atomic bomb 
-
SOURCE: Associated Press
9/2/2020
Cancer Cases Likely in Those Exposed to New Mexico Atomic Test
National Cancer Institute findings suggest that it is likely that some people exposed to fallout from the Trinity atomic bomb tests got cancer as a result. However, the incomplete data available make it unclear if the findings will help advance legislation to compensate "downwinders" for health damage.
-
8/16/2020
Was there a Third A-Bomb? A Fourth? A Fifth?
by Don Farrell
Japan's surrender makes the question a matter of speculation, but the history of military facilties built on Tinian in the Mariana Islands suggests that American military leadership was preparing to assemble many more atomic bombs should the Pacific war have continued.
-
SOURCE: NPR
8/6/2020
'And The World Went Crazy': How Hollywood Changed After Hiroshima
Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s wrestled with the idea of a planet without humanity. After "Dr. Strangelove" satirized any effort to treat nuclear war seriously on the big screen, Hollywood viewed the bomb through schlock and horror, until the 1980s revival of sentiment for disarmament and "The Day After."
-
8/7/2020
Hiroshima (1953, Hideo Sekigawa)
View a segment from, and read about, Hideo Sekigawa's 1953 film "Hiroshima."
-
SOURCE: The New Yorker
8/2/2020
Sunday Reading: Hiroshima
Read John Hersey's influential 1946 account of the atomic bomb and its aftermath, along with related articles from The New Yorker.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
8/6/2020
After Atomic Bombings, These Photographers Worked Under Mushroom Clouds
Photographs commissioned by Japanese newspapers in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were suppressed by American occupation authorities in both countries. A new book offers Americans a new opportunity to grasp the physical and human toll of nuclear weapons.
-
8/9/2020
75 Years Later, Purple Hearts Made for an Invasion of Japan are Still Being Awarded
by D.M. Giangreco
There has been much debate about how close the United States was to victory in the Pacific before the atomic bombs were dropped 75 years ago this week. But in 1945, the military ordered so many Purple Heart medals in anticipation of an invasion of Japan that medals from that supply are still being awarded today.
-
8/9/2020
Unconditional Surrender: The Domestic Politics of Victory in the Pacific
by Marc Gallicchio
The terms on which the United States pressed Japan for surrender were shaped by American domestic politics; New Deal Democrats and their liberal allies succeeded in convincing Harry Truman that it was necessary to dramatically rebuild Japan's society along more social-democratic lines.
-
SOURCE: Stars and Stripes
8/4/2020
‘Irresistible Weapon’: Historians Say American History Oversimplifies Atomic Bombings On Japan
Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., author and blogger on atomic bomb history, said time has smoothed the wrinkles and simplified the facts that are often taught about the first and, so far, only wartime use of atomic weapons.
-
SOURCE: National Security Archive
8/4/2020
The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II
Extensive Compilation of Primary Source Documents Explores Manhattan Project, Eisenhower’s Early Misgivings about First Nuclear Use, Curtis LeMay and the Firebombing of Tokyo, Debates over Japanese Surrender Terms, Atomic Targeting Decisions, and Lagging Awareness of Radiation Effects
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
8/4/2020
He Was an American Child in Hiroshima on the Day the Atomic Bomb Dropped
Unknown numbers of American children of Japanese ancestry were stuck in Japan because of visits to family when war broke out; some were in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
-
SOURCE: Mother Jones
7/24/2020
A Magazine Story Opened Eyes to Hiroshima’s Horror. White House Allies Plotted to Shut Them Again.
by Greg Mitchell
The Hersey article, with its unflinching account of what survivors witnessed in Hiroshima, threatened the official narrative of justification.
-
8/2/2020
Better Than Silence: The Need for Memorials to the Manhattan Project
by Stephen Kiernan
Creating the bomb was both a milestone achievement, and a profound expansion of the limits of warfare. This complexity deserves a permanent public memorial.
-
8/9/2020
Did the Atomic Bomb End the Pacific War? – Part II
by Paul Ham
Japan's surrender was hastened by imminent invasion by the Soviet Red Army, a crippling US naval blockade and conventional bombing, and a diplomatic promise to protect the Japanese Emperor from execution, argues Paul Ham. Granting undue credit to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki excuses atrocity.
-
8/2/2020
Did the Atomic Bomb End the Pacific War? – Part I
by Paul Ham
Many people, including historians, believe that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused Japan's unconditional surrender, saved a million American lives, and was the least morally repellent way to end World War II. Paul Ham contends that none of this is true.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
7/16/2020
Trump Ignores The History Of Nuclear Weapons At Our Peril
by William Lambers
We must not become complacent about this threat after so many years and just casually accept their existence. Seventy-five years after Trinity, banning nuclear testing and working toward eliminating nukes is the only sensible path forward.
-
SOURCE: Global Policy
7/16/2020
“A Tragic Illusion” - Did the Atom Bomb Make the United Nations Obsolete Three Weeks After its Birth?
by Tad Daley
President Harry Truman's knowledge of the imminent success of the Manhattan Project led him to fear that the United Nations' charter was inadequate to the task of preventing war; the Cold War meant that a better form of internationalism was never achieved.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
7/15/2020
‘Now I Am Become Death’: The Legacy of the First Nuclear Bomb Test
“They took some effort” to protect the public, Science Historian Alex Wellerstein said. “Would we consider it adequate today? No, not at all. It’s not considered adequate to set off a nuclear bomb, not tell anyone about it and set up a pregnant scientist in a motel with a Geiger counter to monitor radiation.”
-
SOURCE: Calgary Herald
5/31/2020
Robert J. Sawyer Tackles the Atomic Bomb with Alternate-History Novel, “The Oppenheimer Alternative”
Robert J. Sawyer's novel is built around the ethical and moral ramifications of dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which the author hopes will receive deep reflection on their 75th anniversaries.
-
4/5/2020
The Atomic Bomb, War Room Intrigue and Emperor Hirohito's Decision to Surrender
by David Dean Barrett
The record of the Imperial Conferences makes clear two salient facts: that Emperor Hirohito ended the war, and he ended it because of the atomic bomb.
News
- The Deficit Hawks That Make Moderate Democrats Cower
- The Muddled History of Anti-Asian Violence
- Massive Investment in Social Studies and Civics Education Proposed to Address Eroding Trust in Democratic Institutions
- Lightning Strikes Twice: Another Lost Jacob Lawrence Surfaces
- Former Procter and Gamble CEO: America and the World Need History Majors
- Part of Being a Domestic Goddess in 17th-Century Europe Was Making Medicines
- How Dr. Seuss Responded to Critics Who Called Out His Racism
- Discovery Of Schoolhouse For Black Children Now Offers A History Lesson
- People Longing for Movie Theaters During the 1918 Flu Pandemic Feels Very Familiar in 2021
- How Did "Bipartisanship" Become a Goal In Itself? (Podcast)