by Scott Ott
(2005-08-06) -- Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima marked the 60th anniversary of the first use of nuclear weapons in war by celebrating the end of the totalitarian rule of Emperor Hirohito, whose blind ambition caused 1.5 million Japanese military casualities and some 672,000 civilian casualities.
The hibakusha, or bomb-affected persons, issued a statement condemning totalitarianism and urging people who now live in dictatorships to "bring down their own governments before some outside force must do so for the good of the world."
"Each year at this time we usually gather to call for nuclear disarmament," said an unnamed Hiroshima survivor, "but with age comes wisdom. We now realize that despite its horrors, the atomic bomb was a life-saving device that ushered in a new era of Japanese freedom and prosperity. If the American president had not intervened, Hirohito would have squeezed the blood out of our people to the last drop."
The survivors' statement urged the United Nations to "learn the lesson of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and thus give up the delusion that dictators will bend to reason, bribes, half-measures or concessions."
The hibakusha called on the U.N. to "rise up and live out the true meaning of its charter: collective preemptive action to ensure peace by removing threats to peace."
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