Hiroshima survivors mark 80 years since atomic bomb devastated city
Japanese city
during the
second World War
.
Many ageing survivors expressing frustration about the growing support of global leaders for nuclear weapons as a deterrence.
With the number of survivors rapidly declining and their average age exceeding 86, the anniversary is considered the last milestone event for many of them.
'There will be nobody left to pass on this sad and painful experience in 10 years or 20 years,' Minoru Suzuto, a 94-year-old survivor, said after he knelt down to pray at the cenotaph. 'That's why I want to share (my story) as much as I can.'
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The bombing of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, destroyed the city and killed 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000. Japan surrendered on August 15th, ending the second World War and Japan's nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned against a growing acceptance of military build-ups and of using nuclear weapons for national security amid Russia's war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East, with the United States and Russia possessing most of the world's nuclear warheads.
'These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,' he said. 'They threaten to topple the peace-building frameworks so many have worked so hard to construct.'
He urged younger generations to recognise that such 'misguided policies' could cause 'utterly inhumane' consequences for their future.
Elsewhere, Pope Leo on Wednesday criticised the 'illusory security' of the global nuclear deterrence system, in an appeal on the 80th anniversary.
Leo said in his weekly audience that the destruction in Hiroshima should serve 'as a universal warning against the devastation caused ... by nuclear weapons'.
'I hope that in the contemporary world, marked by strong tensions and bloody conflicts, the illusory security based on the threat of mutual destruction will give way to ... the practice of dialogue,' said the pontiff.
'We don't have much time left, while we face a greater nuclear threat than ever,' said Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organisation of survivors that won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for its pursuit of nuclear abolition.
'Our biggest challenge now is to change, even just a little, nuclear weapons states that give us the cold shoulder,' the organisation said in its statement.
About 55,000 people, including representatives from a record 120 countries and regions, including Russia and Belarus, attended the ceremony. A minute of silence was held while a peace bell rang out at 8.15am local time, the time when a US B-29 dropped the bomb on the city.
Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui (R) places a list of atomic bomb victims in the cenotaph during the Peace Memorial Ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan. Photograph: EPA
Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, the city's mayor and other officials laid flowers at the cenotaph. Dozens of white doves, a symbol of peace, were released after the mayor's speech.
Hours before the official ceremony, as the sun rose over Hiroshima, survivors and their families started paying tribute to the victims at the Peace Memorial Park, near the centre of the nuclear blast 80 years ago.
Kazuo Miyoshi, a 74-year-old retiree, came to honour his grandfather and two cousins who died in the bombing and prayed that the 'mistake' will never be repeated.
'We do not need nuclear weapons,' Mr Miyoshi said.
'There is hope,' UN secretary general António Guterres said in a statement read by Izumi Nakamitsu, under-secretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, noting Nihon Hidankyo's Nobel Peace Prize and countries' recommitment to a nuclear free world in 'the Pact for the Future' adopted last year.
Mr Guterres stressed the importance of carrying forward the survivors' testimony and message of peace and added: 'Remembering the past is about protecting and building peace today and in the future.'
Outside the park under high security, more than 200 protesters gathered, holding posters and flags carrying messages such as 'No Nuke, Stop War' and 'Free Gaza! No more genocide' while chanting slogans.
A line of floral wreaths is pictured after being placed there by officials during the ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack, in the city of Hiroshima. Photograph: RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images
Wednesday's anniversary comes at a time when possession of nuclear weapons for deterrence is increasingly supported by the international community, including Japan.
Some survivors said they were disappointed by president Donald Trump's recent remark justifying Washington's attack on Iran in June by comparing it to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the mild response from the Japanese government.
