海角大神

Today marks the 68th anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The bomb, named 鈥淔at Man,鈥� was the first plutonium bomb ever聽to be deployed, and followed the Aug. 6 dropping of the uranium bomb 鈥淟ittle Boy鈥� on Hiroshima.

But even after 68 years, both the history of nuclear weapons and their future are still the subject of debate.聽

Speaking at the memorial ceremony in Nagasaki, Mayor Tomihisa Taue publicly condemned Japan鈥檚 government for failing to push nuclear disarmament. Mr. Taue spoke out against the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 鈥� who was present 鈥� for failing to sign a UN disarmament agreement in April, according to the Japan Daily Press. Taue said the refusal to sign meant Japan was 鈥渂etraying the expectations of global society.鈥�

The nonproliferation agreement 鈥� which asks that the signatories pledge to never use a nuclear weapon 鈥� was meant to be largely symbolic, as none of the signatories has a nuclear arsenal. Japan refused to sign because of its relationship with the US,聽and its prior agreement to allow the US to use Japan as a launching ground in the event of a threat from North Korea, reports The Washington Post.

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 people, and while some argue that they helped end the war, many today regarding it as a stain on the US's moral history.

In a piece for the Huffington Post, Greg Mitchell, a writer and blogger for the Nation, called the bombing of Nagasaki a war crime:

According to a separate report from the Japan Daily Press, American film director Oliver Stone, who currently is visiting Hiroshima and Nagasaki and whose films about key historical events have attracted their share of controversy,聽criticized the US bombing of Hiroshima.

鈥淚f the Nazis had dropped the bomb, they鈥檇 lost the war, the bomb would be seen as a monstrosity, and the Nazis would be condemned forever,鈥� Mr. Stone was quoted as saying.

Dissent over the use of the bomb is not new.聽Albert Einstein 鈥� whose work led to its development and who wrote a letter to then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging him to pursue the project 鈥� eventually came to deeply regret the bombings. "Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would have never lifted a finger,鈥� he said, according to the Atlantic.

However, at the time, the bombs were seen as necessary by many Americans. After all, the atomic bombs had brought a brutal war to an end, and many thought their use possibly saved more lives that would have been lost had it continued. As Henry Stimson, the wartime Secretary of War, wrote in Harper's in 1947:

He continued by noting that, in his opinion, the use of the atomic bombs was "the least abhorrent choice," as it put to an end the fire bombings 鈥� which caused massive casualties 鈥� of Japanese cities, and would cause fewer casualties in Japan than a ground invasion.

As time went on, however, many scholars and public figures began to question whether or not the bombs were necessary to end the war, and whether that rationale was worth the devastating toll the bombs took on civilian lives. In an interview with Education About Asia, MIT historian John Dower, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II," challenged that line of thinking and raised questions about the moral implications of targeting civilians in wartime:

As the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki recedes further into the past, it is becoming more difficult to create a sense of urgency around these questions. Writing聽in the New Yorker this week聽about the documentary "Things Left Behind," about a major art exhibit devoted to Hiroshima, Roland Kelts, the author of "Japanamerica," says that "...聽sixty-eight years later, the story of Hiroshima, its possible meanings and emotions, are fast becoming dead artifacts,聽especially in Japan, where the platitudes and memorials are broadcast live once every year, dominating the airwaves with about as much salient impact as the Macy鈥檚 Thanksgiving Day Parade."