The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 9 | Issue 18 | Number 1 | May 02, 2011

1

Japan, the Atomic Bomb, and the “Peaceful Uses of NuclearPower”　　日本、原爆、「原子力の平和利用」•Japanese translationavailable

Yuki Tanaka, Peter J. Kuznick

Japan, the Atomic Bomb, and the“Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Power”

Yuki Tanaka and Peter Kuznick

In this two part article Yuki Tanaka and PeterKuznick explore the relationship between theatomic bombing of Japan and that nation’sembrace of nuclear power, a relationship thatmay be entering a new phase with the 3.11earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastropheat Fukushima.

A Japanese translation by Noa Matsushita isa v a i l a b l e h e r e(http://peacephilosophy.blogspot.com/2011/05/peter-kuznick-japans-nuclear-history-in.html).

“The Peaceful Use of NuclearEnergy” and Hiroshima

Yuki Tanaka

The ongoing grave situation at the FukushimaNo. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, which continues tocontaminate vast areas of surrounding land andsea with high levels of radiation, forces us toreconsider the devastating impact of the so-called “peaceful use of nuclear energy” upon allforms of life, including human beings andnature. The scale of damage to human beingsand the environment caused by a majoraccident at a nuclear power plant, whereradiation is emitted either from the nuclear

vessel or spent fuel rods, may be comparable tothat resulting from nuclear weapons. In thissense, a nuclear power accident can be seen asan “act of indiscriminate mass destruction,”and thus “an unintentionally committed crimeagainst humanity.”

It is well known that the origin of “the peacefuluse of nuclear energy” was part of “Atoms forPeace,” a policy that U.S. President Dwight D.Eisenhower launched at the U.N. GeneralAssembly in December 1953.

Eisenhower addresses the UN GeneralAssembly, December 13, 1953

As Peter Kuznick concisely explains in the

APJ | JF 9 | 18 | 1

2

following article, what the U.S. Governmentaimed at above all through this policy was tocontain the power of the Soviet Union, thenation which carried out the world’s firsthydrogen bomb test in August that year. Atomsfor Peace was devised to assure that Westernnations accepted plans by the U.S. governmentand American capital for the provision ofnuclear fuel and technology. Japan was amongthe most important of these targeted nations,as U.S. government officials recognized that itwould be symbolically advantageous topromote “the peaceful use of nuclear energy”in the nation that had been the victim of theworld’s first atomic bombing. Yet, at the verymoment that the U.S. was preparing tointroduce this program into Japan, a Japanesefishing boat, the Lucky Dragon #5, wasshowered with radioactive fallout caused by theU.S. hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll inMarch 1954.

This incident stirred Japanese anti-nuclearsentiment, and a campaign against nucleartests spread throughout Japan. Among the 32million signers of the anti-nuclear petition wereone million from Hiroshima Prefecture. Thismovement gave rise to the first World CongressAgainst Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs held inHiroshima in August in 1955.

At a time of rapidly rising anti-nuclearsentiment in Japan, ShorikiMatsutaro,president of the Yomiuri Newspaper and JapanTV Corporation, emerged to promote thebenefits of “the peaceful use of nuclearenergy.” Shoriki was elected as a member ofthe Lower House in the Diet in February 1955,and became the Minister in charge of NuclearEnergy in the Hatoyama cabinet in November.The following year he became the foundingDirector of the newly established Science andTechnology Agency, and vigorously promotednuclear energy in Japan, collaborating withother pro-nuclear politicians includingNakasone Yasuhiro, then chair of the NuclearEnergy Committee of the Lower House.

Hiroshima was a particular target forpromoting nuclear energy, as Peter Kuznickclearly explains. In the eyes of Americanofficials such as AEC Commissioner, ThomasMurray, this could help counter the negativeand gloomy images of atomic power. In January1955, Congressman Sidney Yates proposedbuilding Japan’s first nuclear power plant inHiroshima. Shoriki, with U.S. governmentsupport, organized the traveling exhibition on“The Peaceful Use of Nuclear Energy” in Tokyoin November, and Hiroshima was selected asone of several host cities. For three weeks fromthe end of May 1956, the exhibition inHiroshima city attracted 110,000 people fromHiroshima and neighboring prefectures, manyof them children on school excursions.

Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Museumunder construction in 1955

Although in other cities the exhibition wassponsored exclusively by the Yomiuri with theassistance of the U.S. Information Service, inHiroshima co-sponsors also included the

APJ | JF 9 | 18 | 1

3

Hiroshima City Council, Hiroshima PrefecturalGovernment, Hiroshima University, and theChugoku Newspaper. Twenty local influentialpersons, including the Mayor of HiroshimaCity, the Governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, thePresident of Hiroshima University and thePresident of the Chugoku Newspaper, were onthe preparatory committee. All praised thepromotion and application of this new powerfulenergy. By contrast, many A-bomb survivorswere skeptical and cautious about this non-military application of nuclear power, claimingthat there was still no solution to the problemof managing radioactive materials produced byoperating nuclear power reactors.

Yet, by the time the 2nd World CongressAgainst A & H Bombs was held in Nagasaki inAugust in 1956, just two months after theexhibition ended, the A-bomb survivors, too,had been heavily influenced by this nation-widebarrage of “Atoms for Peace.” Evenintellectual leaders of the A-bomb victims, suchas Moritaki Ichiro, a well-know philosopher andardent campaigner for the total abolition ofnuclear weapons, became supporters of nuclearenergy. In his speech at the inaugural meetingof Nippon Hidankyo (the Japan A-bomb VictimsAssociation) during the above-mentioned 2ndWorld Congress Against A & H Bombs inNagasaki, Moritaki stated ‘it is our sole wish todirect the use of nuclear energy – an energysource that could bring destruction andannihilation - for the purpose of happiness andprosperity of human beings.’

Two years later, the same exhibition was againpresented in Hiroshima by the city council, aspar t o f the Grand Exh ib i t i on o f theReconstruction of Hiroshima to celebrate therebirth of this city that had been totallydestroyed by the atomic bombing thirteenyears before. This exhibition, which lasted 50days from April 1, 1958, comprised 31 pavilionsincluding those for Electric Science and SpaceExploration. This time, the A-bomb Museumbuilding, completed in August 1955, was used

as the pavilion for the Peaceful Use of NuclearEnergy. Thus, in the same building, exhibitsrelated to the devastation caused by the atomicbombing were displayed together with variousdream-like applications of nuclear energy. Such things as nuclear powered planes, shipsand trains, as well as medical, agricultural andindustrial uses of radioactive materials weredisplayed. In the Electric Science pavilion, thebenefits and advantages of electricitygenerated by nuclear reactors was alsopropagated. In all, 917,000 people visited theexhibition, and the pavilion of the Peaceful Useof Nuclear Energy was the second mostpopular after that ofSpace Exploration.

It appears that most people in Hiroshima,including many A-bomb survivors, now heldtwo implicitly contradictory views: that thecampaign against the use of nuclear weaponsmust continue; but nuclear energy for non-military purposes should be welcomed andpromoted. Likewise, at least until recently,many anti-nuclear weapon campaigners inother parts of Japan have shared these views.This explains why A-bomb victim organizations,such as Nippon Hidankyo, still maintain silenceconcerning the fatal accident at the FukushimaNo.1 Nuclear Power Plant, and why none of thepost-war mayors of Hiroshima has ever publiclycriticized nuclear power. Indeed, some formermayors are widely known as strong supportersof Chugoku Electric Power Company’s plan tobuild a nuclear power plant at Kaminoseki,about 80 kilometers from Hiroshima City.

It is now time to critically and honestly reviewthe history of the anti-nuclear movement inHiroshima and to explore ways to unite hithertodivided anti-nuclear and anti-nuclear weaponsand energy campaigns.

APJ | JF 9 | 18 | 1

4

J a p a n ' s n u c l e a r h i s t o r y i nperspective: Eisenhower and atomsfor war and peace

PETER KUZNICK

It is tragic that Japan, the most fiercelyantinuclear country on the planet, with itsPeace Constitution, three non-nuclearprinciples, and commitment to nucleardisarmament, is being hit with the mostdangerous and prolonged nuclear crisis in thepast quarter-century -- one whose damagemight still exceed that of Chernobyl 25 yearsago. But Japan's antinuclearism has alwaysrested upon a Faustian bargain, marked bydependence on the United States, which hasbeen the most unabashedly pro-nuclear countryon the planet for the past 66 years. It is in thestrange relationship between these two oddlymatched allies that the roots and meaning ofthe Fukushima crisis lay buried.

