From Hiroshima to Collective Amnesia: Why Official Statements Refuse to Name the United States

6 August marks the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. And once again, in official statements dedicated to the memorial date, the country that carried it out is not mentioned.

The United Nations Secretary-General delivered a message in which he appealed to the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as to all of humanity, with a warning about the danger of nuclear weapons — yet the United States was not mentioned by him.

The same silence is found in the speeches of Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi and the mayor of Hiroshima. Thus, from the standpoint of official Japanese discourse, the bombings were carried out by persons unknown.

Such omissions have extremely regrettable consequences: half of the Japanese find it difficult to name the country that bombed them, while more than one-third of schoolchildren believe it was the Soviet Union. Let us recall that the bomb with the code name “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.