INDIA AND PAKISTAN
THE NUCLEAR SHADOW
Note for WoP readers: My current post is based on a column in Urdu. The writer has been one of those op-editors of a daily whom I have been reading since my youth. [In those days he used to write for Nawai Waqt which was the leading Urdu daily in this part of Pakistan. I don’t know how does it rank now vis-à-vis Jang but in those days it was the leading daily indeed]. Ever since I started reading his first column in Nawai Waqt I almost got addicted to it. In particular what I always loved in his writing has been his style especially for the Punjabi words which he incorporates so beautifully in his “salees” Urdu that they almost become natural part of his Urdu writings. Another aspect which endears me to his columns is that special touch of humor he so articulately puts into his writing. Nowadays when we mostly read almost every other day news on drone bombings, suicide attacks, load shedding, sugar shortages and other such horrible things, he brings us every morning something which sometimes makes you smile and many time makes you burst into a laughter.
But his present column is quite opposite to what he normally writes. It’s a very serious and indeed a highly dangerous matter too. However, instead of me taking you further into what he thinks on this, I would suggest you directly reach his column and think again some thing. [See for yourself], is it really that unthinkable? [Nayyar]
Ata-ul-Haq Qami is a noted Urdu columnist. In one of his recent column, he writes:
“Its 6th of August 1945. After a successful bombing of Japanese industrial city and a principal military town [Hiroshima] Enola Gay has safely landed at the Tinian airbase. A large gathering has assembled to greet the plane crew. Included in the gathering are Gen.’s Spaatz and Lemay.
Right: Bust of Gen.Carl Andrew Spaatz, the US General and the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. (Source: Wikipedia
On 11th of March, 1945 Spaatz assumed command of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific as part of the Pacific Theatre of Operations. It was from this command, in July 1945 that Spaatz directed the strategic bombing of Japan, including the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Curtis Emerson LeMay was also a general of the United States Air Force. He is credited with designing and implementing an effective, but also controversial, systematic strategic bombing campaign in the Pacific theater of World War II. During the war, he was known for planning and executing a massive bombing campaign against cities in Japan. After war, he reorganized the Strategic Air Command (SAC) into an instrument of nuclear war. Source: Wikipedia
A ceremony is held to celebrate the successful attack on Hiroshima. Col Paul Tibbets who led the Gay mission and piloted the plane is decorated with a medal. Gen. Spaatz eulogizes the services of the Gay crew. President Harry S. Truman who is on board the USS Augusta on his way from Potsdam to Washington gets the news while on ship. The president speaks to sailors. His face is gleaming with joy. “We should reach America as soon as possible. This is a great moment in history”, says the president.
The president was of course right, for prior to Hiroshima bombing, the history never had seen such a ‘great’ moment in history; of wanton barbarism on humanity on such a vast scale.
The same evening the White House issued a press release which described the making of the atom bomb as a great success in the history and that it was the US that had achieved that unique and solitary success. The first bomb had been dropped on a Japanese city Hiroshima. Now if Japan didn’t surrender, said the press release, it would face a rain of ruin from the skies that would have no parallel in history.
Let us see now how this day the 6th of August, 1945 the city looked like:
The sun rose into a clear blue sky over the city of Hiroshima, promising a warm and pleasant day. Nothing in the day's dawning indicated that this day would be any different from its predecessors. But this day would be different, very different. This day would change the world. On this day a single bomb dropped by a single airplane would destroy the city, leading to the end of World War II and introducing mankind to the Atomic Age.
At 8:15 a.m. local time, the Enola Gay dropped Little Boy onto Hiroshima. Just 43 seconds later it exploded 1,900 feet above the city. “Then the brilliant morning sunlight was slashed by a more brilliant white flash. … From the men who had rung up the curtain on a new era in history burst nothing more original than an awed ‘My God!,’” wrote Time.
Nearly five square miles, over 60 percent of the developed city, was destroyed. “All around, I found dead and wounded,” described one Japanese official. “Some were bloated and scorched—such an awesome sight, their legs and bodies stripped of clothes and burned with a huge blister. All green vegetation, from grasses to trees, perished in that period.”
Nearly five square miles, over 60 percent of the developed city, was destroyed. “All around, I found dead and wounded,” described one Japanese official. “Some were bloated and scorched—such an awesome sight, their legs and bodies stripped of clothes and burned with a huge blister. All green vegetation, from grasses to trees, perished in that period.”
“I cannot bear to see my innocent people suffer any longer,” declared Emperor Hirohito before the Japanese Supreme Council. “Ending the war is the only way to restore world peace and to relieve the nation from the terrible distress with which it is burdened.”
Continued...Page 2 3 Next
YOUR COMMENT IS
IMPORTANT
DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE
POWER OF YOUR COMMENT
Wonders of
Pakistan supports freedom of expression
and this commitment extends to our readers as well. Constraints however, apply
in case of a violation of WoP Comments
Policy. We also moderate hate 
No comments:
Post a Comment