Japan embarked on its nuclear energy programduring the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, aman now best remembered, ironically, forwarning about the rise of the very military-industrial complex he did so much to create.Eisenhower is also the only US president tohave criticized the atomic bombing ofHiroshima and Nagasaki. Fearing the bombingswould destroy the prospects for friendly post-war relations with Russia, at one point headvocated international control of atomicenergy and turning the existing US stockpileover to the United Nations for destruction.

Yet by the time he took office in 1953,Eisenhower's views on nuclear weapons hadchanged. Not wanting to see the United States"choke itself to death piling up militarye x p e n d i t u r e s(http://books.google.com/books?id=Le-sxf8U5p0C&pg=PA464&lpg=PA464&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false)" and assuming that any war withthe Soviet Union would quickly turn nuclear, heshifted emphasis from costly conventional

military capabilities to massive nuclearretaliation by a fortified Strategic AirCommand. Whereas President Harry Trumanhad considered nuclear arms to be weapons oflast resort, Eisenhower's "New Look" madethem the foundation of US defense strategy.

Just like a bullet? On occasion, Eisenhowerspoke almost cavalierly about using nuclearw e a p o n s . I n 1 9 5 5 , h e t o l d(http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50710F93F5B157A93C5A81788D85F418585F9) a reporter: "Yes of course they would beused. In any combat where these things can beused on strictly military targets and for strictlymilitary purposes, I see no reason why theyshouldn't be used just exactly as you would usea bullet or anything else." When Eisenhowers u g g e s t e d(http://books.google.com/books?id=0uz1reaKenQC&pg=PA401&lpg=#v=onepage&q&f=false)to Winston Churchill's emissary Jock Colvillethat "there was no distinction between'conventional' weapons and atomic weapons: allweapons in due course become conventional,"Colville recalled, horrified, "I could hardlybelieve my ears."

Eisenhower began transferring control of theatomic stockpile from the Atomic EnergyCommission (AEC) to the military. Europeanswere terrified that the United States wouldstart a nuclear war, which Eisenhowerthreatened to do over Korea, over the SuezCanal, and twice over the Taiwan Strait islandsof Quemoy and Matsu. European allies beggedEisenhower to show restraint.

Public revulsion at the normalization of nuclearwar threatened to derail the Eisenhoweradministration's plans. The minutes of a March1953 meeting of the National Security Council( N S C ) s t a t e d(http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FR U S -idx?type=goto&id=FRUS.FRUS195254v15p1&isize=M&submit=Go+to+page&page=827):

APJ | JF 9 | 18 | 1

5

"the President and Secretary [John Foster]Dulles were in complete agreement thatsomehow or other the tabu [sic] whichsurrounds the use of atomic weapons wouldhave to be destroyed. While Secretary Dullesadmitted that in the present state of worldopinion we could not use an A-bomb, we shouldmake every effort now to dissipate this feeling."

Atoms for Peace buried in radioactive ash.Eisenhower decided that the best way todestroy that taboo was to shift the focus frommilitary uses of nuclear energy to sociallybeneficial applications. Stefan Possony,Defense Department consultant to thePsychological Strategy Board, had argued(http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/osgtot.html):"the atomic bomb will be accepted far morereadily if at the same time atomic energy isbeing used for constructive ends" (p. 156). OnDecember 8, 1953, Eisenhower delivered his"Atoms for Peace" speech at the UnitedN a t i o n s . H e p r o m i s e d(http://books.google.com/books?id=rA0AAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false) that the United States would devote "itsentire heart and mind to find the way by whichthe miraculous inventiveness of man shall notbe dedicated to his death, but consecrated tohis life." He pledged to spread the benefits ofpeaceful atomic power at home and abroad.

But the subsequent March 1954 Bravo test

almost derailed those plans. Fallout from theUS hydrogen-bomb test contaminated 236Marshall Islanders and 23 Japanese fishermanaboard the DaigoFukuryuMaru ("Lucky Dragonno. 5"), which was 85 miles away from thedetonation and outside the designated dangerzone. A panic ensued when irradiated tuna wassold in Japanese cities and eaten by scores ofpeople.

Bravo test at Bikini

The international community was appalled bythe bomb test. Belgian diplomat Paul-HenriSpaak warned, "If something is not done torevive the idea of the President's speech -- theidea that America wants to use atomic energyfor peaceful purposes -- America is going to besynonymous in Europe with barbarism andhorror." Indian Prime Minister JawaharlalN e h r u d e c l a r e d(http://spot.colorado.edu/~chernus/Research/Apocalypse%20Management%20text/Chapter6.htm) that US leaders were "dangerous self-centered lunatics" who would "blow up anypeople or country who came in the way of theirpolicy."

