The Audio Long Read From the archive: Forgetting the apocalypse: why our nuclear fears faded – and why that’s dangerous
Sep 24, 2025
Explore the fading memory of nuclear fears and the dangers it presents. The narrative dives into the horror of Hiroshima, detailing the immediate global shock and how the atomic bomb reshaped military and political thinking. Discover the contrasts between deterrence theory and the power of memory in preventing escalation during crises like the Cuban Missile Crisis. With collective nuclear memory waning, experts warn of rising contemporary risks as leaders break norms and treaties, heightening the threat in today’s world.
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The Bomb Created A New Worldview
- The Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts created a new era where any city could be annihilated in an instant.
- That fear shaped postwar politics, culture, and global awareness for decades.
Hersey And Tanimoto Made It Personal
- John Hersey's Hiroshima piece and Kiyoshi Tanimoto's tours personalized nuclear horror for global audiences.
- Those firsthand accounts turned abstract weapons into human suffering that pressured thinkers toward radical solutions like world government.
Deterrence Needed Imagination To Work
- Deterrence explains why nuclear weapons haven't been used since 1945 by making retaliation likely and catastrophic.
- But deterrence relied on leaders' vivid imagination of nuclear consequences to restrain action.
