The atomic bomb created the conditions of contingent catastrophe, forever placing the world on the precipice of existential doom. But in doing so, it created a philosophy of acceptable cruelty, worthy extinction and legitimate extermination — explored in Christopher Nolan's film, Oppenheimer, writes Binoy Kampmark.
Nagasaki
Another protest called on Labor to scrap the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal and to sign the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Peter Boyle and Pip Hinman report.
Peace groups have used the 76 year anniversary of the United States' bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan to demand the federal government sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Kerry Smith reports.
The world recently commemorated the anniversaries of the dropping of nuclear weapons on the people of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) in 1945. But it hasn't been a good few weeks for world peace.
Seventy years ago this month, the US committed two of the worst terrorist attacks in human history. The incineration of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs represented the bloody climax of World War II. The nation that committed this heinous crime soon itself came to be the only remaining capitalist superpower.
Seventy years ago, two split second explosions changed the course of history. The blinding light and fireballs that scorched Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the start of the atomic age. More than 200,000 people died either instantly or within a couple of months. Thousands more have died in the years since due to the radiological impacts of the bombs.