'It's ridiculous,' said Kosei Mito, a 79-year-old former high school teacher who was exposed to radiation while he was still in his mother's womb. 'I don't think we can get rid of nuclear weapons as long as it was justified by the assailant.' – AP
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Irish Times
21 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘I have never seen Taiwan this divided': Fears grow that China is plotting to take over from within
Chen Ru-fen's life has changed beyond recognition. The angel investor has moved from air-conditioned meeting rooms to Taiwan 's sweltering streets. Instead of helping start-ups she is now campaigning to rescue her country from what she believes is a surreptitious Chinese annexation push. She and thousands of other activists suffered a crushing defeat in their first battle. An unprecedented mass recall vote last month failed to unseat a single lawmaker from the Kuomintang (KMT), the largest party in Taiwan's parliament, whom activists like Chen accuse of undermining democracy so that China can seize the island. 'I thought I'd go back to my usual life after the vote,' says Chen. 'But now we have to keep going. If we don't stop them, we will lose our sovereignty and our freedom forever.' Her anxiety reflects growing fears that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be inching closer to taking the island it has long claimed is part of China. Xi Jinping, China's president, has repeatedly declared that the Taiwan issue 'cannot be passed on from generation to generation.' READ MORE Concerns in the West have centred on the risk of a Chinese invasion, with US military commanders warning that the manoeuvres the Chinese People's Liberation Army is conducting around Taiwan are no longer exercises but 'rehearsals' for an attack. [ China describes military exercises around Taiwan as a warning to 'separatist forces' Opens in new window ] But many Taiwanese are far more concerned that Beijing could subvert their country from within, by tapping into long-standing cultural and economic links, grooming collaborators and sidelining the country's elected government. Since the Democratic Progressive party (DPP), which Beijing denounces as 'secessionist', won the presidency in 2016, the CCP has stepped up its efforts to win over political parties, interest groups and segments of society more amenable to closer relations across the Strait. 'China has a long history of playing on Taiwan's complex history and political scene to undermine its internal unity,' says Scott Harold, a Taiwan expert at the Rand Corporation, a Washington think-tank. 'And Taiwan struggles with the political and societal cohesion it needs to become resilient against that.' The country has a fractured national identity forged by the Chinese nationalist ideology of the Kuomintang, the island's historical ties to China and its international diplomatic isolation. Although the island's original residents and the descendants of those who fled there following the communist revolution in 1949 all overwhelmingly reject unification with China, disagreements are becoming more public and more acrimonious under the mounting pressure from Beijing. 'China and international observers look at this and say that Taiwan's voters have got behind the pro-China stance,' says Shelly Hsu, a Taipei headhunter who participated in the recall campaign. Hsu believes Xi is bent on taking Taiwan so he can to hold on to power, and that the cheapest way for him to do so 'is to scare the Taiwanese into surrendering'. Like Chen she sees the recall vote defeat as an existential moment for the country. 'We must abandon our illusions and prepare for battle. Those without a second passport should start exercising and stock up on food,' she says. Taiwanese residents cast their vote during a recall election in Taipei, Taiwan, in July. Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA For her and others, the KMT, which fought the communists for decades in the first half of the 20th century, is now best described as a party of traitors and a fifth column. 'The KMT are the CCP's fellow travellers; they are the CCP's biggest agent in Taiwan,' says Hsu. The KMT fiercely rejects being described as 'pro-China' and insists that they are true patriots. But the country's undercurrent of competing nationalisms has now burst into the open. 'I have never seen Taiwan this divided,' says Lev Nachman, a political scientist at National Taiwan University. Xi's approach to Taiwan conforms to an age-old CCP playbook that involves a mix of enticement, deception and coercion to control or defeat its adversaries. Through so-called United Front work, the CCP builds relationships with members of ethnic minorities and religious communities in China, and politicians, entrepreneurs and opinion leaders abroad, to ensure these groups will help further its interests. Xi's own father, Xi Zhongxun, deployed similar tactics in 1941, asking intelligence official Bu Lu to deal with a KMT commander who was causing the communists trouble in the northwestern province of Shaanxi. Bu wined and dined the target until his superiors became suspicious