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What Japan’s Atom Bomb Survivors Have Taught Us About the Dangers of Nuclear War

Japanese survivors recall the day the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and warn of future risks.
via Retro Report on April 10, 2025
J. Robert Oppenheimer lecturing in front of chalkboard.

Oppenheimer’s Second Coming

Japanese were interested when Oppenheimer visited Japan as an honored guest in 1960. Will they be also interested in the Nolan film released today in Japan?
by Gregory Kulacki via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on March 28, 2024
Rubble in the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

Big Six v. Little Boy: The Unnecessary Bomb

A new book's insistence that the bomb was necessary to bring about Japan’s surrender is largely contradicted by its own evidence.
by Andrew Cockburn via London Review of Books on November 15, 2023
Cillian Murphy in the movie "Oppenheimer."

‘Oppenheimer’ Doesn’t Show us Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That's an Act of Rigor, Not Erasure

The movie has no interest in reducing the atomic bombings to a trivializing, exploitative spectacle, despite what some would want.
by Justin Chang via Los Angeles Times on August 11, 2023
Oppenheimer and other scientists at the site of the Trinity Test.

What “Oppenheimer” Misses About The Decision to Drop the Bomb

The Truman administration launched a PR campaign to inflate casualty numbers to justify the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
by John R. Emery, Anna Pluff via Inkstick on August 10, 2023
The nuclear bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945.

The Atomic Bombings of Japan Were Based on Lies

On the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan, we should remember that deploying the bomb wasn’t necessary to win the war.
by Taylor C. Noakes via Jacobin on August 9, 2023
Nagaski after the atomic bomb.

Did We Really Need to Drop the Bomb?

American leaders called the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki our 'least abhorrent choice,' but there were alternatives to the nuclear attacks.
by Paul Ham via American Heritage on August 6, 2023
Survivors walk among the smoldering ruins of Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.

Hiroshima's Anniversary Marks an Injustice Done to Blast Survivors

On this date 78 years ago, the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. Survivors involuntarily provided key medical data for years, without receiving any help.
by Arthur Caplan via Scientific American on August 6, 2023
Radioactive plume from atomic bomb over Nagasaki

Hiding the Radiation of the Atomic Bombs

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. came with censorship and obfuscation about the effects of the radiation on those who were exposed.
by Matthew Wills, Janet Farrell Brodie via JSTOR Daily on February 24, 2022
Rubble from atomic bombs in Japan

Thousands of Japanese Americans Were in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945

Among the nearly half a million atomic bomb victims and survivors were thousands of Japanese American citizens of the United States.
by Nina Wallace via Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment on August 4, 2021
Survivors of Hiroshima

Daughters of the Bomb: A Story of Hiroshima, Racism and Human Rights

On the 75th anniversary of the A-bomb, a Japanese-American writer speaks to one of the last living survivors.
by Erika Hayasaki via Narratively on August 5, 2020

Counting the Dead at Hiroshima and Nagasaki

How many people really died because of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings? It’s complicated. There are at least two credible answers.
by Alex Wellerstein via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on August 4, 2020
August 31 1946 Cover of New Yorker magazine

The New Yorker Article Heard Round the World

Revisiting John Hersey's groundbreaking "Hiroshima."
by Greg Mitchell via Literary Hub on July 2, 2020
People looking at the Fat Man bomb covered with a tarp

What Journalists Should Know About the Atomic Bombings

As we approach the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings, we're going to see a lot of journalistic takes on them — many of them totally wrong.
by Alex Wellerstein via Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog on June 9, 2020

How John Hersey Revealed the Horrors of the Atomic Bomb to the US

Remembering "Hiroshima," the story that changed everything.
by Jeremy Treglown via Literary Hub on April 23, 2019

A Tale of Two Hiroshimas

Two of the earliest films to depict the bombing of Hiroshima show how politics shapes national mourning.
by Kazu Watanabe via Current (The Criterion Collection) on May 3, 2018

A 'Purely Military' Target? Truman’s Changing Language about Hiroshima

A set of speech drafts suggests that Truman may not have fully understood the implications of dropping an atomic bomb on the city.
by Alex Wellerstein via Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog on January 19, 2018

Bombing Nagasaki: The Scrapbook

A "yearbook" documents the U.S. military occupation of Nagasaki in the aftermath of the atomic bomb.
by Clark Parker via The Tokyo Files Archives on May 2, 2016

Why Nagasaki?

Why was a second bomb used against Japan, so soon after Hiroshima? A review of several theories.
by Alex Wellerstein via Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog on August 9, 2013

Hiroshima

A hundred thousand people were killed by the atomic bomb, and these six were among the survivors.
by John Hersey via The New Yorker on August 31, 1946
A painting of a desolated, ruined street.
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Defeating Death Only with Death

On civilians’ opinion of killing civilians by air during World War II.
by Cormac Ó Gráda via HNN on September 10, 2024
Tennessee Valley Authority.

The Dam and the Bomb

On Cormac McCarthy.
by Walker Mimms via n+1 on April 3, 2024
Frank Oppenheimer holding prism up to face

The Atomic Bomb, Exile and a Test of Brotherly Bonds: Robert & Frank Oppenheimer

A rift in thinking about who should control powerful new technologies sent the brothers on diverging paths.
by KC Cole via Knowable Magazine on March 5, 2024
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Reviewing the Oppenheimer Reviews

Christopher Nolan's blockbuster has generated a torrent of historical commentary about the birth of nuclear weapons. Is there something missing from the conversation?
by Kathryn Ostrofsky on August 25, 2023
J. Robert Oppenheimer

Why the Fascination with Oppenheimer?

J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project scientists are a rare example of weapons designers who have gone down in history.
by Ryan Dahn via Physics Today on August 17, 2023
Major General Groves and J. R. Oppenheimer view the base of the steel tower used for the first atomic bomb test near Alamogordo, New Mexico, on Sept. 11, 1945.

A New, Chilling Secret About the Manhattan Project Has Just Been Made Public

Turns out Oppenheimer’s boss lied, repeatedly, about radiation poisoning.
by Fred Kaplan via Slate on August 8, 2023
J. Robert Oppenheimer

"Cry Baby Scientist": What Oppenheimer the Film Gets Wrong about Oppenheimer the Man

The so-called "father of the bomb" helped bring us prematurely into the age of existential risk.
by Haydn Belfield via Vox on July 22, 2023
Oppenheimer movie poster.

The Race to Make Hollywood’s First Atomic Bomb Movie

Before Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer," the world nearly got Ayn Rand’s "Tribute to Free Enterprise."
by Greg Mitchell via Literary Hub on July 17, 2023
Mushroom cloud of nuclear bomb.

Forgetting the Apocalypse

Why our nuclear fears faded – and why that’s dangerous.
by Daniel Immerwahr via The Guardian on May 12, 2022
Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito, September, 1945
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The Japanese Surrender in 1945 is Still Poorly Understood

Did the United States have no other option but to drop atomic bombs on Japan in order to get them to surrender?
by Jeremy Kuzmarov, Roger Peace via HNN on September 26, 2021
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