The hostilities of the Second World War in the Asian and Pacific theater of operations concluded on August 6, 1945 with the explosion of an airborne atomic bomb that the United States dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb killed 80,000 human beings. In 1950, the figure of dead reached 200,000 because of the after-effects of nuclear radiation.

A few days later, a second atomic bomb, also dropped by Washington, fell on the more-populated Japanese city of Nagasaki and 300,000 people were killed.

In December 1941, the Japanese Empire had occupied a significant part of the coasts of China, Korea and the French colonies in Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) committing atrocities in a great area of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In 1944, Japan attacked Hawaii, a possession of the United States.

The government of Japan was then a military dictatorship –nominally headed by an Emperor– who had crushed all democratic dissent, outlawed the Communist Party, and practiced a very aggressive foreign policy against its neighbors.

But by 1945, Japan was already a defeated empire. It had lost its oil reserves and its naval fleet had been destroyed. Nazi Germany, its biggest ally, had surrendered in May.

In June of that year, the Japanese regime had informed the governments of Sweden, Switzerland and the Soviet Union of its intention to surrender. It had formulated only one condition to negotiate and that was to maintain Emperor Hirohito as the nominal head of state.

Nevertheless, in late 1945, the US government had already decided to make a show of its power and determination to undertake global leadership. They knew they were the only possessors of a new and terrible weapon.

The message would be strong and clear: The US has a terrible weapon and it is willing to use it against any nation that opposes its global dominance.

The then-US President Harry Truman justified the use of the atomic weapon after the genocide: "We used (the bomb) it to shorten the agony of war and in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans."

When informed of the total destruction of Hiroshima by that barbaric crime, the president merely characterized it as "the greatest thing that has happened in history."

From 1945 until today, the US has been manipulating the nuclear issue as a strategic threat for its world domination.

During much of the post-war period, Washington was able to impose on the Soviet Union an expensive arms race into which other new military technologies –such as intercontinental missiles– were incorporated.

Washington, which had ended World War II with less physical damage than other powers –and thus relatively-enriched compared with them– had everything to gain in that race.

The US military budget exceeds the combined military budgets of all other countries in the world. It has also made the total debt of the US government exceed the total external debt of all other countries in the globe.

So far, Washington has been able to avoid the dreadful consequences of the disastrous handling of its economy thanks to the unique privilege of being able to print its own currency. This advantage allows it to delay almost indefinitely the settlement of its huge debt and to transfer its harmful effects to the global economy.

For some decades now, the world has lived worrying about the probable nuclear outcome of the "conflicts" that Washington triggers or raises anywhere in the world aimed at provoking a regime change; imposing a free trade agreement by violent means; crushing so-called “failed” governments and the popular movements that resist the global corporate empire; plundering oil and other resources in the weaker countries, or for other unspeakable purposes.

Although the Cold War ended a quarter of a century ago, nuclear weapons remain at the core of the imperialist strategy.

US military doctrine –evidence of a policy of permanent warfare, aggression and occupation against various countries– seems to be in preparation for a war against Russia and China. This would clearly be global; it would be nuclear; and would mean the end of life on Earth.

August 4, 2015.

- Manuel E. Yepe http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann. http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs4440.html