and transferred him away. Xi complimented Bu for having 'won without firing a shot'. The approach reached its zenith in 1949 revolution, when communist party troops persuaded the KMT commander in Beijing to hand over the Chinese capital without a fight. In recent years Chinese scholars have advised the communist party to use this 'Beiping model' to conquer Taiwan. [ Taiwan's leader wants dialogue with China, but warns of need for stronger defences Opens in new window ] Hu Xijin, a Chinese propagandist and former editor of the CCP-owned tabloid Global Times, has said that China should 'Lebanonise' Taiwan – incite internal strife that would plunge society into a state of chaos, ripe for Beijing to take over. Despite Xi's refusal to talk to Taiwan's DPP government, he is pushing for 'integrated development' policies that seek to incorporate Taiwan into China's society and economy bit by bit. While his government halted the flow of Chinese tourists to Taiwan and blocked Taiwanese agricultural exports to China after the DPP's victory, it selectively made deals with local KMT politicians to buy their agricultural produce. The divide-and-rule gambit prompted Taiwanese tourism companies and farmers to urge their own government to adopt a softer stance towards Beijing. 'Our family's income declined because suddenly we could no longer sell to our biggest market, mainland China,' says Weng Chi-hung, a pomelo farmer in southern Tainan. 'The DPP is to blame for that.' Chinese government departments regularly pay for Taiwanese village heads to visit China ahead of elections in Taiwan, invitations many accept in violation of local law, raising concerns about political interference as those officials play a key role in election campaigns at the grassroots. Beijing offers financial support for young Taiwanese to set up businesses in China and organises pilgrimages to temples in China that have historic links to Taiwanese deities, aiming to strengthen emotional and cultural ties to the 'motherland'. The CCP has also targeted Taiwan's military, inviting veterans who fought with the KMT against them to celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Whampoa, the military academy that trained early generations of both Nationalist and communist officers. That appropriation of the KMT military's Chinese roots complicates Taiwan's efforts to create armed forces wholeheartedly committed to defending against an invading Chinese army. At the same time, Beijing is recruiting serving officers as spies. 'We have a massive problem with the infiltration of our force now,' says a senior official at the justice ministry's investigation bureau. In 2024 the number of Taiwanese prosecuted on charges of espionage for China jumped to 64, up from just 10 in 2022, while at least two retired officers have been indicted. This is paired with a disinformation campaign. The National Security Bureau, Taiwan's version of the CIA, said in January that the amount of disinformation China distributed into the country had risen 60 per cent over the past year. One area of particular concern is social media apps widely used by teenagers and even primary school pupils. 'Although other democracies also observe adverse effects of Chinese apps like TikTok, the impact goes much deeper here because content travels so much easier due to the shared language,' says Eric Hsu, a researcher at Doublethink Lab, a Taiwanese nonprofit that researches Chinese disinformation and influence operations. Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office keeps close tabs on Taiwanese entrepreneurs and executives living and working in China. Almost 20 businesspeople have said that TAO officials approach representatives of their business associations ahead of elections in Taiwan, seeking pledges they will donate to parties other than the DPP and organise trips back to Taiwan to bring out the anti-DPP vote. The CCP has also been fostering political parties. In January, Taiwan's ministry of the interior asked the constitutional court to rule on dissolving the Chinese Unification Promotion party, set up by organised crime boss Chang An-lo, on the grounds that it illegally received money from China and violated Taiwanese national security laws. A woman holds flags while waiting for the results of the recall election in Taipei. Photograph: I-Hwa Cheng/AFP via Getty Overtly pro-unification groups such as the CUP have had no impact on Taiwan's elections as only a tiny minority of Taiwanese would consider becoming part of China even as a future option. But the KMT is a different matter. After ruling Taiwan for four decades, it began allowing a gradual transition to democracy in the late 1980s and became one of the country's two main political forces along with the DPP. Like the CCP, the KMT holds that Taiwan is part of a greater Chinese nation, although the former enemies disagree on how to define this. Ever since a KMT chair visited China for the first time in 2005, the two parties have engaged in regular dialogue. For some, that relationship has become too cosy in recent years, with prominent KMT politicians accused of parroting CCP rhetoric on visits