E i s e n h o w e r t o l d(http://spot.colorado.edu/~chernus/Research/PeaceAsWeaponOfWar.htm) the NSC in May1954, "Everybody seems to think that we areskunks, saber-rattlers, and warmongers."D u l l e s c o m p l a i n e d(http://books.google.com/books?id=vJuaAAAAI

APJ | JF 9 | 18 | 1

6

AAJ&pg=PA129#v=onepage&q&f=false),"Comparisons are now being made betweenours and Hitler's military machine."

Criticism was fiercest in Japan. In Tokyo'sSuginami ward, housewives began circulatingpetitions to ban hydrogen bombs. Themovement caught on across the country. By thenext year, an astounding 32 million people, orone-third of Japan's population, had signedpetitions against hydrogen bombs.

Long-suppressed rage over the 1945 atomicbombings, squelched by US occupationauthorities' total ban on discussion of thebombings, had finally erupted. The OperationsCoordinating Board of the NSC recommended(http://books.google.com/books?id=FzR7L_qW7aIC&pg=PA181#v=onepage&q&f=false) thatthe United States contain the damage bywaging a "vigorous offensive on the non-waruses of atomic energy" and even offer to buildJapan an experimental nuclear reactor. AECCommissioner Thomas Murray concurred,p r o c l a i m i n g(http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10916F73D5B117A93C0AB1782D85F408585F9&scp=1&sq=Nuclear+Reactor+Urged+For+Japan&st=p), "Now, while the memory ofHiroshima and Nagasaki remain so vivid,construction of such a power plant in a countrylike Japan would be a dramatic and Christiangesture which could lift all of us far above therecollection of the carnage of those cities."

Selling the peaceful atom in Japan. TheW a s h i n g t o n P o s t a p p l a u d e d(http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/150136962.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Sep+23%2C+1954&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post+and+Times+Herald+(1954-1959)&edition=&startpage=18&desc=A+Reactor+for+Japan) Murray's ideaas a way to "divert the mind of man from hispresent obsession with the armaments race.""Many Americans are now aware … that thedropping of the atomic bombs on Japan was not

necessary . … How bet ter to make acontribution to amends than by offering Japanthe means for the peaceful utilization of atomicenergy. How better, indeed, to dispel theimpression in Asia that the United Statesregards Orientals merely as nuclear cannonfodder!"

Murray and Rep. Sidney Yates (Democrat ofIllinois) suggested locating the first electricity-producing nuclear power plant in Hiroshima. Inearly 1955, Yates introduced legislation(http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/228438482.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Feb+15%2C+1955&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post+and+Times+Herald++%281954-1959%29&edition=&startpage=5&desc=Belgium+and+Japan+Seek+1st+%27A-for-Peace%27+Power) to build a60,000-kilowatt generating plant there thatwould "make the atom an instrument forkilowatts rather than killing." By June, theUnited States and Japan had signed anagreement to work together on research anddevelopment of atomic energy.

But selling this idea to the Japanese peoplewould not be so easy. When the US Embassy,US Information Service (USIS), and CIAlaunched their vigorous campaign to promotenuclear energy in Japan, they turned toShorikiMatsutaro, the father of Japanesebaseball, who ran the Yomiuri Shimbunnewspaper and the Nippon Television Network.After two years' imprisonment as a Class-A warcriminal, Shoriki had been released withouttrial; his virulent anti-communism helpedredeem him in American eyes (see TetsuoArima, "Shoriki's Campaign to Promote NuclearPower in Japan and CIA PsychologicalWarfare," unpublished paper presented atTokyo University of Economics, November 25,2006). Shoriki's newspaper agreed to co-sponsor the much-hyped US exhibit welcomingthe atom back to Japan on November 1, 1955with a Shinto purification ceremony in Tokyo.The US ambassador read a message from

APJ | JF 9 | 18 | 1

7

E i s e n h o w e r d e c l a r i n g(http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50813F83A5E127A93C3A9178AD95F418585F9&scp=3&sq=Japan%20Welcomes%20Peace%20Atom%20Show&st=cse) the exhibit "asymbol of our countries' mutual determinationthat the great power of the atom shallhenceforward be dedicated to the arts ofpeace."

