Throughout the Twelve Thousand Bombs podcast series, scientists and policy experts have noted the grave threat posed by nuclear weapons and the knowable devastation caused by their development and use. Princeton astrophysicist Stewart Prager noted the quick turn a diner party can take when the topic veers to his work on nuclear non-proliferation. Looking to end with something hopeful, next-gen physicist Naomi Satoh returns to discuss her in-progress illustrated novel based on personal and familial oral histories gathered from survivors of the 1945 bombings over Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II.
Public education about World War II in the United States typically includes the bombs as a footnote, asking students to debate whether the bombings were morally or politically justified. De-classified documents show that the scientists and military strategists working on the Manhattan Project were more concerned with where—not if—to use the bombs.
“It’s a foregone conclusion,” said Illinois State University physics professor Matt Caplan. “You don’t spend a bajillion dollars in World War II on a superweapon to not use it. They’re itching to use this thing before the end of the war. It is obvious to them that this is going to be used offensively because they want to understand its capabilities.”
Caplan has said that this leaves dichotomous images in the minds of Americans and Japanese people when they think of the war. Americans often picture the mushroom cloud, while Japanese and Japanese Americans picture the aftermath.
“It’s only after Americans became aware of the sheer horror of what a bomb does to a city that these narratives of ethics were constructed,” he said.
Documenting first-person testimonies from Japanese civilians who survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki has become increasingly urgent. Satoh’s grandfather was a child living in Tokyo—a city subject to conventional attacks that preceded the atomic bombings.
“My grandfather was alive during World War II,” Satoh said, “but he’s also very, very old. Everybody that was alive at that time is also very, very old. It is important to hear how people felt—the emotional, social, cultural implications of an event like this.”
Satoh spoke to WGLT days after the Japanese advocacy group Nihon Hidankyō was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for their work representing survivors of atomic bombs and promoting peace.
“Peace is not an end-state; it’s a process we have to earn and fight for every day,” said Caplan. The number of nuclear weapons on Earth, currently hovering around 12,000 bombs, is how he gauges progress.
“Progress is not impossible,” he said. “It’s not guaranteed. And neither is the bad outcome of the world getting worse.”
Listen to Twelve Thousand Bombs on the NPR App or wherever you get your podcasts. For a full transcript, visit this episode on Apple Podcasts.