to Beijing. Wang Hung-wei, one of the lawmakers targeted in the recall, badmouthed Taiwan's government on a Chinese state television talk show in 2021, while former president and KMT chair Ma Ying-jeou claimed during the last presidential election campaign that Taiwan was too small and weak to defend itself – and urged his compatriots to 'trust Xi Jinping'. Such comments could once be dismissed as posturing or awkward or sentimental behaviour. But they took on greater significance in January last year, when the KMT won the largest number of seats in Taiwan's parliament. Within weeks of taking office, it allied with a smaller party to push through a series of highly controversial Bills, including an expansion of parliamentary powers at the expense of the executive and the judiciary. After Taiwan's top court found those amendments unconstitutional, the KMT and its allies raised the quorum the court needs to rule and blocked new judges nominated by the president. That left the court inquorate – and thus paralysed. Other manoeuvres included unprecedented budget cuts and a redistribution of funds from the central to local governments, of which a majority are run by the KMT. It has also proposed a controversial Bill that would restrain Taiwan's use of its military to push back against Chinese incursions. It says this reduces the risk of conflict between two parties which, the Bill argues, are technically still at war with each other. The opposition's moves to paralyse the government of President Lai Ching-te triggered confrontation with the DPP. But they also inflamed the wider public. In May 2024, when the KMT voted on the expansion of parliamentary powers, tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside. Addressing the crowd, Wu Rwei-ren, a prominent political scientist and historian, called the move a 'parliamentary coup' and accused the KMT of 'co-ordinating from within in support of a Chinese annexation of Taiwan'. DPP lawmakers said the opposition was usurping power following a script provided by Xi Jinping. Although the KMT dismissed such accusations, the rhetoric stuck and the campaign to petition for recalling KMT lawmakers quickly gained traction. Eric Chu, the chairman of Taiwan's main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT). Photograph: Ritchie B Tongo/EPA Angel investor and activist Chen was on board from the beginning. 'They are hollowing out our courts, they are undermining our democracy, they echo the way China talks,' she says. In Hsinchu, the centre of Taiwan's vital semiconductor industry, law professor Carol Lin led a campaign against Cheng Cheng-chien, the KMT legislator who defeated her in the January 2024 race for that seat. Lin filed a criminal complaint against Cheng, alleging that he illegally received campaign finance from the Chinese government. A special prosecutorial group for national security cases has opened an investigation. 'Cheng is probably the case with the clearest evidence of KMT lawmakers colluding with China,' says Lin. Cheng denies the accusations. President Lai went on a tour of the country, giving speeches ostensibly aimed at uniting the nation against the threat from China. But his rhetoric left no room for those with emotional bonds to China. Lai compared the search for national unity to the process of forging iron, during which the nation must 'remove impurities'. The KMT has denounced the DPP as 'green communists' in a reference to their party colour, compared the party with the Nazis, and called Lai a dictator. China was quick to take advantage of the infighting. State media and social media accounts affiliated with the Taiwan Affairs Office have been trumpeting the vote as a rejection of Lai's 'dictatorial' tendencies. A growing chorus of voices is warning that deepening internal division is just what the CCP needs. Former DPP lawmaker Lin Chuo-shui last week warned members of his own party against being overzealous in identifying alleged Chinese collaborators. Optimists believe that Taiwan will pull itself together. James Chen, a political scientist at Tamkang University who supports the KMT, sees the recall results as a demonstration of Taiwanese voters' judgment and maturity. 'The DPP and President Lai should develop better approaches to truly unify the country', he says, but warns that if the opposition fails to meet the public's demands 'they will not be able to return [to the presidency] in 2028″. But Chen, the activist, is no longer content to simply put her faith in politicians. 'What the recall taught us is that there is still a lot to be done to make our citizens more resilient against Chinese interference,' she says. One next step that she and her fellow activists are considering is running for elected office at the grassroots level. 'Our village heads and borough wardens have often become tools of Chinese influence operations,' she warns. 'It is time that we, the citizens, take this into our own hands.' – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025 Opinions on key issues are deeply split along party lines 70% of DPP supporters blame China for rising cross-strait tensions. But 61% of KMT supporters blame the DPP itself, according to Doublethink Lab 88% of DPP supporters are satisfied with the way democracy in Taiwan works. But only 31% of KMT supporters are, says Doublethink 81% of KMT supporters agree with the idea that the US cannot be trusted. Almost exactly the same percentage of DPP backers say they disagree.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
