Remembering Hiroshima/Nagasaki

“Hibakusha” is the term for those who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But in recent years, it has come to be applied more widely to all who have been exposed to radiation from nuclear bombs and other sources of contamination from manufacturing, uranium mining, nuclear reactors, and radioactive waste. And, as this week’s Nuclear Hotseat guest reveals, that means just about all of us.

Host Libbe HaLevy interviewed Prof. Robert “Bo” Jacobs (pictured), an American historian of nuclear technologies and radiation techno-politics. He moved to Japan in 2006 after being hired by the Hiroshima Peace Institute. and is currently a professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute and the Graduate School of Peace Studies of Hiroshima City University. He’s the author of the 2022 book, NUCLEAR BODIES: The Global Hibakusha.

And in Linda Pentz Gunter’s Hot Story, we hear about the dehumanizing of atomic bomb victims, which only began in Japan but has been perpetuated across all sectors of the nuclear power and weapons industry.

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