On August 6, the world pauses to remember. We think about the blinding flash over Hiroshima, the mushroom cloud that became a symbol of human destruction, and the immense suffering of people.

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We said "Never Again". We observe another Hiroshima Day amid the ongoing devastation in Gaza, the connections between 1945 and 2025 are striking.

Similarities lie in the systematic erasure of civilian humanity. The atomic bombings weren't just military attacks, they were acts of mass destruction aimed at entire populations. The logic prioritised strategic goals over the value of innocent life.

In Gaza, we see a similar calculation using conventional weapons. The civilian death toll, more than 46,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and children, shows this is not about isolated accidents. It reflects a relentless campaign in populated areas. Homes, hospitals and vital infrastructure destroyed. Collateral damage, a term often used to dehumanise civilians caught in a war zone.

Before Hiroshima, propaganda portrayed the Japanese as subhuman fanatics. Narratives to destroy empathy, making the intolerable appear acceptable. Palestinians in Gaza experience a similar process. Grouped together, stripped of individual stories and pain, reduced to numbers or abstract threats. Their suffering is downplayed, their deaths justified, and their right to exist questioned. This dehumanisation creates the emotional distance necessary for inflicting and accepting immense suffering. The faces of children pulled from rubble resemble........

© Canberra Times