August 6th & 9th — 80 years since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — Wednesday marks 80 years since the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan.
The horrific event would lead to the end of WWII — but it’s ramifications still last today.
Along with the bombing of the city of Nagasaki three days later, the attacks marked the first and only time nuclear weapons had been used throughout the world.
“The initial thing is just to remember how catastrophic this was in context. This is the use of a weapon the world had never seen and has not seen since in terms of its magnitude,” says USC Associate Professor of Political Science, Dr. Chelsea Estancona.
The initial blast and the devastating effects of nuclear poisoning and cancer to follow killed an estimated 200,000 people.
On Wednesday, Japanese officials marked the anniversary with a ceremony at The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
“As we go to remember this, we want to have in our mind, how can we prevent this thing from ever happening again,” says Estancona.
A new PBS documentary called “Atomic Echoes” also aims to highlight prevention while honoring the nearly 200,000 soldiers that responded to the immediate aftermath of the bombings — including Columbia based Veterans like Larry Turner.
“It’s nice to know he’s getting recognition that he needs and that every service member needs,” says his daughter, Martha Pressley-Turner.
Estancona believes The Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970 has done a decent job of maintaining an agreement among countries — that what happened in 1945 should never happen again.
But that doesn’t mean the threat isn’t still real.
“We have since of course seen raising concerns about what lengths Russia would go to if they wanted to pursue its imperial objections, same things about concerns in the South China Sea. She continued by saying, “I do think that extremely unfortunately the use of the bomb is something that can serve as a great deterrent.”
Nine countries currently possess or are believed to possess nuclear weapons – with CNN reporting the United States’ current nuclear bombs being 80 times stronger than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“I certainly hope we would not see a situation where these are used again in part because the us faces a very different landscape than when they used the bombs. We do now have states (countries) like Russia that have that 2nd strike capacity — that causes us to think twice about whether or not this would happen,” says Estancona.
Outrage over human rights violations and basic moral and ethical codes are a big part of prevention as well.
“This weapon has not gone away, right? If anything, our capacity of countries who have nuclear development, the capacity to engage in nuclear harm has only gotten greater, and so the responsibility with that has also certainly gotten much greater,” says Estancona.
