Storyteller and folk singer Utah Phillips has said that “the long memory is the most radical idea in America.” His words ring especially true now, as the United States attempts to set nuclear policy for the rest of the world without adequately reflecting on its own nuclear past.

Few Americans will mark the historical significance of August 6 and 9 as they pass this week. Half a world away, however, Japanese hibakusha will not forget the dates. Hibakusha translates literally to “explosion-affected people,” and refers to those who witnessed or were injured by the 1945 nuclear bombings of Japan by the US. They mark the dates by adding the names of hibakusha whose deaths have been recorded in the previous year to the cenotaphs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Sixty-one years ago this Sunday (August 6), Col. Paul Tibbets took the controls of a modified B-29 Superfortress—named for his mother, Enola Gay—and lifted off into the starry sky over Tinian, a speck of an island in the Northern Marianas. Six hours later, at 8:16am, the Enola Gay’s bombardier released “Little Boy,” a 9,000-pound atomic bomb, over the Japanese port city of Hiroshima, unleashing what can only be described as hell on earth. Little Boy’s explosive power was equivalent to 15,000 tons of dynamite and produced a light many times brighter than the sun. The explosion and its immediate after-effects killed 140,000 people. Victims’ skin hung in tethers from their bodies and the explosion melted the eyes of some who looked on it. The ensuing firestorm generated its own weather systems, stirring up cyclones and causing a sticky black rain to fall over the city. In short, it was the most awesome, terrible force ever wielded by humans against humans, and the first time nuclear weapons were ever employed in combat.

Three days later (August 9), we did it again in Nagasaki, that time killing approximately 74,000 Japanese civilians with the larger “Fat Man” bomb. That was the last time a nuclear weapon was ever employed against humans.

When this chapter in our history is visited, the justification most often given for using the atomic bombs against Japan is the need to bring a quick end to the war, to avoid a full-scale invasion of the Japanese home islands. This is what we were taught in school and few of us ever questioned it.

The truth is, however, that there is no consensus on the necessity of the atomic bombs. In fact, many military personnel and administration officials adamantly opposed using the atom bombs at the time. Admiral William Leahy, Chief of Staff to President Truman, said, “It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons.” In late May, Herbert Hoover called on Truman and told him, “I am convinced that if you, as President, will make a shortwave radio broadcast to the people of Japan—tell them they can have their Emperor if they surrender, that it will not mean unconditional surrender except for militarists—you’ll get a peace in Japan, you’ll have both wars over.” The list of those in opposition to atomic bombing goes on: Dwight Eisenhower, General Douglas MacArthur, Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy, Under Secretary of State Joseph Grew, Under Secretary of the Navy Ralph Bard and Albert Einstein, who’s often linked to the beginning of the Manhattan Project that created the bombs.

The points made by Leahy and Hoover are important. As the war in Europe drew to a close, the Allies waged an increasingly effective war in the Pacific. In mid 1944, the United States took the Marianas from Japan, bringing the home islands within range of American B-29 bombers. Beginning in November, Japanese cities became the subject of nearly constant conventional bombing raids. General Curtis LeMay, the commander of the bombing raids, claimed in June of 1945 that the war would have to end by September or October, because by then all of Japan’s industrial targets would be completely destroyed.

At the same time, a naval blockade, begun in September of 1944, was choking Japan’s remaining industry by blocking entirely its ability to import oil and other vital materials necessary to produce war materials.

In July of 1945, Germany surrendered, freeing up the Allies to focus all of their forces and resources on Japan. The world knew that Japan was defeated, and so did Japan. American intelligence experts cracked the Japanese diplomatic code as far back as 1940, allowing the military to intercept messages between Tokyo and the Japanese embassy in Moscow. In spring of 1945, it was clear that Japan was looking to the then-neutral Soviet Union to mediate a peace between Japan and the Allies. One example is a July 12 message that reads, “…it is His Majesty’s heart’s desire to see the swift termination of the war.”