Hiroshima

J. Robert Oppenheimer (left) and John von Neumann at the October 1952 dedication of the computer built for the Institute for Advanced Study.

Economy

The game theory that led to nuclear standoffs

7:05pm July 03, 2024

Last week, Vladimir Putin vowed to make new nuclear weapons and consider placing them close to NATO countries. Meanwhile, here in the US, the government boosted its nuclear weapon spending by 18% between 2022 and 2023.

The world is closer to nuclear war than it's been in at least forty years.

Today on the show: The game theory of nuclear war. When can mathematical models help us, and when can they lead us astray ... even to the brink of destruction?

Guest Kelly Clancy's book is Playing With Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World.

Related Episodes:
How to get Russia to pay Ukraine
Congressional game theory

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton has studied Auschwitz survivors, Vietnam war veterans, survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and people who'd been subjected to repression by the Chinese government. He reflects on what he's learned in his new book, Surviving Our Catastrophes: Resilience and Renewal from Hiroshima to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Health & Safety

What survivors of trauma have taught this eminent psychiatrist about hope

8:46pm October 08, 2023

by Joanne Silberner

In his new book, 97-year-old Robert Jay Lifton shares the "survivor wisdom" he's learned from those who've lived through terrible events — the Holocaust, Hiroshima, POW camps.

European Council President Charles Michel (from left), Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President Emmanuel Macron, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, President Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a monument for atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima, Japan, Friday.

World News

Japan's atomic bomb survivors hope G-7 firms up support for nuclear disarmament

6:13am May 21, 2023

by Anthony Kuhn

As President Biden and Group of Seven leaders gathered in Hiroshima, people in Japan wanted the setting to act as a powerful symbol for consensus toward banning nuclear arms.

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President Biden arrives at an event at the White House on May 11, 2023. This week he will travel to Hiroshima, Japan for the G-7 summit.

Biden is going to Hiroshima at a moment when nuclear tensions are on the rise

5:10am May 15, 2023

by Scott Detrow

President Biden will be the second sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, Japan, the site of the first atomic attack. He is going there for a meeting with G-7 leaders.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows Thursday in front of a memorial to people who were killed in the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Hiroshima Atomic Bombing Raising New Questions 75 Years Later

12:51pm August 06, 2020

by David Welna

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were said at the time to be justified as the only way to end World War II. Seventy-five years later, legal experts say they would now be war crimes.

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A photograph shows Toyama, Japan, aflame after the U.S. attack on Aug. 1, 1945. Most of the city's population was left homeless.

World News

Opinion: 75 Years On, Remember Hiroshima And Nagasaki. But Remember Toyama Too

2:17pm August 01, 2020

A U.S. firebombing campaign targeted Toyama and other Japanese cities, killing 180,000 before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, write geographer Cary Karacas and historian David Fedman.

Pope Francis observes a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during his visit to the city's Peace Memorial Park on Sunday.

Pope Francis, In Visit To Hiroshima, Says Possession Of Nuclear Weapons Is 'Immoral'

4:56pm November 24, 2019

by Laurel Wamsley

The nuclear arms race wastes resources that could instead improve people's lives and protect the environment, the pontiff said. His tour marks the first papal visit to Japan in nearly 40 years.

In this July 10, 1945, photo provided by U.S. Navy media content operations, USS Indianapolis (CA 35) is shown off the Mare Island Navy Yard, in Northern California, 20 days before she was sunk by Japanese torpedoes.

National

Wreckage Of USS Indianapolis, Sunk By Japanese In WWII, Found In Pacific

10:43am August 20, 2017

by Scott Neuman

The cruiser was returning from a secret mission to deliver atomic bomb components when she was sunk by a Japanese submarine. The ensuing loss of life is the large in the history of the U.S. Navy.

Sunday marked 72 years since the U.S. dropped one of two atomic bombs on Japan. On the eve of the anniversary, organizers of a peace event lit up torches on floats on the Motoyasu River next to the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima.

World News

Japan Calls For Denuclearized World On 72nd Anniversary Of Hiroshima

10:29am August 06, 2017

by Amy Held

On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Now, Japan, the U.S. and other nations grapple with calls for global disarmament amid the threat posed by North Korea.

World News

After Hiroshima Bombing, Survivors Sorted Through The Horror

7:29am May 28, 2016

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon remembers the work of John Hersey, who visited with people who lived through the bombing of Hiroshima. His reporting filled an entire issue of the New Yorker magazine in 1946.