Funferal

Hiroshima and terrorism

It’s Hiroshima Day – the anniversary of the day in 1945 when the United States dropped ‘the bomb’ on that city. And so I was reminded to check something I had come across some time ago.
It turns out that, yes, the Guinness Book of World Records does indeed list 11 September, 2001, as the biggest terrorist attack in history. But just what counts as a terrorist act? Well dictionary.com define a terrorist attack as “the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature.” Somehow one would think that the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would count then. And with 140,000 dying in Hiroshima, and 70,000 in Nagasaki they dwarf 9/11. So, the question arises – should Hiroshima be listed in the Guinness Book as the most devastating terrorist attack of all time?