Why Did the USA Drop Atomic Bombs on Japan?

Exactly 79 years ago to the day this episode is released, the USA changed the course, not just of World War II, but of global history, by using nuclear weapons.

The bombs that hit Hiroshima and, three days later, Nagasaki, killed an estimated 200,000 people, and swiftly prompted Japan’s surrender. But how did it get to this? What were Japan and America even doing in a war triggered by Nazi Germany? And when there were so many other courses of action, why did the USA drop atomic bombs on Japan?

Special Guests:

• Sherzod Muminov, an associate professor of Japanese history at the University of East Anglia.

Highlights from this episode:

(02:11) What happened between America and Japan?!

(05:37) Why did America care so much about Japan?

(09:56) Racism as a driving force behind the conflict

(18:53) An intensifying confrontation pre-World War II

(25;03) America outnumbered and outpowered Japan, so why drop the bomb?

(30:52) The morality of nuclear war

Additional Resources:

FILM: Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1978, Stanley Kubrick)

FILM: Oppenheimer (2023, Christopher Nolan)

PODCAST: The East Angle by Ra Mason and Sherzod Muminov

ARTICLE: How the unlucky Lucky Dragon birthed an era of nuclear fear by David Ropeik

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