Calling for the nuclear-free world

Every 6th august, people all over the world commemorate the history of Hiroshima catastrophe. In this year, it is the 70^th anniversary of that catastrophe. Seventy years ago, the city was incinerated by an atomic bomb, its population halved by the new and terrifying American weapon nicknamed Little Boy.

To date, there is still no official apology made by any president of the USA. Moreover, President Truman have made a statement that:-

“ Never waste a minute on regret. It’s a waste of time.”

While the world societies are united to demand for full abolition of the nuclear weapons, there is still long-lasting debate on the USA operation, using the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the sake of ending the war.

The argument in favor of using the atomic bomb is the only successful way to end the second world war. When Germany one of the Japanese ally agreed to surrender, the latter still refused to withdraw from the annexed territories.  Moreover, it is claimed that Japanese armies never know the word of ‘surrender’ as they would to sacrifice their soul for the sake of their emperor. The kamikaze jet fighter illustrated this view very well.

Harry Truman, the US president had to make a difficult decision. If he chose to invade Japan, he might need a million troops and most of them would end up dead. Thus, it might not finish the war efficiently. While the atomic bomb cause widespread death and suffering, sometimes being cruel in the short term to be kind in the long run is acceptable.

Moreover, one cannot deny that the fatalities that caused by Japanese troops were the nightmare for human especially in Asia. History told us the massacre happened in Nanjing, where it was considered to be the second holocaust. Focusing on south-east Asian, the death railway has still been remembered by people. For the time being, many countries are still demanding the official apology from Japanese leaders.

On the other hand, those who oppose the act, arguing that the nuclear, biological and chemical weapons are the most inhumane of all weapons, capable of vast, indiscriminate and long-lasting destruction. In other words, it should not be used or to be experimented towards human.

In fact, the empire of japan was on the brink of surrendering. After 6 years of the war, Japan had experienced many defeats in their battle, especially when the allies were focusing on them after the surrender of Germany and Italy. Their loss of armies and facilities were very significant. Moreover, since the attacking of the Pearl Harbor, Tokyo witnessed the overwhelming of bombing campaigns.

Whatever their argument, we cannot change the history as the past is the past. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that the past can repeat again if we do not learn from that.

Islam and the nuclear weapon.

Islam is strongly against support any kind of destruction, even in wars. Based on the hadith, the prophet Muhammad sollahualaihiwassalam prohibited the using of fire on the enemies. Even if the war could not be avoided, the Muslim army still must follow the strict rules and regulations. For example, they must avoid from killing the old people, women, children, religious person and those who are surrendered. At the same time, they have not to involve other creation in their war such as cutting the trees or killing the animals.

However, after the prophetic period, when the enemies became more aggressive by using various advanced weapons, the Muslim armies had no choice unless they would be defeated. For the sake of a bigger maslahat ( interest ), they have to compete with their enemy.

Some scholars justify the construction of the nuclear weapon in Muslim countries is necessary nowadays by this versus

“And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged” ( Al-anfal : 60 )

They argue it is the obligation for Muslim leaders to provide the strong and powerful defenses to terrify the enemies. This action needs to be taken in order to avoid non-Muslim countries for threating the Muslim lands. 

However, the reality nowadays that Muslim political power is weak, I think they should focus on joining the awareness campaign seriously in order to free the world from nuclear weapon instead of developing their own nuclear weapon. Moreover, looking for the attitudes and characters of the current Muslim leaders currently, we afraid that such weapon will use towards their own people so as to restrain their political power.