Nine nations now possess nuclear weapons, which can obliterate and irradiate human settlements in an instant. But only twice have they been used: 80 years ago, when the destructive technology was in its infancy and in the hands of a single country.
On Aug. 6, 1945, in a drastic move thought to have hastened Japan’s surrender in World War II, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the western Japanese city of Hiroshima. A U.S. bomber called the Enola Gay released the 9,700-pound weapon that detonated nearly 2,000 feet in the air, creating a massive mushroom cloud and searing the city with temperatures of up to 7,200 degrees Fahrenheit. The blast and its fallout extinguished about 140,000 lives by the end of the year.
Three days later, another American bomber dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, to the southwest, killing another 70,000 people. The destruction of the two cities was followed by Japan’s submission days later, ending its decades of brutal conquest. But the bombings also announced a more terrifying age in which human innovation could spark death and destruction on a previously unimaginable scale.
As the flattened city of Hiroshima was rebuilt, it dedicated itself to promoting peace. Survivors of the atomic bombing have campaigned for a world free of nuclear weapons. But 80 years on, that dream is fading. Three of Japan’s neighbors — Russia, China and North Korea — are nuclear powers, and Tokyo depends on the American nuclear umbrella to protect it. With tensions in the Pacific heightening and firsthand memories of nuclear devastation waning, more Japanese are questioning the national commitment to peace at all costs.
Why did Japan go all-in on pacifism after World War II?
The Americans forced it to. The Imperial Japanese Armed Forces’ harsh invasion of much of Asia, its shock attack on Pearl Harbor and its willingness to sacrifice a generation of young soldiers for the empire made the victorious Americans adamant that the country should never again wage war.
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