After six weeks in Tokyo, the exhibit traveled toHiroshima and six other cities. It highlightedthe peaceful applications of nuclear energy forgenerating electricity, treating cancer,preserving food, controlling insects, andadvancing scientific research. Militaryapplications were scrupulously avoided. Thenuclear future looked safe, abundant, exciting,and peaceful . The turnout exceededexpectations. In Kyoto, the USIS reported(http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/osgtot.html),155,000 people braved snow and rain to attend(p. 176).

The steady spate of films, lectures, and articlesproved enormously successful. Officialsr e p o r t e d(http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/osgtot.html),"The change in opinion on atomic energy from1954 to 1955 was spectacular … atom hysteriawas almost eliminated and by the beginning of1956, Japanese opinion was brought to popularacceptance of the peaceful uses of atomicenergy" (p. 179).

Such exultation proved premature. Antinuclearorganizing by left-wing political parties andtrade unions resonated with the public. AnA p r i l 1 9 5 6 U S I S s u r v e y(http://etd.ohiolink.edu/send-pdf.cgi/Nelson%20Craig%20Doyle.pdf?osu1237397691) foundthat 60 percent of Japanese believed nuclearenergy would prove "more of a curse than aboon to mankind" and only 25 percent thoughtthe United States was "making sincere efforts"at nuclear disarmament. The Mainichin e w s p a p e r b l a s t e d

(http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70A16FF395C127A93CAA9178DD85F428585F9&scp=1&sq=Foster%20Hailey,) thecampaign: "First, baptism with radioactive rain,then a surge of shrewd commercialism in theguise of 'atoms for peace' from abroad." Thenewspaper called on the Japanese people to"calmly scrutinize what is behind the atomicenergy race now being staged by the 'whitehands' in Japan."

But intensified USIS activities over the comingyears began to bear fruit. A classified report onthe US propaganda campaign showed(http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071121f1.html) that in 1956, 70 percent ofJapanese equated "atom" with "harmful," but by1958, the number had dropped to 30 percent.Wanting their country to be a modernscientific-industrial power and knowing Japanlacked energy resources, the public alloweditself to be convinced that nuclear power wassafe and clean. It had forgotten the lessons ofHiroshima and Nagasaki.

In 1954, the Japanese government beganfunding a nuclear research program. InDecember 1955, it passed the Atomic EnergyBasic Law, establishing the Japan AtomicEnergy Commission (JAEC). Shoriki becameminister of state for atomic energy and firstchair of the JAEC. Japan purchased its firstcommercial reactor from Britain but quicklyswitched to US-designed light water reactors.By mid-1957, the government had contracted tobuy 20 additional reactors.

In the United States, the AEC aggressivelymarketed nuclear power as a magic elixir thatwould power vehicles, feed the hungry, lightthe cities, heal the sick, and excavate theplanet. Eisenhower unveiled plans for anatomic-powered merchant ship and an atomicairplane. In July 1955, the United Statesgenerated its first commercial nuclear power.In October 1956, Eisenhower informed theUnited Nations that the United States had

APJ | JF 9 | 18 | 1

8

agreements with 37 nations to build atomicreactors and was negotiating with 14 more.

By 1958, the United States was becomingalmost giddy with the prospect of planetaryexcavation under the AEC's Project Plowshare,which proposed to use peaceful nuclear blaststo build harbors, free inaccessible oil deposits,create huge underground reservoirs, andconstruct a bigger and better Panama Canal.Some wanted to alter weather patterns byexploding a 20-megaton bomb alongside theeye of a hurricane. One Weather Bureauscientist proposed a plan to accelerate meltingof the polar icecaps by detonating 10-megatonbombs. Only Eisenhower's reluctance tounilaterally break a Soviet-initiated nuclear testmoratorium halted this sheer folly.

Still, Project Plowshare achieved its goals.Lewis Strauss, chairman of the AEC, admitted(http://books.google.com/books?id=0Cv_E3yLHG4C&pg=PA529#v=onepage&q&f=false) thatPlowshare was intended to "highlight thepeaceful applications of nuclear explosivedevices and thereby create a climate of worldopinion that is more favorable to weaponsdevelopment and tests."

Atoms for Peace masks nuclear weaponsbuildup. Under the cover of the peaceful atom,Eisenhower pursued the most rapid andreckless nuclear escalation in history. The USarsenal went from a little more than 1,000nuclear weapons when he took office toapproximately 22,000 when he left. But eventhat figure is misleading. Procurementsauthorized by Eisenhower continued(http://bos.sagepub.com/content/62/4/64/T1.expansion.html) into the 1960s, making himresponsible for the levels reached during theKennedy administration -- more than 30,000nuc lear weapons . In t e rms o f puremegatonnage, the United States amassed(http://books.google.com/books?id=wAwAAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA58#v=onepage&q&f=false) the equivalent of 1,360,000 Hiroshima

bombs in 1961.

