Another unembedded (with the Empire's ruling class) journalist from Australia (now living in London) reports on the truth about another man-made, but this time, intentional disaster--one of history's worst war crimes.
The most enduring lie is that the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war in the Pacific and save lives. "Even without the atomic bombing attacks," concluded the United States Strategic Bombing Survey of 1946, "air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion. Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that ... Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."This particular article does not go on to explain the likely reasons US used this weapon against an already defeated Japan. The arch-nemesis for the US ruling class remained the Soviet Union. WWII was about inter-imperial capitalist rivalries. Having beaten their rivals, the US Empire's ruling class was even more eager to assert dominance over its primary enemy, the Soviet Union even though they were "allies" in this war.
They remained obsessed by the threat of a system and a power that prevented capitalist penetration. You can see this obsession played out immediately after the end of that war by examining the events related to the US occupation of southern Korea. This history remains mostly hidden, but it can be accessed by reading a difficult-to-find, but brilliant book entitled, The Origins of the Korean War, V1 by Bruce Cumings.
The use of the atomic bomb in Japan illustrates the criminal, anti-human mindset of the Empire's ruling class whose power and wealth depend upon force and dominance. They have continued to threaten other adversaries with the weapon since then. See this.