Nagasaki mayor warns of nuclear war as city marks 80 years since atomic bombing
Thousands bowed their heads in prayer in Nagasaki on Saturday to mark the 80th anniversary of the city's atomic bombing, as the mayor warned that current global conflicts could push the world again into nuclear war. The western Japanese city was levelled on August 9th, 1945, when the United States dropped a 10,000-pound plutonium-239 bomb, nicknamed 'Fat Man', instantly killing some 27,000 of the city's estimated 200,000 people. By the end of 1945, the death toll from acute radiation exposure had reached about 70,000. Nagasaki's destruction came three days after a US uranium-235 bomb destroyed Hiroshima. Japan surrendered on August 15th, ending the second World War. [ Atomic bombings anniversary: Japanese politicians consider a once-unthinkable question Opens in new window ] After a moment of silence at 11.02am, marking the time of the blast, mayor Shiro Suzuki called on leaders to return to the principles of the UN Charter and show a concrete path toward abolishing nuclear weapons, warning that delay was 'no longer permissible'. READ MORE 'This is a crisis of human survival that is closing in on each and every one of us,' Mr Suzuki told the crowd, estimated by Japanese media at 2,700. A replica of the atomic bomb code-named 'Fat Man', dropped over Nagasaki. Photograph: History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images He quoted the testimony of a survivor to illustrate the reality of a nuclear attack: 'Around me were people whose eyeballs had popped out... Bodies were strewn about like stones.' 'Is it not this 'global citizen' perspective that will serve as the driving force behind stitching back together our fragmented world?' Mr Suzuki asked, calling for a solution based on mutual understanding and solidarity. The US military is believed to have chosen Nagasaki as a target due to its significance as a major industrial and port city. The city's geographical features, including its hilly terrain, were also thought to concentrate the blast. Atomic bomb survivor, or "hibakusha", Hiroshi Nishioka (L), prepares to speak as a representative of survivors during the ceremony. Photograph: Str/Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images Representatives from 95 countries and territories, including nuclear superpower the United States, and Israel - which neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons - attended the annual ceremony at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Park for the milestone year. Russia, which possesses the world's largest nuclear stockpile, was also represented. [ The Irishman who filmed Hiroshima and Nagasaki Opens in new window ] Daiji Kawanaka, a 14-year-old tourist from Osaka, echoed the mayor's sentiments. 'I truly believe a tragedy like this must never be repeated,' he told Reuters, saying the anniversary prompts conversations about peace even among his young peers. 'We can only pledge to take the initiative ourselves in making a step toward peace.' Participants take part in a moment of silence during the annual memorial ceremony. Photograph: Str/Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images Japan's leading organisation of A-bomb survivors, Nihon Hidankyo, won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for campaigning for a world without nuclear weapons. [ 'Such a cruel sight': A visit to Hiroshima lives long in the memory Opens in new window ] Survivors, known as 'hibakusha', continue to suffer the effects from radiation and social discrimination. With their numbers falling below 100,000 for the first time this year, their stories fuel ongoing efforts to advocate for a nuclear-free world. Japan, the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, has stated its commitment to nuclear disarmament but is not a signatory or observer of the UN treaty to ban nuclear weapons. - Reuters
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
A thoroughly engrossing account of the Iranian revolution and an essential read on post-Assad Syria
