The Potsdam Declaration- a prayer

This declaration made on 26 July 1945 demanded the unconditional surrender of Japan and warned of “prompt and utter destruction,”….

It was followed by not one but two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because the Japanese government would not surrender unconditionally …. (sound familiar?) .

There were warnings of devastating bombings but no specific mention of nuclear bombs or their devastating power.

Japanese forces had already been defeated in all areas except the Japanese home islands themselves. There had been devastating bombings of Japanese cities. Firebombs in Tokyo had already killed 80, 000 and left over a million people homeless.

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” seems to be a clear statement preceding another nuclear bombing.

There can be no justification for strategic attacks with nuclear bombs ever, yet we have a madman threatening just that. Trump cannot control his mouth, why should we believe he will control his finger?

Who will be next to justify their own nuclear bombings: Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, India, … Russia?

Now we know why there has been a purge of the US military command with appointment of a Hegseth stooge as Chief of Staff. Who is left to resist power crazy madmen?

I feel ill when I consider that for a number of years I have regarded the US as a bastion of democracy and the western civilisation. Now I see it as a barbaric global bully with no political control over its governance and armed forces.

The Great Satan indeed!

At least, Trump may have taught all countries to review their dependencies and promote self sufficiency as far as possible …. and not to forget to maintain strong and effective armed forces.

Just to remind you:

Immediate Aftermath of a nuclear bomb.

  • Blast Wave: An intense pressure wave crushes buildings, with 5 psi overpressure destroying most residential structures, leveling everything for kilometers.
  • Thermal Radiation: The intense heat instantly vaporizes human tissue, causes severe burns, and ignites massive firestorms.
  • Immediate Death/Injury: Tens of thousands are killed instantly or severely wounded by flying debris and burns.
  • Infrastructure Failure: Hospitals, power grids, and communication systems are destroyed, preventing emergency response.

Short-Term and Long-Term Effects

  • Radioactive Fallout: Radioactive dust and debris fall downwind, creating deadly contamination zones that make areas uninhabitable for years.
  • Radiation Sickness: Survivors face acute radiation syndrome (nausea, hair loss, bleeding) and long-term health issues.
  • Cancer and Chronic Disease: Survivors experience significantly higher rates of cancers, leukemia, and chronic diseases like cataracts and heart disease.
  • Reproductive/Genetic Damage: High rates of miscarriage and birth defects, including intellectual disabilities in children exposed in utero, were observed in previous bombings.

Global Consequences

  • Environmental Damage: A large-scale nuclear exchange could cause a “nuclear winter,” with smoke blocking the sun, disrupting ecosystems and global food production.
  • Famine: The disruption of food supply could cause mass starvation, putting over a billion people at risk of famine worldwide.
  • Economic Collapse: Infrastructure destruction on a massive scale would likely cause the total collapse of modern economic systems.

Please don’t do it.

The paradox of Remembrance

My cousin recently admired a wreath of white poppies placed by veterans for peace – a thought provoking demonstration.

Every year on Poppy Day I remember friends who died futilely in a colonial bush war and those scarred and embittered for life by the perfidy of Albion and the ever changing values of human kind in that little war.

I remember the father of a friend who some twenty years after ceasefire, succumbed to his anguish over his survival but his tank crew’s incineration at El Alamein.

I am moved to tears by the tributes and honour and respect shown by people of the world at the tombs of countless unknown warriors and ponder on the glory of war.

What jarred me this year as I read Facebook tributes for ancestors with the echoes of Last Post ringing in my ears, was this one: In memory of my grandfather, Arthur Imaginary, machine gunner 2nd Batt Intrepids, died 15 Mar 1915.

I wondered how many widows and orphans were the harvest of granddad’s machine gun.

…and this is only one side!

Talk about yin and yang: we glorify and honour someone while others mourn his military proficiency.

In every war, all soldiers are told God is on their side – I don’t think God takes side, S/He just keeps score. Surely priests know that?

My scepticism is also aroused by the coincident utility of military honour for all the -isms and -ists and -iots.

The iron duty imposed by the popular poem is hard to deny:

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I am the product of generations of soldiers; my father, uncles, grandfathers and my son all served in wars in distant lands.

I cannot deny that I believe in and admire soldiers. I guess that means I can’t believe that people can live in peace.

In Flanders fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

Oh so many…

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872–1918)

Our world shrinks as we age

I mourn the passing of an icon in my life today.
Energy and efficiency and focus were his middle names. Fast, impatient and so competent.
I bet he chastened his surgeon about the workings of his pacemaker and circulatory system that failed him!
catch-fishAnd generous with his skills and abilities, especially with his bumbling brothers in law.
What a fisherman! And a sailor who instilled a love of the sea and sailing.

That’s 3 brothers in law I have lost in recent years. Good men, generous and competent engineers, all of them. Heaven will be much improved!

We mourn the circle of life as we enter winter.
But a new Spring will come – different, somehow smaller, but renewed and growing new shoots and flowers.

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.” – Rabindranath Tagore