atomic bomb

The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Nuclear Bomb

by Alex Wellerstein

Read a detailed account of the moment in the Cold War when the United States and Soviet Union contemplated, then developed and tested, nuclear weapons of horrifying power. 

The Japanese Surrender in 1945 is Still Poorly Understood

by Jeremy Kuzmarov and Roger Peace

American diplomats and military leadership in 1945 believed Japan was close to a negotiated surrender without the use of the atomic bomb, a history that has since been replaced by the myth that the bomb saved lives. 

Filmmaker Greg Mitchell on the Government's Suppression of Scientists' Film about A-Bombs

"I’ve always wanted to promote an honest debate about what happened. I want all of the facts out there. I want Americans to have conversations and examine moral issues."

A Black Reporter Exposed Official Lies about the Atomic Bomb

Charles Loeb's reporting defied the official government line that radiation from the atomic bombs dropped on Japan was harmless, and resonated with Black readers who suspected a racist motive in dropping the new weapons on Japanese cities. 

A Star Times Reporter was Paid by Government Agencies He Covered

Historian Alex Wellerstein's book is one of two that exposes the self-dealing of reporter William Laurence and his complicity with propaganda about the effects of nuclear weapons. 

Review: Lesley Blume's “Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World”

by Lawrence Wittner

Journalist Lesley Blume's book "Fallout" ably tells the story about how John Hersey and the New Yorker navigated government censorship and political opposition to publish Hersey's "Hiroshima," a foundational work in later movements to prevent nuclear war.

‘Atomic Cover-Up’ Reveals A Previously Unseen Story Of Human Devastation

The new documentary "Atomic Cover-Up"  reminds that "people of goodwill can differ over whether we did the right thing in order to bring a terrible war to its conclusion or if, instead, we committed unforgivable crimes against humanity. What none of us can do is look away."

“Atomic Cover-Up” Premieres

by Greg Mitchell

Documentarian Greg Mitchell's new movie about the two film crews – one Japanese, one American – who recorded the human toll of the Hiroshima bombing and had their footage suppressed has premiered. Find out how to view it. 

Atomic Cover-Up

by Greg Mitchell

Greg Mitchell's Atomic Cover-Up premiers this month and tells the story of two film crews, one Japanese and one from the U.S. Army, whose footage of the human toll of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings was seized and suppressed by the U.S. goverment. 

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.   

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. 

'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."

Hiroshima (1953, Hideo Sekigawa)

View a segment from, and read about, Hideo Sekigawa's 1953 film "Hiroshima."

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

‘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.

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

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.