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Kathmandu Saturday August 11, 2001 Shrawan 27, 2058.
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Nuclear
menace
The A-bomb nicknamed Fat Man flattened
Nagashaki 56 years ago killing over 74 thousand people instantly. On August 6, 1945 the US
Air Force had dropped a similar bomb on Hiroshima. That claimed more than one hundred and
forty thousand lives, besides reducing the city to rubble. The dropping of the atom bombs
on Japan during the closing days of World War Two ushered in the age of nuclear conflict,
and notions of balance of terror and nuclear deterrence in relations among the great
powers. The rights and wrongs of Hiroshima/Nagasaki may never be settled conclusively.
Though widely condemned on humanitarian grounds America has defended its use of the atomic
option as a fast track to Japanese surrender and peace in the Pacific theatre. There is
also the unstated feeling that Japan got what it deserved for its rampant militarism
during the l930s and early 40s. Interestingly the atomic bomb museum in Hiroshima does not
so much as hint through any of its many exhibits that the nuclear punishment was
undeserved. Perhaps it is not in the Japanese character to seek pity or commiseration. But
it is more likely there is a sense of collective guilt. Be that as it may, Japan remembers
the two A-bomb drops every year and pledges itself anew towards complete elimination of
nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the international outrage against nuclear weapons has
never attained critical mass. Unfortunately also, even within Japan, repentance for past
militarism is not total, as indicated by disputes with neighbouring countries over the way
Japanese school textbooks gloss over the war and by the annual homage paid by Japan’s
prime ministers at a controversial Shinto shrine honouring Japanese war dead.
The nuclear age has willy nilly come to our own
part of the world. Nepal is sandwiched between the two giant neighbours with nuclear
capability and a third nuclear power has only recently emerged in the neighbourhood. The
Kargil mini-war of 1999 between India and Pakistan would have turned nuclear, had the US
not prevailed upon Pakistan to withdraw. Had the nuclear trigger been pulled, not only
would Nepalese manhood serving in the Indian army been caught up in the holocaust but our
country would have been down wind from the nuclear fallout. To give the devil his due,
nuclear weaponry has helped maintain a balance of terror in the world and an uneasy peace.
The flip side is when one country goes nuclear it compels a rival power to do likewise and
so on down the line U S nuclear capability predicated similar capability for the then USSR
and that in turn made China go nuclear. Next to follow this logic were India and Pakistan.
So there is no putting the nuclear genie back in the bottle. The only real hope is in
treaties and agreements against first use of nuclear weaponry or use against non nuclear
powers. A modicum of progress has been made in this area. Nepal for its part has been
protesting the use of nuclear weapons ever since China entered the nuclear club. When
India conducted nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998, incidently on dates which fell on the
birth anniversary of Lord Buddha, apostle of peace, Nepal again protested. And we must
keep on protesting out of conscience even if there is little hope of any practical result.
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