Super Destroyer Democratic ideals are a big topic of discussion right now; not in Germany, but other parts of the world talk about them.

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1 Super Destroyer Democratic ideals are a big topic of discussion right now; not in Germany, but other parts of the world talk about them. We in Germany have learned our lesson with democratic ideals; if the rest of the world praises these ideals, we can only answer that the German people had the chance to live within the purest form of this ideal, and we ourselves are now reaping the legacy left by this democracy. We then get a lecture on the wonderful goals of war, especially from the British side. Great Britain has much experience in proclaiming goals of war, considering they have waged more wars than anyone else. The goals they proclaim today are fantastic: the creation of a new Europe. This Europe will be a just place, and the general equality will make arms unnecessary, so we can all disarm. This disarmament is supposed to kick start a period of economic blossoming, trade and movement should commence, especially trade, much trade, free trade! And from this trade, culture is supposed to bloom, and not just culture, but religion, too. In one phrase: the golden age is supposed to dawn. Unfortunately, this golden age has been described in a very similar fashion on several occasions, and not even by prior generations, but by the same people that are describing it yet again today. It's like a very worn-out groove on an old LP. We should pity these gentlemen, who haven't found a new, big idea to hook the people on, because they promised the same things in 1918: the goal of war then was also a "new Europe" and a "new equality", this new equality whose main element is abolishing a nation's right to self-determination. At that time, an equality that would make arms unnecessary in the future was promised. Thence issued the program of disarmament of everyone. And to make this disarmament especially manifest, it was supposed to be crowned by a union of all disarmed states, which had decided that, in the future, all differences (at least no one doubted there would still be differences) between them should be, well, as it is the custom among democracies, be talked to pieces in open discussions. Under no circumstances should there be any more shooting. And at that time it was already said that the consequences of this disarmament and this worldwide parliament would be an incredible blossoming, a blooming of industry and especially (and much emphasis is always put on this) of trade, of free trade. Culture, as well, should not be disregarded in this process, and while one spoke a little bit less about religion at the end of the war than at the beginning, we at least were told, in the year 1918, that it would be a blessed era that God would smile upon. We are experiencing now what happened then: the old states were dissolved without even asking their peoples' opinion. Not in one single case was the nation asked if it agreed with the measures that others would put into place in them. Old, almost historical bodies were dissolved - not just states, but also economic bodies. One could not imagine something better in their stead, since what is created over a period of several centuries is probably better than anything else; it was definitely impossible for those people that view all of European history with the greatest arrogance to create something better. So it passed that, without taking into account a nation's right to self-determination, Europe was hacked up, Europe was torn open, large states were dissolved, nations had their rights taken away. This was done by first making them helpless, then categorizing them in a manner that predetermined who the winners and the losers would be. There was no more talk of disarmament then, on the contrary, the arms race continued. For no one started solving their conflicts in a peaceful manner, on the contrary, those states with arms waged war just like before. Only the disarmed were not able to forbid the menacing actions of the armed, or even to keep them away from themselves. Paralleling this, of course, came not a period of economic health, but on the contrary an incredible system of reparations led to the economic downfall of not only the losers, but also of the winners themselves. No people felt the

2 effects of this economic depression more than the Germans. The general economic disorganization led, particularly in Germany, to a widespread joblessness that almost ruined our German people. Culture, as well, was not enhanced, but rather ridiculed and warped. Religion took a back seat; in these 15 years no one British spoke of religion; no British person remembered Christian mercifulness or altruism. At that time the gentlemen did not take their Bibles with them on walks, instead, their Bible was the Treaty of Versailles! 448 paragraphs, all of which a burden, an obligation, a condemnation, a blackmail of Germany or towards Germany. And this Versailles was guaranteed by the new League of Nations - not a union of free nations, of similar nations, not a union of nations at all (the actual, founded nations stayed away) - a League of Nations whose sole task was to guarantee this most base of all agreements, this agreement which was not negotiated but instead purely forced upon us, and to force us to fulfill it. Midnight Rider I beg to move, That this House welcomes the formation of a Government representing the united and inflexible resolve of the nation to prosecute the war with Germany to a victorious conclusion. On Friday evening last I received His Majesty's commission to form a new Administration. It as the evident wish and will of Parliament and the nation that this should be conceived on the broadest possible basis and that it should include all parties, both those who supported the late Government and also the parties of the Opposition. I have completed the most important part of this task. A War Cabinet has been formed of five Members, representing, with the Opposition Liberals, the unity of the nation. The three party Leaders have agreed to serve, either in the War Cabinet or in high executive office. The three Fighting Services have been filled. It was necessary that this should be done in one single day, on account of the extreme urgency and rigour of events. A number of other positions, key positions, were filled yesterday, and I am submitting a further list to His Majesty to-night. I hope to complete the appointment of the principal Ministers during to-morrow. the appointment of the other Ministers usually takes a little longer, but I trust that, when Parliament meets again, this part of my task will be completed, and that the administration will be complete in all respects. I considered it in the public interest to suggest that the House should be summoned to meet today. Mr. Speaker agreed, and took the necessary steps, in accordance with the powers conferred upon him by the Resolution of the House. At the end of the proceedings today, the Adjournment of the House will be proposed until Tuesday, 21st May, with, of course, provision for earlier meeting, if need be. The business to be considered during that week will be notified to Members at the earliest opportunity. I now invite the House, by the Motion which stands in my name, to record its approval of the steps taken and to declare its confidence in the new Government. To form an Administration of this scale and complexity is a serious undertaking in itself, but it must be remembered that we are in the preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history, that we are in action at many other points in Norway and in Holland, that we have to be prepared in the Mediterranean, that the air battle is continuous and that many preparations, such as have been indicated by my hon. Friend below the Gangway, have to be made here at home. In this

