“Bombers” (1971?)

Believe it or not, there are plenty of Bowie songs that have not appeared in this blog (yet) in any form. Unless I’m forgetting, “Bombers” is one such example. I’m positing this on the anniversary of the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. Bowie has a few anti-war songs, ranging from the oblique “Fall Dog Bombs the Moon” to the obvious “How Does the Grass Grow.” “Bombers” is the most obvious of all. There’s nothing subtle about it— the song is about the absurdity of nuclear warfare. Its also not a very good song, and only exists as a “bonus track” (on some editions of Hunky Dory) and in collections like this version from Bowie at the Beeb.

Although Bowie is not generally thought of as a protest singer, he had generally been anti-war from early on (as evidenced by the song). Also relevant to Hiroshima day, Bowie showed a reverence for Japan and Japanese culture. He borrowed from Japanese imagery for some of his Ziggy-era costumes, and references Japan in one way or another now and again in songs, probably most notably in the first version of “Its No Game” in which a female Japanese singer loudly repeats Bowie’s lines in Japanese. The instrumental “Crystal Japan” was initially used for a commercial run only in Japan. As far as I know, Bowie never specifically made a statement about the use of nuclear weapons against Japan, but there’s enough cross current of his interests to make the subject relevant to this blog.

My own feelings are mixed about the bombing. Of course, it’s tragic that the war had come to that point. There should have never been a war in the first place. That said, my understanding of history is that the U.S. decision-makers were faced with the dilemma of pushing on for months or longer at the expense of thousands of American lives, and potentially (as far as they knew) even more Japanese lives than the almost unimaginable number that died as a result of the two atomic bomb attacks. Even in hindsight, it doesn’t seem like an easy decision one way or another from my perspective. That well over 100,000 human beings lost their lives (possibly more than double that as a result of both bombings) is a black mark on the history of humanity. But the totality of the circumstances that brought the world to that moment were, taken as a whole, even worse.

Fortunately, nuclear weapons have never again been used in combat. It isn’t comforting that the decision to hold back is left to the likes of Vladimir Putin and, recently, Donald Trump.

Anyway, all this is a serious topic that deserves more than this brief, superficial blog entry or Bowie’s almost childish song. But I wanted to mark the day and like I said, I’m surprised I hadn’t posted this song earlier, so that’s what I got!