Thousands of people in Japan marked the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. 140,000 were dead by the end of 1945 from blast and radiation, with a similar toll from the Nagasaki bombing three days after. The Japanses count the Hiroshima toll now as standing at 242,000. Neither the argument that it was not inherently more heinous than the impact of conventional weaponry such as the firebombing of Dresden nor the argument that it saved lives by shortening the war justify the unleasing of nuclear terror in these first and only uses of atomic weaponry against human targets. Hiroshima Day should stand as a ‘day of infamy’ just as we consider Pearl Harbor Day to be; Americans need to remember it with as much awe, revulsion and resolve as the Japanese do.

Related: Weblogger Susan Kitchens remembers too. She is ‘blogging like it’s 1945’, chronicling the dawn of the age of atomic war as if the events were happening now in realtime, just displaced by 60 years. (2020 Hindsight)