澳门六合彩

On August 6, 1945, in the waning days of World War听II, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The city鈥檚 destruction stands as a powerful symbol of nuclear annihilation, but it has also shaped how we think about war and peace, the past and the present, and science and ethics.听The Age of Hiroshima, published by Princeton University Press in January 2020,听traces these complex legacies, exploring how the meanings of Hiroshima have reverberated across the decades and around the听world.

Age of Hiroshima听editors Michael Gordin and John G. Ikenberry, as well as contributor Alex Wellerstein, will discuss how the bombing of Hiroshima gave rise to new conceptions of our world and its precarious interconnectedness, and how we continue to live in its dangerous shadow听today. Toshihiro Higuchi and Jessica Mathews, in commenting on the volume, will offer their own perspectives on Hiroshima as an historical event and a cultural phenomenon.

Selected Quotes

Michael Gordin, Wilson Center Fellow and Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Princeton University

鈥淭he biggest absence鈥s we still have no really good idea why we haven鈥檛 had nuclear war since. We have a lot of theories about why that鈥檚 the case, but we have an N-of-2 in terms of use of nuclear weapons in war to kill people. They have been used in other ways; testing, placement for deployment, there鈥檚 all sorts of ways you can use a nuclear bomb without setting it off.鈥�

鈥淪o once you have the sense that there鈥檚 a threshold, I think it actually restructures how you think about the conventional, and makes the conventional permissible 鈥� as long as you鈥檙e not going above that.鈥�

G. John Ikenberry, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University

鈥淲e try to use Hiroshima as a site for turning its history into a kind of platform for debate, for education, for activism, for bringing people together each year, with reports that people who are elsewhere during the year. Thinking about how to control nuclear weapons, how to bring back the momentum that has kind of all gone away for arms control and disarmament.鈥�

鈥淭here is a diffuse effort to blend the history and Hiroshima鈥檚 legacy into social movements, and to leverage, and remind, and have all of that feed into our politics and diplomacy.鈥�

鈥淚 learned of the exquisitely complex way in which Japan thinks about Hiroshima, and the broader role of the war as both aggressor and victim.鈥�

鈥淗iroshima had this kind of lightning affect 鈥� illuminating a landscape of international politics鈥�

鈥淭he social milieu, the political milieu in which governments operate is so important. And that鈥檚 why in some sense, it鈥檚 so frightening today. Because remember the 80s? Remember when Reagan was deploying new missiles of intermediate missiles in Europe? There were millions of people in the streets in Europe and the United States.鈥�

Alex Wellerstein, Stevens Institute of Technology

鈥淭he historians I know, the practicing people who work on this actively today, most of them think the revisionist narrative is wrong鈥�. And they also think the orthodox narrative is wrong. And the reality is some very much more complicated thing.鈥�

鈥淒eterrence is in people鈥檚 minds. And it鈥檚 not a lot of people鈥檚 minds. For most of the world today, you鈥檙e talking about a dozen minds in the world, who are in charge of making鈥�. Because we鈥檝e centralized nuclear weapons unlike a lot of things our government does, nuclear arms are centralized. Basically, one person in the American system. It鈥檚 three people in the Russian system 鈥� You鈥檙e talking about a very small number of people, and if they have the idea that using the weapon is a terrible idea, then it鈥檚 enacted in the world. And if they don鈥檛 have the idea than we are in a dangerous, dangerous place. 鈥�

听鈥淚 will say I think that there鈥檚 a lot of factors. And instead of saying, 鈥榳e can鈥檛 know,鈥� I would say it seems incredibly contingent. Which is really just a very intellectual way of saying, 鈥榳ell, it depends on what happens that day.鈥� And that鈥檚 not reassuring.鈥�

Toshihiro Higuchi, Assistant Professor,听Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

鈥淚 think of how fruitful it is to really bring together many different scholars鈥� We have, you know, Japanese historians, literary scholars, and then political scientists, and the history of science, and the sociologists of science.鈥�

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 about, really, if we can think about ourselves as an independent thinking citizen, as opposed to identifying ourselves completely with the state or nation.鈥�

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important to make them curious, so that they start asking questions, and they start exploring themselves.鈥�

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