118 Bettina Kaibach
nuclear age are discussed in a philosophical manner that transcends both
strategic and ideological considerations. The Americans in Grossman’s story
are not presented as heinous crypto-fascists, who pursue the destruction of
Hiroshima as part of their insidious plan to conquer the world. They perform
their task with a sense of duty and to some degree are even guided by a moral
impetus. When they grasp the full scope of their deed, several of the men
are ready to confront their guilt over myriads of deaths. Yet the story shows
that in light of technological mass annihilation on the scale of Hiroshima,
traditional notions of guilt and responsibility, good and evil no longer suffice
to comprehend and explain the role of the individual in the murderous apparatus of modern warfare.
In the previous chapter, I have shown how official Soviet literature establishes a direct link between the German concentration camps and American
nuclear policy, thus denigrating the United States as successor to Nazi
Germany, while presenting the Soviet Union as moral beacon in the fight
against the ultimate evil of fascist capitalism. In Abel (August 6th), the Nazi
crimes are invoked in a different way: as potential moral justification for
the bombing of Hiroshima – a rather astonishing historical contextualization, given the Soviet context. For the crew of the Enola Gay as well as for
the world public in Grossman’s story, the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima
is part of the common fight against fascism, against the evil forces behind
both Auschwitz and Pearl Harbor (both places are named explicitly). 50 In this
respect, the agenda of Grossman’s American protagonists concurs with that
professed by the Soviet Union. When, in a narrator’s comment, Grossman
takes care to refute such reasoning, he does not argue along ideological lines,
but based on fundamental considerations that apply to any use of weapons of
mass destruction, whatever the rationale behind it. For him, the moral justification of Hiroshima through Auschwitz is problematic in two ways. First:
innocent civilians should not be collectively punished for crimes they did not
personally commit:
In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, politicians, philosophers,
military people, journalists, publicists, argued that the powerful blast
of the uranium bomb, by avenging the fascist crimes against humanity
and significantly paralyzing Japan’s resistance, would hasten peace so
coveted by every mother for the sake of the life of her children. Their
arguments were instantly grasped both by the Japanese military staff
and the Tokyo imperial court. All of this could not be grasped by a
four-year-old Japanese boy. He awoke at dawn and reached out his
chubby arms to his grandmother. […] The boy knew that he brought
a lot of joy to his grandmother, who took pleasure in waking up and
seeing her grandson. […] So neither the boy nor his grandmother nor
hundreds of other children, their mothers and grandmothers, could
grasp why they of all people should pay the price for Pearl Harbor and
Auschwitz. 51
nuclear age are discussed in a philosophical manner that transcends both
strategic and ideological considerations. The Americans in Grossman’s story
are not presented as heinous crypto-fascists, who pursue the destruction of
Hiroshima as part of their insidious plan to conquer the world. They perform
their task with a sense of duty and to some degree are even guided by a moral
impetus. When they grasp the full scope of their deed, several of the men
are ready to confront their guilt over myriads of deaths. Yet the story shows
that in light of technological mass annihilation on the scale of Hiroshima,
traditional notions of guilt and responsibility, good and evil no longer suffice
to comprehend and explain the role of the individual in the murderous apparatus of modern warfare.
In the previous chapter, I have shown how official Soviet literature establishes a direct link between the German concentration camps and American
nuclear policy, thus denigrating the United States as successor to Nazi
Germany, while presenting the Soviet Union as moral beacon in the fight
against the ultimate evil of fascist capitalism. In Abel (August 6th), the Nazi
crimes are invoked in a different way: as potential moral justification for
the bombing of Hiroshima – a rather astonishing historical contextualization, given the Soviet context. For the crew of the Enola Gay as well as for
the world public in Grossman’s story, the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima
is part of the common fight against fascism, against the evil forces behind
both Auschwitz and Pearl Harbor (both places are named explicitly). 50 In this
respect, the agenda of Grossman’s American protagonists concurs with that
professed by the Soviet Union. When, in a narrator’s comment, Grossman
takes care to refute such reasoning, he does not argue along ideological lines,
but based on fundamental considerations that apply to any use of weapons of
mass destruction, whatever the rationale behind it. For him, the moral justification of Hiroshima through Auschwitz is problematic in two ways. First:
innocent civilians should not be collectively punished for crimes they did not
personally commit:
In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, politicians, philosophers,
military people, journalists, publicists, argued that the powerful blast
of the uranium bomb, by avenging the fascist crimes against humanity
and significantly paralyzing Japan’s resistance, would hasten peace so
coveted by every mother for the sake of the life of her children. Their
arguments were instantly grasped both by the Japanese military staff
and the Tokyo imperial court. All of this could not be grasped by a
four-year-old Japanese boy. He awoke at dawn and reached out his
chubby arms to his grandmother. […] The boy knew that he brought
a lot of joy to his grandmother, who took pleasure in waking up and
seeing her grandson. […] So neither the boy nor his grandmother nor
hundreds of other children, their mothers and grandmothers, could
grasp why they of all people should pay the price for Pearl Harbor and
Auschwitz. 51