ON 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II.
The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only uses of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. The USA has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world to have used nuclear weapons in war. Very recently Donald Trump caused pain anger and anguish all over Japan when he compared the US bombing of Iranian Nuclear sites to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 he inferred that the bombing of Hiroshima ended WW11 and the Iranian attack ended the Iran Israel war.
The Mayor of Nagasaki and several living survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki expressed anger and surprise and demanded that the US president should retract his remarks. Japan suffered horrific damage by the American bombings and had to surrender unconditionally before the US on 15th of August but this first atomic bombing was the start of the arms race between the Communist Bloc countries and the Western democracies and the beginning of the cold war. Since 1945 the world has lived under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust and even after the end of the cold war the threat remains because of many more members of the nuclear club such as India Pakistan Israel North Korea and possibly Iran in future. The American Atomic bombing in Japan was direct threat to the USSR and General Douglas Macarthur even advised the use of a nuclear bomb during the Korean War in 1951and by 1949 the USSR had developed its own nuclear weapons thanks to the Russian spies inside the American Manhattan Project.
Thankfully after 1945 a nuclear weapon has not been used in any war but the USSR and the USA came very close to using nuclear weapons during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 but better sense prevailed and both countries backed down and now there is practically no chance of a nuclear conflict between the two. In 2025 the two nuclear armed neighbors in South Asia were at war and could have resorted to a nuclear exchange when the war was brought to a grinding halt by the intervention of a super power but the actual cause is still being debated. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were an unforgivable crime and today the world community is firm in its belief that this should never happen again but with the presence of nuclear weapons the threat remains like the sword of Damocles hanging over the human race when mavericks like Donald Trump, Putin Netanyahu and Modi have their finger on the nuclear trigger. There are no two opinions about the fact that a nuclear Armageddon will mean the end of the human race from planet earth.
In the 21st Century it is the collective responsibility of the world leaders and community to rid the world of the most inhumane weapons ever created, and by doing so foster sustainable peace and lasting security. Nuclear weapons pose an existential threat to humanity. Their use, especially in or near populated areas, would cause massive casualties and devastation, leading to incalculable human suffering. A nuclear war would have a dramatic impact on human health, the environment, climate, food production and socio-economic development, with irreversible consequences for future generations. The devastation witnessed by the world in Hiroshima and Nagasaki some eighty years ago is proof that no humanitarian response can adequately address the catastrophic aftermath of a nuclear detonation.
The only way to prevent such suffering is through complete nuclear disarmament Humanity has lived with nuclear weapons for so long — 80 years, this year — without destroying itself, that we sometimes take them for granted. But there’s no guarantee that our run of luck will continue. In fact, the risks are growing and transforming. The “nuclear age,” can be divided into three phases. The first, from the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 until the end of the Cold War, was characterized by arms buildups and the ever-present threat of nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union. The second, a roughly 30-year period after the end of the Cold War, was marked by arms control agreements, a reduction in the threat of nuclear war, and new concerns like nuclear terrorism and proliferation to rogue regimes like North Korea.
The third age is just beginning. In his new book, “The Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon” leading nuclear security analyst Ankit Panda introduces readers to a new era that began in roughly the mid-2020s. This new era is characterized by renewed tensions between the world’s superpowers, the emergence of China as a third major nuclear power, the collapse of Cold War-era arms control treaties, and new and potentially destabilizing technological developments like cyber war and artificial intelligence. The war in Ukraine, the largest conventional war in decades and one that nuclear threats have loomed over from the start, was the most vivid illustration yet of the dynamics of this new era.
The total and complete elimination and end of nuclear weapons from this planet is not only a humanitarian and moral responsibility but also a legal imperative under article 6 of the Treaty on nonproliferation of nuclear weapons or NPT. The renewed commitment of world leaders to nuclear disarmament and the determination to accelerate progress towards achieving it is a very positive and welcome development. It is urgent that all nuclear-weapon States now translate these commitments into action rather than unravel them under our very eyes. In addition, freezing all modernization efforts, condemning any threats to use nuclear weapons and raising awareness of their devastating humanitarian consequences also constitute important risk reduction measures.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad
