Register

America’s Use of Atomic Bombs in World War II

And How the World Was Changed

This is an Adult School Class. When registering, you will be taken to the Adult School website.

In August 1945, after almost four years of brutal war, American warplanes dropped primitive atomic bombs, named "Little Boy" and "Fat Man", on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and soon thereafter the Japanese surrendered.  In this talk we shall explore the following issues relating to the bombings, when the world changed in a blinding flash:   Did Japan surrender because of the bombings?  Did the atomic bombing of Japan prevent “a million American casualties”?  Could the war against Japan have been won without America becoming the first and only nation (to date) to use nuclear weapons in war?  Was the USSR the indirect target of the bombing, i.e., was it the first shot of the Cold War?  Is total war against civilians ever justified?  Is it "Revisionism" to question the popular understanding of the history of use of the A-bomb, and is that a bad thing?  What have nuclear weapons done for us in the postwar world, and will the Russia-Ukraine War result in the first use of nuclear weapons in battle since 1945?   Instructor: Keith Danish

Upcoming events