Too Easily Forgotten

August 6 came and went like any other day—I woke up late, got some lunch, worked out, wrote a bit of a story, went out with friends, and had a generally hedonistic summer weekend day. The only thing I saw that marked the day’s significance was something I caught out of the corner of my eye as I got dressed: an orange blob on the cover of a book.

That two-inch tall blob—an image of the mushroom cloud that symbolizes the murder of hundreds of thousands of people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki—was my only reminder of the terror that fell out of the bomb bays of Enola Gay and Bock’s Car some 60 years ago.

And I was far from alone in my ignorance; everywhere I looked Americans didn’t seem to notice. Sure, Time magazine’s cover story two weeks earlier was about the future of atomic warfare, and yes, the ceremony in Hiroshima was covered by world news media. But let’s face it—the space shuttle and Raphael Palmiero have been getting far more press. On Tuesday, the sixtieth anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, “Runaway bride mows lawn as part of service” was one of the top stories on Yahoo news. Nagasaki was nowhere to be found.

Like many of the other horrible and bloody marks that dot our country’s history, we have pushed our dropping of the atomic bomb largely out of sight and out of mind. Were it not for my copy of Richard Rhodes’ book “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” sitting on my desk, I would have fallen into the same trap.

This national ignorance is chilling because it is just as important to remember what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki today as it was 50 years ago. Unlike during the Cold War, when we felt the specter of atomic warfare breathing down our backs every day and marshaled our country’s whole attention to fight it, today we live in an insulated world where Dr. Strangelove’s doomsday scenario seems like fiction. Although we hear of dirty bombs and nuclear programs, and polls have shown that most Americans fear a nuclear attack, there is not nearly the same level of pressure to deal with the situation immediately. That must change because the present is just as disconcerting as the past.

Currently, seven countries are declared nuclear powers and several other countries—including North Korea—are likely nuclear powers. And just the other day, Iran announced that it is restarting its nuclear program (although Iran insists it is for peaceful purposes).

While the threat of some weapon being deployed is always present, there are enough safeguards in most countries to make a preemptive strike highly unlikely. However, there are some countries—like North Korea and Iran—which evade watchdogs like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The only way this may change is with global pressure, which cannot build when the threat of nuclear weapons is so far from the minds of the general public.

And then there is nuclear proliferation. There are many diplomatic options, including wider acceptance of treaties, improved security measures, increased monitoring, excess stockpile reduction, and better warhead accounting practices to reduce the spread of nuclear arms. These are far from a panacea, but widespread diplomatic acceptance of current treaties and the continuing negotiation of further treaties must occur.

Finally, there is the issue of Russia’s nukes, many of which are unsecured. That’s not to say that they are “loose nukes,” but, according to a recent report form the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School, only 26 percent of Russia’s nuclear material is fully secured and 54 percent has yet to have any security improvements. At the current rate of 4 percent of the nuclear material per year, it will be at least 2023 before all of Russia’s nuclear material is fully secured.

The good thing is that many of these problems can be dramatically improved with strong diplomatic efforts and increased funding. But such extensive efforts require a lot of public pressure and support. And that cannot happen when we push our nuclear past, no matter how harsh a reality it might be, under the rug. Instead, public awareness must dramatically increase—and what better way to do it than by commemorating the horrors of nuclear warfare on the anniversaries of our two nuclear attacks?

It has been said that history repeats itself because nobody was listening the first time. If we are to make sure that atomic weapons are never used again, we must keep the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continually echoing in the world’s ear.

Adam M. Guren ’08, a Crimson editorial editor, is an economics concentrator in Eliot House. He has spent the summer finding, manipulating, cleaning and regressing on data, while at the same time trying his hand as a reporter, with various levels of success. He has enjoyed his time at The Crimson this summer, and is enthusiastic that he got the chance to edit summer postcards. He hopes that you have enjoyed reading them. This fall, he will once again be a lowly editorial writer.