King of Kings: The Fall of the Shah, the Iranian Revolution and the Unmaking of the Modern Middle East Author : Scott Anderson ISBN-13 : 978-1529155266 Publisher : Hutchinson Heinemann Guideline Price : €25 Transformed by the People: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's Road to Power in Syria Author : Patrick Haenni and Jerome Drevon ISBN-13 : 978-1805264101 Publisher : Hurst Guideline Price : £19.95 Scott Anderson's thoroughly engrossing account of the Iranian revolution, King of Kings, is a welcome refresher for many in the West, whose perception of US-Iranian relations is no doubt coloured by the hostage crisis and the subsequent mutual vilification by the two countries. Anderson provides ample nuance in his account of the prior relationship between Washington and Tehran, one that the Americans were not automatically giving up on after the advent of the mullahs. Popular resentment in Iran against the US for its role in the 1953 coup that overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh and for its steadfast support for the Shah fuelled the revolution from both the secular left and religious right. In reality, however, as Anderson points out, Washington was fairly hands-off after 1953, probably a bit too much for its, and Iran's, good. The most striking thing we learn from King of Kings was how negligent Washington was of Iran. The country was America's most important ally in the region, according to Anderson (I am presuming he is not counting Israel), and yet, right until the fall of the Shah, employed barely any Farsi-speakers at its Tehran embassy and was far too content to listen to, and relay, the good news it wanted to hear from Iran. READ MORE [ Two tribes: How Israel and Iran became enemies Opens in new window ] This was true of successive administrations but it became particularly acute under Jimmy Carter , when competing egos in his cabinet, the worst offender being Zbigniew Brzezinski, engendered an institutional sclerosis that resulted in the rare warnings from seasoned Iran hands, such as Farsi-speaking consular official Mike Metrinko, and head of the State Department's Iran desk Henry Precht, going unheard. [ Iran-US relations: What is behind the hostility between the two countries? Opens in new window ] When the revolution did come, being almost instantly usurped by the supremely vicious and obscure Ruhollah Khomeini, the White House was as taken aback as were American expatriates in Tehran, blissfully ignorant in their sociolinguistic bubbles and suburban homes. Admittedly, many Iranians, even Khomeini's more moderate revolutionary allies, were caught equally unawares by the grim ayatollah, whom few had heard of until a few months before the Shah's fall, forgotten as he was in his Iraqi exile since being expelled by the regime in 1964. But they didn't have the resources Washington had, and the US assumed that the Shah, as the successor of a monarchy that had survived 2,500 years, was eternal and unassailable. Washington also made the mistake of giving far too much credence to the Shah's own conviction that communism, and not Islamism, was the greatest threat to his rule. Anderson wryly notes that a 'red' Iran, unlikely as it was, would have in the long run been far less of a headache for the US. One of the great pleasures of King of Kings is the portrayal of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a man as fascinating as he was fatuous. He resembles stars of 1960s TV in being one of the world's most famous men in his day while now being largely forgotten. Praised by foreign nationals for his sharp intelligence (at least by royal standards), he was also a workaholic with a risible tendency for self-regard and an adamantine obliviousness to how Iranians regarded him (his younger wife Farah was a lot more sensitive to this). Pahlavi's eldest son and heir Reza has been touting himself in recent weeks as a potential transitional leader in the event of the US once again effecting regime change, no doubt reasoning that four decades spent in Paris and suburban Washington can't make him any more out of touch with Iranians than his father was in the Niavaran Palace. Which brings me to a major flaw in Anderson's book: his overly Washington-centric outlook. While fair in his assessment of the Shah and his regime, Anderson is rather too wistful about its passing. There is no doubt that the Islamic Republic is an infinitely worse entity than its imperial predecessor, but that was not a historical inevitability. And while Anderson is correct to say that the Shah's regime was considerably less bloody than that of Arab dictators in the region, why should that be a concern of the Iranian people, any more than citizens of liberal democracies should be content with their rights being rolled back simply because other countries have it far worse? The source of Iranian anger at the Shah, be it from the educated middle classes or the more religiously devout poor, was far from illusory. If the United States lost a good ally in the region, maybe it should have been a bit more attentive. That said, King of Kings is well worth a read. If the fall of the Shah in 1979 was unexpectedly rapid, the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December last year by comparison took place in the blink of an eye, albeit after a protracted conflict that had stagnated for about six years. With Assad's Iranian, Russian or Lebanese allies either in disarray or occupied elsewhere, the Syrian army was overrun in the space of a week and the president fled to Moscow hours before Damascus fell to insurgents led by former al-Qaeda member Ahmad al-Shaara. Western governments, which had long since reconciled themselves to Assad as better the devil they know, moved quickly to meet the new Damascus government, even as Shaara and his group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, were