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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."

  • 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

    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: 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

  • 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: 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.”