Published on May 27, 2016
http://democracynow.org – President Obama has become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima since U.S. warplanes dropped the first atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. The bombing killed 140,000 people and seriously injured another 100,000. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing another 74,000 people. Speaking at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Obama offered no apology for the bombings but called for a world without nuclear weapons. “Among those nations like my own that own nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them,” Obama said. Despite his call for an end to nuclear weapons, the United States has been quietly upgrading its nuclear arsenal to create smaller, more precise nuclear bombs as part of a massive effort that will cost up to $1 trillion over three decades. We speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Kai Bird, co-author of “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.”
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice
Nuclear
Transition Studies 