Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise to speak on this statement of indulgence on the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Pacific Day, which marked the end of World War II. That war ended with the atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Hiroshima it was estimated that between 90,000 and 150,000 people perished. At Nagasaki, between 40,000 and 80,000 perished—radiation sickness; absolute devastation.

If we look back from the comfort of the 21st century, it is often easy to criticise the decision to drop atomic bombs on those two cities. I would like to take this opportunity to suggest that that decision was actually historically and morally correct. I believe that, if we weigh up all the factors that President Truman had to make, as horrible as it actually was, not to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have resulted in more death, more pain and more suffering. Firstly, as the Second World War was coming to a conclusion, it was important not only that Japan surrendered but that it surrendered unconditionally. Their militaristic society which they had developed had to be dismantled completely to avoid future conflict. We had learnt that from the mistakes of the aftermath of World War I in Europe.

Secondly, after the bloody battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, it was clear that a Normandy-type amphibious landing to defeat Japan would have cost millions of lives on both sides—not only Allied servicemen and, most likely, many Australian servicemen but also the lives of the Japanese defenders. The Japanese actually predicted 20 million deaths of their own people defending the home islands. The US estimates there would be four million Allied casualties with one million dead. How could any leader of the world explain to the families of those millions of Allied servicemen that he had the technology and the weapons to end the war and save their lives but did not use them. Likewise, avoiding a Normandy-type amphibious landing to finally defeat Japan saved countless Japanese lives as well. The alternative—a continuation of traditional bombing—would have likely seen just as many if not more deaths. We know, for example, that earlier in 1945 the firebombing of Japan killed an estimated 315,922 Japanese, a greater number than the combined deaths of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Thirdly, prolonging the war would have seen the Soviets enter in full flight against Japan, potentially occupying the northern islands of Japan, setting up Japan for the rest of the 20th century divided like Korea—only sowing the seeds for further conflict like we continue to see with the Korean nation divided between north and south.

Fourthly, there were the prisoners of war. At the time of the bombings there were 123,000 Allied prisoners of war held by the Japanese. The documents showed that, had Allied forces landed on the mainland, the Japanese holding those prisoners of war had been given orders to execute every single one of those 123,000—tens of thousands of them Australian soldiers. They were saved by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

There are lessons we have to learn and take away. Firstly, sometimes when you are facing extreme evil you need to use extreme violence. We perhaps need to be reminded of that lesson today in the conflicts in the Middle East against groups like Daesh. We cannot expect our military forces to fight them with one hand tied behind their back. If we are serious about the fight—and we have seen the extent of these people's evil with beheadings of innocent civilians and the rape and torture of innocent women—we need to learn from our history to use every military resource in our power to destroy Daesh.

Secondly, we need to realise how fortunate our generation is. My generation, my children's generation and, hopefully, my grandchildren's generation do and will in the future enjoy the prosperity and the peace that was won by those who had to fight the Pacific War, those who had to make those sacrifices.

It is important that we learn our lessons from history. It is important that we remember the past, remember the mistakes and make sure that we do not repeat them. Lest we forget.

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