Tragedy of Hiroshima

What happend?
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were American bombing raids on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II (On August 6 and 9, 1945),
which marked the first use of atomic weapons in war. Little Boy, the bomb dropped on
Hiroshima, was a gun-assembly fission bomb using uranium, whereas Fat Man, the bomb
dropped on Nagasaki, was an implosion fission bomb utilizing plutonium.
​The nuclear bomb exploded over the center of the city, completely devastating it. The area
within 1.2 miles of the hypocenter was entirely leveled and burned. According to the city of
Hiroshima, approximately 140,000 people had died by the end of December 1945.
Why US dropped the bombs?
​A number of factors contributed to the United States’ decision to drop atomic bombs on
Japan. One reason was Japan’s unwillingness to surrender unconditionally. Japan wanted to
keep their emperor and conduct their own war trials and did not want to be occupied by U.S.
forces. However, the United States wanted unconditional surrender, which thus meant the
continuation of the war. Japan refused to surrender after multiple firebombing campaigns
such as the Bombing of Tokyo on March 9–10, 1945.
It looked increasingly likely that the United States would have to commit itself to a land
invasion, which could have claimed many American lives. Instead, the atomic bomb served
as a tool to bring the war in the Pacific to a close sooner.
Another reason why the United States dropped the atomic bombs—and, specifically, the
second one on Nagasaki—has to do with the Soviet Union. On August 8, 1945, two days
after the Hiroshima bombing, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. It is possible that
U.S. President Harry Truman ordered the atomic bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki not only
to further force Japan to surrender but also to keep the Soviets out of Japan by displaying
American military power. Distrust and a sense of rivalry had been built up between the two
superpowers that ultimately culminated in the Cold War.
Consequences
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki produced effects in Japan and around the
world that changed the course of history. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the initial
explosions (an estimated 70,000 in Hiroshima and 40,000 in Nagasaki), and many more
later succumbed to burns, injuries, and radiation poisoning. On August 10, 1945, one day
after the bombing of Nagasaki, the Japanese government issued a statement agreeing to
accept the Allied surrender terms that had been dictated in the Potsdam Declaration. The
United States gained wide-reaching influence in Japan during its occupation and as a result
of its installation of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, a title held by the
American general Douglas MacArthur. The U.S. occupation of Japan had long and lasting
effects on daily life in Japan as well as on Japan’s economy, military, and government.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki also caused global effects such as the
Cold War and the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. The Cold War was a
rivalry that saw the world’s two remaining superpowers after World War II—the United States
and the Soviet Union, as well as their respective allies—fight for political, economic, and
nuclear superiority. Today, more countries possess nuclear weapons, but such weapons
have not been used in warfare since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Assassination of Rabin
Context
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the fifth prime minister of Israel, took place on 4
November 1995 (12 Marcheshvan 5756 on the Hebrew calendar) at 21:30, at the end of a
rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv. The assassin,
an Israeli ultranationalist named Yigal Amir, radically opposed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's
peace initiative, particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords.
Background
The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was the culmination of an
anti-violence rally in support of the Oslo peace process. Rabin was disparaged
(menospreciado) personally by right-wing conservatives and Likud leaders who perceived
the peace process as an attempt to forfeit the occupied territories and a capitulation to
Israel's enemies.
National religious conservatives and Likud party leaders believed that withdrawing from any
"Jewish" land was heresy. The Likud leader and future prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,
accused Rabin's government of being "removed from Jewish tradition [...] and Jewish
values". Right-wing rabbis associated with the settlers' movement prohibited territorial
concessions to the Palestinians and forbade soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces from
evacuating Jewish settlers under the accords. Some rabbis proclaimed din rodef, based on a
traditional Jewish law of self-defense, against Rabin personally, arguing that the Oslo
Accords would endanger Jewish lives.
Rallies organized by Likud and other right-wing groups featured depictions of Rabin in a Nazi
SS uniform, or in the crosshairs of a gun. Protesters compared the Labor party to the Nazis
and Rabin to Adolf Hitler and chanted, "Rabin is a murderer" and "Rabin is a traitor". In July
1995, Netanyahu led a mock funeral procession featuring a coffin and hangman's noose at
an anti-Rabin rally where protesters chanted, "Death to Rabin". The chief of internal security,
Carmi Gillon, then alerted Netanyahu of a plot on Rabin's life and asked him to moderate the
protests' rhetoric, which Netanyahu declined to do. Netanyahu denied any intention to incite
violence.
Rabin dismissed such protests or labeled them chutzpah. According to Gillon, Rabin refused
his requests to wear a bulletproof vest and preferred not to use the armored car purchased
for him. Left-wing supporters organized pro-peace rallies in support of the Oslo Accords. It
was after one such gathering in Tel Aviv that the assassination took place.
Assassination
O​​n Saturday evening of November 4, 1995, a demonstration took place in Tel Aviv, with the
participation of the leaders of the Labor Party, aimed to assert the need for a negotiating
process. Speeches and songs engaged the audience, with Rabin addressing a supportive
and cheering crowd. In a brief speech Rabin said, among other things:
Permit me to say that I am deeply moved. I wish to thank each and every one of you, who
have come here today to take a stand against violence and for peace. This government,
which I am privileged to head, together with my friend Shimon Peres, decided to give peace
a chance – a peace that will solve most of Israel’s problems.
I was a military man for 27 years. I fought so long as there was no chance for peace. I
believe that there is now a chance for peace, a great chance. We must take advantage of it
for the sake of those standing here, and for those who are not here – and they are many.
That same evening at 11:14 PM Rabin’s Chief of Staff stepped out to an anxiously awaiting
crowd at the entrance to the hospital and announced the passing of Israel’s Prime Minister.
The Government convened the following day and appointed Shimon Peres to be Rabin’s
successor as Prime Minister.
The Shamgar Commission concluded that that the murder was made possible because of
lack of cooperation between the various security agencies that were responsible for the
overall security measures at the public events.
According to the Commission report the murderer, Yigal Amir, came by bus to the event from
his home in the city of Herzlia, situating himself in the parking area where Rabin’s car was
parked. At one point he even leaned against the car.
At 9:45 PM, Rabin was heading to his car accompanied by five bodyguards. When the group
came down the stairs they passed by a small crowd that included the assassin, who took
advantage of what seemed to be a gap in the tight security around the Prime Minister and
fired three shots. Immediately following the shots a group of security apprehended the
assassin. The fatally wounded Prime Minister arrived at the hospital in less than two
minutes. According to the physician, Rabin arrived at the emergency room with no pulse and
no blood pressure and underwent immediate treatment. But it was all in vain and Rabin died
of his fatal wounds.

