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1945 believed Japan was close to a negotiated surrender without the use of the atomic bomb, a history that has since been replaced by the myth that the bomb saved lives. 



  • 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. 



  • “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."



  • 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. 


  • 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. 



  • 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