3 crisis I hope I may be pardoned if I do not address the House at any length today. I hope that any of my friends and colleagues, or former colleagues, who are affected by the political reconstruction, will make allowance, all allowance, for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act. I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength." Tiger Mask Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed. A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself. Why do we come to this place, to Hiroshima? We come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in a not-so-distant past. We come to mourn the dead, including over 100,000 Japanese men, women and children, thousands of Koreans, a dozen Americans held prisoner. Their souls speak to us. They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become. It is not the fact of war that sets Hiroshima apart. Artifacts tell us that violent conflict appeared with the very first man. Our early ancestors having learned to make blades from flint and spears from wood used these tools not just for hunting but against their own kind. On every continent, the history of civilization is filled with war, whether driven by scarcity of grain or hunger for gold, compelled by nationalist fervor or religious zeal. Empires have risen and fallen. Peoples have been subjugated and liberated. And at each juncture, innocents have suffered, a countless toll, their names forgotten by time. The world war that reached its brutal end in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was fought among the wealthiest and most powerful of nations. Their civilizations had given the world great cities and magnificent art. Their thinkers had advanced ideas of justice and harmony and truth. And yet the war grew out of the same base instinct for domination or conquest that had caused conflicts among the simplest tribes, an old pattern amplified by new capabilities and without new constraints.

4 In the span of a few years, some 60 million people would die. Men, women, children, no different than us. Shot, beaten, marched, bombed, jailed, starved, gassed to death. There are many sites around the world that chronicle this war, memorials that tell stories of courage and heroism, graves and empty camps that echo of unspeakable depravity. Yet in the image of a mushroom cloud that rose into these skies, we are most starkly reminded of humanity s core contradiction. How the very spark that marks us as a species, our thoughts, our imagination, our language, our toolmaking, our ability to set ourselves apart from nature and bend it to our will those very things also give us the capacity for unmatched destruction. How often does material advancement or social innovation blind us to this truth? How easily we learn to justify violence in the name of some higher cause. Every great religion promises a pathway to love and peace and righteousness, and yet no religion has been spared from believers who have claimed their faith as a license to kill. Nations arise telling a story that binds people together in sacrifice and cooperation, allowing for remarkable feats. But those same stories have so often been used to oppress and dehumanize those who are different. Science allows us to communicate across the seas and fly above the clouds, to cure disease and understand the cosmos, but those same discoveries can be turned into ever more efficient killing machines. The wars of the modern age teach us this truth. Hiroshima teaches this truth. Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us. The scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution as well. That is why we come to this place. We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell. We force ourselves to feel the dread of children confused by what they see. We listen to a silent cry. We remember all the innocents killed across the arc of that terrible war and the wars that came before and the wars that would follow. Mere words cannot give voice to such suffering. But we have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again. Some day, the voices of the hibakusha will no longer be with us to bear witness. But the memory of the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, must never fade. That memory allows us to fight complacency. It fuels our moral imagination. It allows us to change. And since that fateful day, we have made choices that give us hope. The United States and Japan have forged not only an alliance but a friendship that has won far more for our people than we could ever claim through war. The nations of Europe built a union that replaced battlefields with bonds of commerce and democracy. Oppressed people and nations won liberation. An international community established institutions and treaties that work to avoid war and aspire to restrict and roll back and ultimately eliminate the existence of nuclear weapons. Still, every act of aggression between nations, every act of terror and corruption and cruelty and oppression that we see around the world shows our work is never done. We may not be able to

5 eliminate man s capacity to do evil, so nations and the alliances that we form must possess the means to defend ourselves. But among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them. We may not realize this goal in my lifetime, but persistent effort can roll back the possibility of catastrophe. We can chart a course that leads to the destruction of these stockpiles. We can stop the spread to new nations and secure deadly materials from fanatics. And yet that is not enough. For we see around the world today how even the crudest rifles and barrel bombs can serve up violence on a terrible scale. We must change our mind-set about war itself. To prevent conflict through diplomacy and strive to end conflicts after they ve begun. To see our growing interdependence as a cause for peaceful cooperation and not violent competition. To define our nations not by our capacity to destroy but by what we build. And perhaps, above all, we must reimagine our connection to one another as members of one human race. For this, too, is what makes our species unique. We re not bound by genetic code to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can learn. We can choose. We can tell our children a different story, one that describes a common humanity, one that makes war less likely and cruelty less easily accepted. We see these stories in the hibakusha. The woman who forgave a pilot who flew the plane that dropped the atomic bomb because she recognized that what she really hated was war itself. The man who sought out families of Americans killed here because he believed their loss was equal to his own. My own nation s story began with simple words: All men are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Realizing that ideal has never been easy, even within our own borders, even among our own citizens. But staying true to that story is worth the effort. It is an ideal to be strived for, an ideal that extends across continents and across oceans. The irreducible worth of every person, the insistence that every life is precious, the radical and necessary notion that we are part of a single human family that is the story that we all must tell. That is why we come to Hiroshima. So that we might think of people we love. The first smile from our children in the morning. The gentle touch from a spouse over the kitchen table. The comforting embrace of a parent. We can think of those things and know that those same precious moments took place here, 71 years ago. Those who died, they are like us. Ordinary people understand this, I think. They do not want more war. They would rather that the wonders of science be focused on improving life and not eliminating it. When the choices made by nations, when the choices made by leaders, reflect this simple wisdom, then the lesson of Hiroshima is done. The world was forever changed here, but today the children of this city will go through their day in peace. What a precious thing that is. It is worth protecting, and then extending to every child. That is a future we can choose, a future in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn of atomic warfare but as the start of our own moral awakening.