Author of Child History Curriculum: US Bombed Hiroshima Only to Prove Developing Atomic Bomb 'Was Worth It'
Activist Nikole Hannah-Jones has never been too keen on telling the truth about U.S. history. The New York Times reporter and lead author of the inaccurate “1619 Project” has now added another line item to her list of historically erroneous claims.
It started on Saturday when Hannah-Jones tweeted her feeling of “shame” as an American visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Japan.
Feeling ashamed of shameful things is not BAD. It’s called being an empathetic and moral human being. Shame helps us do better. When I visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum about the impact of the US’s atomic bomb, as an American, I felt shame.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) November 6, 2021
There is nothing inherently wrong with that feeling. Americans have disagreed for decades about the U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Hannah-Jones has a right to feel however she wants about it.
However, when people began to disagree with her opinion of the bombs being a “shameful thing,” Hannah-Jones proceeded to tell a blatant lie about World War II.
“You’re the one who poorly understands history,” she said in a since-deleted response to a critic on Twitter. “They dropped the bomb when they knew surrender was coming because they’d spent all this money developing it and to prove it was worth it. Propaganda is not history, my friend.”
Hannah-Jones essentially claimed that U.S. leaders at the time decided to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima to justify its expensive development, not because they deemed it necessary to bring about the end of the war.
By all available historical accounts, there is no factual basis to this statement.
In fact, Japan did not even surrender after the United States dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. It was not until a second atomic bomb hit Nagasaki that the Japanese finally raised the white flag, which former Daily Caller reporter Eric Owens pointed out.
“They knew surrender was coming” but Japan refused to surrender after we dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima.
Then Japan finally surrendered a few days later when we dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki.
Weird way to know surrender was coming.
— Eric Owens (@ericowensdc) November 11, 2021
Other Twitter users also mocked Hannah-Jones for her lack of historical knowledge.
i don’t have any evidence yet to prove it, but i’m working on a new theory she hasn’t actually read a book. pic.twitter.com/r9qlMQUNv9
— tsar becket adams (@BecketAdams) November 11, 2021
Propaganda is not history, says the propagandist awarded prizes for her fake debunked history, in the process of literally sharing anti-American propaganda. pic.twitter.com/H4AxFZiE7I
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) November 11, 2021
As The Federalist’s Ben Domenech noted, there is a certain irony to Hannah-Jones claiming “propaganda is not history.” In her widely debunked “1619 Project,” Hannah-Jones arguably presented leftist propaganda as historical fact.
Soon after the “1619 Project” was published in 2019, historians debunked some of its larger claims. Historian Gordon Wood expressed concern about Hannah-Jones’ assertion that slavery was a driving factor in America’s decision to revolt against the British.
“I read the first essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones, which alleges that the Revolution occurred primarily because of the Americans’ desire to save their slaves,” Wood said in a 2019 interview with World Socialist Web Site.
“She claims the British were on the warpath against the slave trade and slavery and that rebellion was the only hope for American slavery,” he said. “This made the American Revolution out to be like the Civil War, where the South seceded to save and protect slavery, and that the Americans 70 years earlier revolted to protect their institution of slavery. I just couldn’t believe this.”
Despite the inaccuracies, the Pulitzer Center created a school curriculum to coincide with the “1619 Project,” Education Week reported. The inaccurate historical account then began being used in various public schools, which sure looks like “propaganda” aimed at brainwashing the next generation.
“I was surprised, as many other people were, by the scope of this thing, especially since it’s going to become the basis for high school education and has the authority of The New York Times behind it, and yet it is so wrong in so many ways,” Wood said.
Leftists have attempted to cast anyone who opposes this curriculum as racist, which gives them a convenient excuse to ignore Hannah-Jones’ faulty reporting. But as if to prove her ignorance of history even further, she had to go spouting more falsehoods about wars in which America fought.
If the left has its way, inaccurate teachings from people like Nikole Hannah-Jones will infiltrate more and more schools around the country. It is the reason that standing up and fighting for truth in education is more important than ever.
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