The Explorers' Club, № CCCLII

The Early Cold War, Part I: The Potsdam Conference, July-August 1945—The Potsdam Agreement, the occupation & dismemberment of Germany, the British general election, & the Potsdam Declaration.









Operation AXIOM | Lies, Damned Lies, & the News
Sixty-eight years ago to the week, 6 August & 9 August 1945, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima & Nagasaki were destroyed by the world's second & third atomic bombs, the only such bombs to have been detonated in anger instead of as test articles. I've been pleased by the amount of coverage on N.H.K. World's Newsline, which is to say that I've been appalled by the complete lack of coverage in American broadcast journalism. I know that sixty-eight is not as appealingly round a number as seventy, but that seems a poor, lazy excuse. I've disagreed with much of the tone of Newsline's coverage, which I can only presume is a more or less accurate survey of Japanese public opinion & had thus focused almost exclusively on the horror of atomic warfare. Nothing has been said about the rôle of the bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki in preventing an even worse catastrophe, an invasion of the Home Islands that would have produced as many as a million Allied casualties & all but wiped the Japanese from the face of the Earth. (This presumes that an invasion of japan would have played out as a larger-scale version of the bloodbaths on Iwo Jima & Okinawa, which there is every reason to believe would have been the case.) Two B-29 Superfortresses, the Enola Gay & the Bockscar, dropped the atomic bombs code named LITTLE BOY & FAT MAN on the cities of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, forcing the Empire of Japan's surrender—ending the Second World War—sixty-eight years ago this week.

The Rebel Black Dot State Song of the Day
Less Than Jake, "Never Going Back to New Jersey" from Losing Streak (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I once sang the following to a stunningly beautiful girl from New Jersey, who was flattered & amused, & best of all, she knew of Less Than Jake (even though this part of the song isn't theirs but taken from some old bit of propaganda/boosterism).

"I'm from New Jersey and I'm proud about it,
I love the Garden State!
I'm from New Jersey and I brag about it,
I think it's simply great!
All of the other states throughout the nation
May mean a lot to some,
But I'll take New Jersey,
Brother, Jersey is like no other!
I'm glad that's where I'm from!"