Few know that Eisenhower had delegated totheater commanders and other specifiedcommanders the authority to launch a nuclearattack if they believed it mandated bycircumstances and were out of communicationwith the president or if the president had beenincapacitated. With Eisenhower's approval,some of these theater commanders had in turndelegated similar authority to lowercommanders (I am grateful to Dan Ellsberg forthis information). And given the fact that therewere then no locks on nuclear weapons, manymore people had the actual power, if not theauthority, to launch a nuclear attack, includingpilots, squadron leaders, base commanders,and carrier commanders.

In 1960, Eisenhower approved the first SingleIntegrated Operational Plan, which stipulateddeploying US strategic nuclear forces in asimultaneous strike against the Sino-Sovietbloc within the first 24 hours of a war. TheJoint Chiefs were subsequently asked toestimate the death toll from such an attack.T h e n u m b e r s(http://www.ellsberg.net/archive/us-nuclear-war-planning-for-a-hundred-holocausts) wereshocking: 325 million dead in the Soviet Unionand China, another 100 million in EasternEurope, 100 million from fallout in WesternEurope, and up to another 100 million fromfallout in countries bordering the Soviet Union -- more than 600 million in total.

The price of denial. While Americans werepreparing for nuclear annihilation, theJapanese were living in their own form ofdenial. From its shaky beginnings in the 1950s,the Japanese nuclear power industry flourishedin the 1960s and 1970s and continued to growthereafter. Prior to the tsunami-precipitatedFukushima accident last month, Japan had 54functioning nuclear power reactors thatgenerated 30 percent of its electricity; someprojected it would not be long before Japan

APJ | JF 9 | 18 | 1

9

reached 50 percent. But the terrible nuclearcatastrophe in Fukushima has forced theJapanese to deal for a third time with thenightmarish side of the nuclear age and thefact that their nuclear program was born notonly in the fantasy of clean, safe power, butalso in the willful forgetting of Hiroshima andNagasaki and the buildup of the US nucleararsenal.

A reckoning with Japan's nuclear legacy is nowtaking place. Hopefully, the Japanese will moveforward from this tragedy to set a path towardboth green energy and repudiation ofdeterrence under the US nuclear umbrella,much as they blazed a path with their PeaceConstitution and antinuclearism following thehorrors of World War II.

Peter Kuznick wrote this article for The Bulletinof Atomic Scientists, April 13, 2011.

P e t e r K u z n i c k(http://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/kuznick.cfm) is associate professor of history atAmerican University and director of theNuclear Studies Institute. Kuznick founded theCommittee for a National Discussion of NuclearHistory and Current Policy and co-founded theNuclear Education Project. He is the author ofBeyond the Laboratory: Scientists as Political

A c t i v i s t s i n 1 9 3 0 s A m e r i c a(http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo3638962.html), co-editor ofR e t h i n k i n g C o l d W a r C u l t u r e(http://www.amazon.com/dp/156098869X/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) , and co-author ofRethinking the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshimaand Nagasaki: Japanese and AmericanPerspectives (in Japanese, 2010). Currently, heis co-authoring a 12-part documentary filmseries and book with Oliver Stone titled TheForgotten History of the United States, whichis scheduled to air on Showtime in November.

Yuki Tanaka is Research Professor, HiroshimaPeace Institute, and a coordinator of The Asia-Pacific Journal. He is the author most recentlyof Yuki Tanaka and Marilyn Young, eds.,Bombing Civilians: A Twentieth CenturyH i s t o r y(http://www.amazon.com/dp/1595585478/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) as well as of Japan's ComfortW o m e n(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0415194016/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20) and Hidden Horrors:Japanese War Crimes in World War II.

Recommended citation: Yuki Tanaka and PeterKuznick, Japan, the Atomic Bomb, and the“Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Power,” The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol 9, Issue 18 No 1, May 2,2011.

APJ | JF 9 | 18 | 1

10

(http://www.amazon.com/dp/156098869X/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)

Click on the cover to order.

(http://www.amazon.com/dp/1595585478/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)

Click on the cover to order.

(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0415194016/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)

Click on the cover to order.