Japan

“Hiroshima, Nagasaki weren’t cause of Japan’s surrender”: historian Ward Wilson

BASIC Senior Fellow Ward Wilson was interviewed on Russia Today to discuss the 70th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. While the conventional narrative claims that the gruesome event led to the capitulation of Japan and the end of WWII, new evidence suggests that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not decisive. What implications does this have for the strategy of nuclear deterrence and the value of nuclear weapons in modern geopolitics?

American Exceptionalism and the Folly of Hiroshima

“Seventy years ago, the world fell under the shadow of a nuclear Armageddon, under which it has been living ever since. On August 6 1945, a US B-29 bomber, the “Enola Gay,” dropped the world’s first atomic bomb, innocently named “Little Boy,” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima….” writes Ward Wilson for Sputnik News. 

Read the full article on Sputnik News' website here

 

 

North Korea’s nuclear weapons: The bigger picture

NATO heads of states discussed the multitude of threats at their summit in Wales earlier this month. The debate was predictably dominated by the Russian – Ukrainian crisis, though delegates also discussed how best to strengthen Afghan National Security Forces. Buried within the summit declaration was the condemnation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) for carrying out nuclear weapon and ballistic missile tests.