still designated terrorists. [ US revokes foreign terrorist designation for Syria's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Opens in new window ] Not since the days of the Mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan have jihadis (or in HTS's case, former jihadis) been so readily courted by western countries. Of course, foreign governments probably felt there was little else to work with if Syria were to remain stable after Assad's departure. There were also some among them, Germany and Austria in particular, who cynically saw the moment as an opportunity to finally send home the Syrians they had taken in as refugees. Even so, it is a fact that Shaara and HTS were a much less radical force than they once were, even a relatively respectable one, given the group had its origins in al-Qaeda in Iraq (Shaara spent most of the war there in Abu Ghraib and other prisons before returning to Syria to wage jihad against the Assad regime in 2011). Shaara's Al-Nusra Front split with al-Qaeda in 2016, and then in turn splintered to form HTS a year later. Since then, HTS has moved inexorably towards the centre of the Islamist spectrum. Patrick Haenni and Jerome Drevon's impressive study of the group, based on a wide range of detailed interviews, including with Shaara and other figures in HTS, charts this deradicalisation, which the authors contend was born of pragmatism to survive in the ever-fragmented insurgent landscape of mid-2010s Syria. No doubt cognisant of the popular revulsion in Syria at the excesses of the largely foreign Islamic State, HTS focused instead on coalition-building with more moderate groups and battles for hegemony against more radical ones. Overseeing the Salvation Government in Idlib from 2018 gave it experience of ruling, and conferred popular legitimacy on it. [ Children play among bones as Syria faces 'enormous challenge' of what to do about mass graves Opens in new window ] Though HTS has remained authoritarian, it is far more tolerant of dissent and criticism than its antecedents. It also eased sectarian tensions in Idlib, reaching out firstly to mainstream Muslims, particularly Sufis, whom Salafis generally view as suspiciously similar to Shiites, with further tentative openings-up to Christians and Druze. For this reason, Syrian commentators, secular ones included, were less panicky than foreign observers, although still cautious, about the rise to power of HTS and Shaara last December. Nonetheless, HTS, however mellowed and more tolerant they might be, are still an Islamist group and intend to implement sharia law in Syria. Haeeni and Drevon also doubt it will undergo any further liberalisation. But, given the collapse of civil society and the Balkanisation that Syria has undergone over the past decade, an illiberal if non-capricious government is probably the best anyone can expect for now. Haenni and Drevon are also no less circumspect than many other observers about how long this more moderate stance of HTS's will last. They acknowledge that detractors of the group view this moderation as a strategic deception, but they themselves feel that HTS being overtaken by radical popular sentiment is a more likely outcome. With Syria now awash with weapons and battle-hardened soldiers, there have already been questions over the interim government's ability to rein in sectarian violence by Sunni militias, such as massacres of Alawites in April and deadly attacks on the Druze, also in April and in July. The authors see HTS as now potentially swimming against the tide of popular opinion; where there was previously 'deradicalisation from the top', Syria's new rulers must grapple with 'reradicalisation from below'. This could entail another 'transformation by the people', in a far less benign direction than the one that prompted them to pitch towards the centre. Transformed by the People is by its nature a book that will have a particularly select readership but it is probably the best of its kind in English to date on the subject and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Syria in the post-Assad era. Further reading Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuściński (Penguin, 1982) The great Polish foreign correspondent published this account of the Shah's Iran three years after the revolution, but it is remarkably seminal in the way it has preserved the anachronistic absurdity of Pahlavi rule and the pervading atmosphere of dread in the imagination of readers. Islam in the World by Malise Ruthven (OUP, 2006) Updated in its third edition to take in 9/11 and the various tumults that have cascaded from it, Ruthven's study of the intersection of Islam and politics remains an essential read. The Age of Jihad: Islamic State and the Great War for the Middle East by Patrick Cockburn (Verso, 2017) Veteran Middle Eastern correspondent Cockburn's account of the 21st-century wars between the West and the Arab world, which culminated in the rise of the Islamic State, is a superb synthesis of reportage and analysis and reads like a cautionary tale that will no doubt be disregarded time and time again by western leaders.
