Essay Sample on Violation of Human Rights

Introduction

According to Oliver Stone's "The Untold History of the United States," the United States has been involved in several activities in the past some of which do not rhyme with human rights (Stone 23). Stone depicts several activities that leave the readers with a question; is it too late for the United States to change? According to the United Nations' "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights," every person is entitled to a set of rights, and regardless of the situation, they should be protected at any cost (UN General Assembly 1). Human rights should be safeguarded in any case, and it is the responsibility of the government to make sure that the law protects every person. According to the above texts, human rights have been a topic of discussion for a long time, and both developing and developed countries have in some way violated these rights. The critical examination of the two texts shed some lights to the readers as to whether the United States did violate the human rights, also regarding the past activities by some nations that have broken the human rights and even the stand of the United Nations on human rights violations.

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Stone narrates the occurrence of the deadliest nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States, and the bomb has since then affected Japan. It is apparent that the bombing of the two cities was an act that violated human rights, even though there were some reasons behind the explosion, those people were too innocent to die (Kuznick and Stone 78). According to the article of the "Universal Declaration of the Human Rights," by the United Nations, every person is entitled to life, and therefore the protection and security of every individual are inevitable (UN General Assembly 1). The failing of Japan to surrender during the World War II led to the nuclear Attack. The Act of bombing triggered devastation in many people, and this has led to criticism of the decision by the United States. President Dwight D criticized the issue of the use of the nuclear bomb on Japan following their failure to surrender. He also adds that the weapon or the use of such force was not necessary for forcing them to surrender. Maier said that the bombing of the two cities made the Japanese Emperor make a move for intervention with the advocates and the divided military to surrender (Browne 5). The City Council supported the resolution that condemned Truman for failure to show mercy by using the atomic bombs and their continued support for using this type of weapon during the emergency time. It is therefore apparent that the act was condemned by many since it did not consider the human rights which advocate for the protection of every person regardless of their locale.

According to Stone, the Cold War is another activity by the United States that demonstrates the violation of human rights (Stone 125). The Cold War was a battle for world strength between the industrialist United States and the socialist Soviet Union. The Cold War impacted society in various ways both in the current time frame and in the past (Castiglia, 220). The spending on the military activities was reduced, and this led to an increase in the level of unemployment as millions who were in the Soviet Union remained unemployed. It is also apparent that many individuals lost their lives in Vietnam and the Korean War. Despite the loss of life by the soldiers who were uninformed, there are a million of individuals who died following the superpowers' wars across the world, and Southeast Asian is the most notable. There were also many cases of refugees and displacements. Since then, people have had various views and criticism about the Cold War. Zhivkov states that "If the Cold War was to occur again, the probability is that I would not choose the Communist side." (Westad 8). He continues and says that if the Lenin were living today, he would go with the same decision. He admits that the direction that was taken by the US was wrong from the start, and the concept of socialism was equally wrong (westad 9).

Some concurrent have a different view on the Cold War as well as the nuclear bombing in Japan. They argue that the attack was necessary to reduce the time which would have been taken to end World War II. The Bombing was done on 6th and 9th, and the next day the Japanese Emperor surrendered, and he asked for the end of the war. Emperor Hirohito announced their surrender to the Japan citizens leading to a grand celebration of V-J Day by the US. The argument is invalid since people lost their lives regardless of the situation. Some people argue that the cold war depicted victory to the United States and the current economic progress in the country is as a result of the Cold War. However, there are many lives which were lost during that time, the quality of living went down as many people remained unemployed.

Conclusion

To sum it all, the human rights were violated by the United States during the period of the Cold War and Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombing. The United nation's article which talks about the safeguard of human life by protecting it was violated. In the two events, there are various activities done by the US that violated the human rights some of which caused massive destruction, and thus many people were killed. It is therefore apparent that human rights are at stake since people who should be protecting them are the ones who are violating them.

Works Cited

Castiglia, Christopher. "Cold War Allegories and the Politics of Criticism." The New Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville, edited by Robert S. Levine, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013, pp. 219-232. Cambridge Companions to Literature.

Stone, Oliver, and Peter J. Kuznick. The Untold History of the United States. , 2012. Print.

UN General Assembly. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights." United Nations, 217 (III) A, 1948, Paris, art. 1, http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/. Accessed 6 Sept. 2016.

Browne, Ryan. Why did the U.S. bomb Hiroshima? 2016. Pp. 1-10. https://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/27/politics/hiroshima-obama-explainer/index.html.

Westad, Arne. The Cold War and America's Delusion of Victory. 2017. Pp. 1-8. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/opinion/cold-war-american-soviet-victory.html.