The New Nation - Internet Edition

PAUL Warfield Tibbets Jr, the man who dropped the first nuclear bomb in the history of war, died recently at the age of 92. He dropped into the morning of August 6, 1945-the nuclear bomb nicknamed 'Little Boy' on Hiroshima killing about 140,000 people on the spot. Three days later another nuclear bomb called 'Fat Man' was dropped on Nagasaki, another Japanese city. But this was not the end of the story. The nuclear bombs generated radiation, the like of which was never witnessed by mankind, subjected innocent people to benumbing and many other incurable diseases. The death of Tibbets reminds the world people of the tragic incidents of the nuclear bombing.

Those incidents of atomic bombing hastened the Japanese surrender in the Far East ensuring end of the World War II and the victory of the Allied Forces. Adolph Hitler, the German dictator, instigated racialism to motivate the German nation for their total solidarity with his war programme. In an attempt to avenge the humiliation the German nation was subjected to in the aftermath of the WWI, he unleashed the greatest of wars on the earth and brought about immeasurable sufferings for mankind. However, political and economic factors also played a very significant role in the outbreak of the war.

The WWII ended but Europe, in particular, witnessed a period of cold war during the sixties of the last century. The world turned bipolar with the former USSR at one pole and the USA on the other. But after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the present-day world has become unipolar with the United States enjoying unilateral hegemony over the world. Now, the USA along with its allies has been waging wars on a regional basis. As a reaction to hegemonistic manoeuvrings of the world power, the danger of the emergence of desperate forces as Al Qaeda would always be there. In a period when several powers possess nuclear bombs, there may be further proliferation of nuclear weapons. The consequence of such development would simply be disastrous. This might escalate another nuclear warfare and put the existence of the earth at stake. So, it is high time that the big powers came to their senses and refrained from creating fields for the rise of such forces.

The winners of WWII, especially the USA, might have had considered the use of nuclear bombs appropriate and unavoidable for forcing Axis Powers to concede defeat and thus ending the war. But in view of unimaginable scale of damage and destruction of lives and properties, nuclear bombs must never be used again. Proliferation and use of these bombs must, therefore, be stopped forever. Only a world free from big power rivalries can ensure a permanent ban on nuclear weapons. Nuclear proliferation, we believe, should give way to eradication of poverty, hunger and disease from the face of the earth. The world must be made one of lasting peace and justice.