by Walter E. Block (January 2024)
The latest attack on Israel’s entirely justified war-time policy to eradicate Hamas comes from a very different quarter than previously: from Japan. Well, actually, from the US treatment of that country, at the end of World War II. More specifically, from the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What is going on here? Has the IDF been employing any nuclear weapons on Gaza? No. Of course not. What is going on here is an attempt to criticize this US military record and to liken it, by analogy, to the present Israeli bombing of Gaza, the purpose of which is to neutralize, eliminate, Hamas as a savage, unconscionable force.
However, this effort to besmirch the Israeli defensive war against Hamas by likening it to US action which we will assume unjustified, at least arguendo, fails. There are gigantic differences between what the US undertook in 1945 and the conduct of the IDF in the modern era.
First of all, and foremost, a case can be made, at least arguendo, that the US initiated war against the Japanese by setting up a naval blockade against that island nation. A blockade is an act of war. According to some historians, the Japanese pleaded for peace with the US, but to no avail. In very, very, very sharp contrast, on October 7, 2023, a date that will live forever in the annals of bestial crimes, it was Hamas that attacked Israel, not the other way around. It hit them below the belt, way below the belt. Did the Palestinians have grievances? Some people claim this to be the case. But this in no way justified that despicable attack against helpless Israeli women and children. The US, we are now stipulating, was the aggressor against Japan; Hamas invaded Israel without any doubt whatsoever.
Then, there is the fact that the Japanese were ready to surrender, at that time. They specifically offered to do so, but not unconditionally; they wanted to keep their emperor in place, according to many historians. Has Hamas made even a slight move in the direction of surrender? To ask this is to answer it. Have they offered to capitulate on the condition that none of them be put to death for their heinous crimes on October 7, 2023? Not a bit of it. Not a scintilla. There is some controversy as to whether or not the Japanese were ready to surrender before the atom bombs. There can be no question that, at least at the time of the present writing, when Israeli bombs are raining down on Gaza, that there is even the slightest evidence of any such willingness on the part of these vicious murderers.
The Japanese held no hostages, Hamas still does. Would the US have ceased military operations against Japan had the latter held any hostages? Of course not. To even consider this possibility is outside of the realm of reality. Why, then, should the Israeli Air Force cease and desist from its defensive activities?
The Japanese attacked a military base in Pearl Harbor; Hamas pounced on civilians. Say what you will about the former, it cannot be equated with the latter. There is a low rung in hell for those who purposefully brutalize helpless women and children. Stipulate that the Japanese were wrong in their raid, arguendo. It still comes nowhere near the level of evil perpetrated by Hamas. There is a world of difference between soldiers fighting each other and them preying on the helpless.
The Japanese did not hide behind their own civilians; Hamas does. Is there any other military, besides the Arab, that engages in this contemptable practice? If so, they must be rare indeed.
Atom bombs cannot distinguish between the innocent and the guilty; IDF bombs can do so. This organization drops leaflets, warnings, in an attempt to save as many civilian enemy lives as possible from collateral damage. Is there any other military organization that engages in any such conduct? None comes to mind. Certainly the US did no such thing before its atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Yes, it is horrid that innocent Gazans perish as a result of the present Israeli bombings of that territory. Any child under the age of 10, and there are indeed many there, is to be presumed innocent. They are collateral damage, and this is to be greatly regretted. But the IDF practice is a defensive one. Without it, that country would be subjected to future October 7, 2023 depredations.
These present deaths are all the fault of Hamas; they are to be attributed to them alone, not to Israel. If these evil human beings were to surrender, the IDF bombings would cease immediately. Those deaths, then, are to be attributed to this terrorist organization. No resort to the US treatment of Japan can counteract this primordial fact.
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Walter E. Block is Harold E. Wirth Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, and senior fellow at the Mises Institute. He earned his PhD in economics at Columbia University in 1972. He has taught at Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook, Baruch CUNY, Holy Cross and the University of Central Arkansas. He is the author of more than 600 refereed articles in professional journals, three dozen books, and thousands of op eds (including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and numerous others). He lectures widely on college campuses, delivers seminars around the world and appears regularly on television and radio shows. He is the Schlarbaum Laureate, Mises Institute, 2011; and has won the Loyola University Research Award (2005, 2008) and the Mises Institute’s Rothbard Medal of Freedom, 2005; and the Dux Academicus award, Loyola University, 2007. Prof. Block counts among his friends Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard. He was converted to libertarianism by Ayn Rand. Block is old enough to have played chess with Friedrich Hayek and once met Ludwig von Mises, and shook his hand. Block has never washed that hand since. So, if you shake his hand (it’s pretty dirty, but what the heck) you channel Mises.
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One Response
No, Sir. You are mistaken. Leaflets aplenty, warning Japanese civilians of upcoming U.S. bombings, were dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki.
Have a look:
https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/key-documents/warning-leaflets/