Bloodbath betweem Sarajevo and Kosovo: the Blakan bloodbath

Context
The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and
Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started on 6
April 1992, following a number of earlier violent incidents. The war ended on 14 December
1995 when the Dayton accords were signed. The main belligerents were the forces of the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and those of Herzeg-Bosnia and Republika Srpska,
proto-states led and supplied by Croatia and Serbia, respectively.
What happened?
The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Following the Slovenian and Croatian
secessions from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991, the multi-ethnic
Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed a referendum for independence on 29
February 1992. Political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs boycotted the referendum,
and rejected its outcome. Anticipating the outcome of the referendum, the Assembly of the
Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Constitution of the Serbian Republic of
Bosnia and Herzegovina on 28 February 1992. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina's
declaration of independence (which gained international recognition) and following the
withdrawal of Alija Izetbegović from the previously signed Cutileiro Plan (which proposed a
division of Bosnia into ethnic cantons), the Bosnian Serbs, led by Radovan Karadžić and
supported by the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav People's Army
(JNA), mobilised their forces inside Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to secure ethnic Serb
territory. Then war soon spread across the country, accompanied by ethnic cleansing.
​The conflict was initially between Yugoslav Army units in Bosnia which later transformed into
the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) on the one side, and the Army of the Republic of
Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), largely composed of Bosniaks, and the Croat forces in the
Croatian Defence Council (HVO) on the other side. Tensions between Croats and Bosniaks
increased throughout late 1992, resulting in the escalation of the Croat–Bosniak War in early
1993. The Bosnian War was characterised by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities
and towns, ethnic cleansing, and systematic mass rape, mainly perpetrated by Serb, and to
a lesser extent, Croat and Bosniak forces. Events such as the siege of Sarajevo and the
Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict.
The Serbs, although initially militarily superior due to the weapons and resources provided
by the JNA, eventually lost momentum as the Bosniaks and Croats allied against the
Republika Srpska in 1994 with the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
following the Washington agreement. Pakistan ignored the UN's ban on supply of arms, and
airlifted anti tank missiles to the Bosnian Muslims, while after the Srebrenica and Markale
massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force targeting the positions
of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war. The war ended
after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina
in Paris on 14 December 1995. Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio, and were
finalised on 21 November 1995.
By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted
forty-five Serbs, twelve Croats, and four Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in
Bosnia. Estimates suggest around 100,000 people were killed during the war. Over 2.2
million people were displaced, making it, at the time, the most devastating conflict in Europe
since the end of World War II. In addition, an estimated 12,000–50,000 women were raped,
mainly carried out by Serb forces, with most of the victims being Bosniak women.