63 years ago today...

On this date 63 years ago the U.S. dropped its secret weapon, the atomic bomb, on Hiroshima, Japan.


Three days later they dropped their other atomic bomb on Nagasaki, which led directly to the end of the war with Japan.


Those bombings by the U.S. are still the only times that nuclear devices have been used on civilian populations. Except for when the U.S. used nukes on its own people.


As told in The Day We Bombed Utah by John G. Fuller, atomic testing was done until the late 1950s in Nevada. Above ground blasts were held until the prevailing winds were blowing over Southern Utah, a "low yield" segment of the population.

Andy's Atomic Adventure is a propaganda comic book put out at the time. You can read the whole thing at the Hairy Green Eyeball blog. "Hey, kids! Getting radioactive fallout on you isn't all that bad! Your government can be trusted. Nuclear testing is in your best interest. We know what we're doing." We caught on to that lie, but it wasn't the first lie our government has told us, and won't be the last. For some reason they seem to find it necessary to lie to us a lot. At this point who can trust anything they say?

Today, August 6, is a day we should step back and remember that people, all of them innocent of any wrongdoing except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, have died from the use of nuclear weapons, in war and in peace.