The peace-loving people of the world, therefore, breathed a great sigh of relief at the official end of the World War II on 14 August, 1945, following the history's most catastrophic human disaster at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The victorious allied powers received the bouquets as heroes of peace. But the peace that grew out of Hiroshima's ashes later proved fatal for the world peace and security at large, because it (again) fell into wrong hands. After five decades, the people are bewildered and horrified to see the wrong shadows of the descendants of the WWII peace-angels, being cast on the horizon and looming larger and larger with terrific impact as they ran amok, following the 9/11 terrorism, to kill thousands of innocent people of Afghanistan and Iraq -- one allegedly linked with the US tragedy, and the other falsely charged with possession of WMD.

Asians made guinea-pigs
Hiroshima was given the 'peace-capsule' to paralise Japan militarily for ever. The mighty Nazi forces had surrendered to the allied powers much earlier, following the suicidal death of Adolf Hitler in the ruins of his bunker. So when the sun set in the west, the darkness for the remaining axis power, Japan, in the east was already cast. The allied powers were perhaps in a hurry to call it a day and they went for the most devastating means to end the war quickly with Japan.

And that left the most pricking question that now haunts the minds of the people of the world whether, after the fall of Germany, the use of the devastating atom bomb was at all necessary to kill lakhs of innocent Japanese people? That's why many suspect that two ill motives prompted the allied powers, particularly America. First, to terrorise the Japanese to force their government to surrender. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the first-ever atom bomb was used on experimental basis, to gauge its strength and potentiality. Hiroshima was used as an Asian-lab and the Japanese as 'guinea-pigs'. Strangely enough, the mortal bomb was tested on the Asians at the fag end of the war and not on the Europeans during the prolonged war with Germany and its ally Italy.

In this context, let us have a look at what the world famous historian H G Welles had said, commenting on the Hiroshima bombing: "No single act of human destruction, and probably no natural disaster, had ever occurred, which could compare to what resulted. The towns and their inhabitants were very nearly obliterated." Undoubtedly it was a holocaust let loose on innocent people, on a much larger scale than what Hitler had done to the Jews. Hitler must have turned in his grave in shame to think what men had done to men!

Dual policy!
But the most strange thing, on the part of the allied powers was that no treaty was signed with Germany after its surrender. But America was prompt enough to sign one with Japan, after its surrender, which practically reduced the vanquished Japan into a non-entity. Not only that, the treaty "prohibited all armed forces" of Japan. And the US General McArther, who led the war against Japan, became its de facto emperor, while Emperor Hirohitho was literally put under house-arrest, rather 'palace arrest', obeying orders from McArther. Even after five decades Japan has no regular combatant armed forces in the true sense of the term. All that it has now is a so-called "defence force", permissible under the treaty. Economically, Japan has become an Asian giant, perhaps after America, but militarily it is nowhere compared to others. But no such discrimination was seen with Germany after Hitler's fall.

But there is another side of the coin which is perhaps more lucrative and dazzling for the weapons manufacturers and traders. The question was how and where can they sell their mass-killing marchandise? They know how to create these markets. They selected the poor Afro-Asian countries. It may sound strange that poor countries can afford to go for such costly weapons and for what purpose? As they say, it is easy to catch fish in troubled waters. So the weapon merchants first make the 'political waters' 'troubled' in a planned way in the poor countries by fomenting problems, putting one against another, and sometimes people against government or vice versa.

Mahathir blasts rich nations' weapons policy
Referring to this notorious game being played by the developed countries with the poor developing countries, Asia's only outspoken politician, Mahathir Mohamad, former prime minister of Malaysia, had hit the right chord. Addressing a South Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur, sometime back he blasted the rich countries, saying that they had developed "state-of-the-art modern weapons" and therefore, "an itch to test these weapons in real war conditions." Without referring to a particular war but with oblique reference to Iraq, he said: "And so little wars are encouraged so that these weapons can be tested. Off and on, a fairly major war would be launched deliberately for not very good reason."

So what began as the world's first WMD, the atom bomb, produced by the allied powers, or precisely America, in the forties, and successfully tested on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has now been stretched too far to come up with more fatal and destructive weapons, like nuclear missiles and anti-ballistic missiles, America being biggest producer and owner of such weapons. But America is not happy with what it now possesses as America considers it insufficient for its self-defence. So what his predecessors had done during the five decades or so in developing these weapons, President Bush, during his four years in office, seems to have made a big leap forward to give a further thrust to America's nuclear programme. Bush had already announced gleefully America's unilateral withdrawal from the 1972 UN-sponsored Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, showing least regard to its obligations to the UN Treaty to which it was a participant and a signatory. The US president had argued that the 1972 ABM Treaty had "hampered" (?) US' ability to keep peace, because, under this Treaty, deployment of a missile 'defence shield' had been prohibited (!). America's President is now bent upon going ahead with its much-hyped $60 billion National Missile Development (NMD) programme for self-defence. But defence against whom? Some nuclear giants? Oh, no. So nuclear minnows, like Iran and North Korea? But could any member state in the UN, big or small, raise its finger against such atrocious action which was a direct insult to the world organisation? No. They all calmly accepted it except China and Russia both of which openly criticised America's new missile policy. But who cares?

Need of the hour
Undoubtedly, this new US nuclear missile policy will again push the UN's disarmament programme back to 'square one', destroying whatever had been achieved in the field of disarmament during last thirty-two years, to achieve a nuclear-free world. This Mucho-type muscle-flexing by the world's only superpower is likely to hasten the doomsday, unless the American people take the lead to fight against the impending darkness. Yes, neither UN, nor China, or Russia or European Union (EU) can stop the present hawkish US leadership from taking further wrong steps. Of course, "The peoples of the United Nations," in whose name the world body was established on the ashes of the WWII, can also turn the table if they stand united against this abominable US policy to plunge the world in darkness.

Tail-piece: A history student asked his teacher whether it was correct to say that history always repeats itself. The professor paused for a moment and then said, "Yes, if you fail this year also." So, if the people of America fail in their mission this year also then the history is going to repeat itself in favour of the mighty hawks now ruling the roost.

A M M Shahabuddin is a retired UN official.