared the year leading up to the 60th anniversary of the bombing as the "Year of Remembrance and Action for a Nuclear-Free World." He set 2020 -- the 75th anniversary of the bombing -- as the time by which all nuclear weapons should be eliminated from the world.

In his peace declaration the mayor called on the government to protect Japan's war-renouncing Constitution.

"The Japanese government, as our representative, should defend the Peace Constitution, of which all Japanese should be proud, and work diligently to rectify the trend toward open acceptance of war and nuclear weapons increasingly prevalent at home and abroad," he said.

Akiba lashed out at the United States, saying the "egocentric worldview of the U.S. government is reaching extremes. Ignoring the United Nations and its foundation of international law, the U.S. has resumed research to make nuclear weapons smaller and more 'usable.' "

He also criticized North Korea for buying into what he described as "nuclear insurance."

At the ceremony the names of 5,142 atomic bomb victims who died during the year were added to a memorial. The number of victims who died as a result of the Aug. 8, 1945 attack now stands at 237,062.

Expressing deep concern at U.S. nuclear policies, Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito made a direct plea to U.S. citizens to join hands and help eliminate nuclear weapons, as the city marked the 59th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki on Monday.

"People of America: The path leading to the eventual survival of the human race unequivocally requires the elimination of nuclear arms. The time has come to join hands and embark upon this path," Ito said in a peace declaration presented at the ceremony.

It was the first time during a peace ceremony that Ito had directly appealed to U.S. citizens. He also criticized the United States' for maintaining about 10,000 nuclear weapons in spite of the International Court of Justices opposition, and condemned what he called a "dependence on nuclear weapons."

"So long as the world's leading superpower fails to change its posture of dependence on nuclear weapons, it is clear that the tide of nuclear proliferation cannot be stemmed," he said.

He also called upon the people of the world to "recognize how scant is the value repeatedly being placed on human life, evidenced by events such as the war in Iraq and outbreaks of terrorism."

In addition, he asked the government of Japan to uphold its pacifist Constitution and enact the threefold non-nuclear principle of not manufacturing, storing or allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons into the country as law.

A total of about 5,400 people, including people exposed to radiation in the Aug. 9, 1945 bombing and bereaved families of victims, gathered for the ceremony, which began at 10:45 a.m. A minute's silence was held at 11:02 a.m., the time the bomb was dropped on the city.

During the ceremony, the Nagasaki municipal government added the names of 2,707 people who died over the past year to its list of atomic bomb victims. The total number of victims of the bombing now stands at 134,592 people.

Masatoshi Tsunenari, the 75-year-old representative of atomic bomb victims, remembered the day of the bombing as he spoke at the ceremony, adding that people could not co-exist with nuclear weapons.

"Through the experiences of that day we will convey to people the value of life and the preciousness of peace," he said.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who attended the ceremony, said he would make efforts to eliminate the world's nuclear arms.

"We will dedicate all our strength to eliminate nuclear weapons without changing our stance of observing the pacifist Constitution," he said.

do unto others as they have done unto you.

Suppose, in an alternative history, that Hitler had gotten his hands on a nuclear weapon and dropped it on Washington or New York with the intent to end the war, would that in any way not have constituted a war crime?