Sixtieth Anniversary of a Human Horror Story.

August 6, 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the first military use of atomic power. Hiroshima, Japan being its first recipient. It came in the form of a bomb. Three days later, Nagasaki, Japan became the recipient of the second atomic bomb. The bombs did what they were designed to do so well, southern Japan was placed off limits by General Macarthur.

It was a bad couple of days. Over 200,000 Japanese civilians perished. The lucky ones were those immediately vaporized by the bombs' detonations. The more unfortunate ones were those who lingered afterwards dying slow agonizing deaths as the first victims of the new "atomic plague" from the deadly radiation that had been unleashed. They would linger under horrendous burns, uncontrollable hemorrhaging from blood that could no longer clot, from hedious infections and rotting flesh.

Pictures of the bombs' devastation would get out. But news of the horrific aftermath was suppressed by denying reporters access to these two cities.

A couple of journalists did manage to visit despite the military's ban. Chicago reporter George Weller went to Nagasaki and filed his report. It was never printed. Censored by the military, it was destroyed. Meanwhile, Australian writer Wilfred Burchett snuck into Hiroshima. He reported on the scenes of horror he witnessed. Eventually his story was published in the London Daily Express, much to the dismay of the U.S. War Department.

But the "official" story of the first successful unleashing of atomic power for military purposes was written by New York Times reporter William Laurence. But unknown to the public, Laurence had been secretly chosen by, and simultaneously working for, the War Department. He, and he alone, was selected to write the story of the government's development of the A-bomb.*

Laurence appears to have been a good choice, having written of the bomb's development and deployment, "Being close to it and watching it as it was being fashioned into a living thing so exquisitely shaped that any sculptor would be proud to have created it, one felt oneself in the presence of the supernatural." (It's difficult not to ponder if its first victim's descriptions would have been as "glowing.")

Laurence flew in the squadron that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. From a detached altitude of thousands of impersonal feet between his aircraft and the ground, he reported the incredible power unleashed by the bomb. But on the ground, no reporters were permitted into Hiroshima or Nagasaki to report the horrors of the bomb's aftermath. Save for those couple of bold journalists who dared defy General Macarthur's order and went there anyway.

Laurence was chosen as journalist to present the government's story on its use of these bombs. He was to attribute all damage to their detonations, thus whitewashing and ignoring reports of the atomic radioactive plague that followed the blasts. In 1946, Laurence was awarded a Pullitzer prize for his coverage of this story.

It is with true courage and determination to set the record straight that Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now", along with her brother David Goodman, are requesting the Pullitzer committee to strip Laurance of his prize for secretly fronting government propaganda as "news" in the New York Times.

Praise be to Amy Goodman and "Democracy Now" for fronting this story!

*(NOTE: As a sidenote, Judith Miller, Tom Friedman and the NY Times' "rah-rah" lead-up to the Iraqi war was nothing more than continuation of similar reporting by outside clandestine sources spinning "independent" journalists.)