Legacies and Politics of Nuclear Power

Abstract

This article serves as the introduction to the special issue “Legacies of Nuclear Power, Future of Nuclear Politics” of the Asian Journal of Peacebuilding. It aims to outline the background of the special issue and the significance of all articles: to think about the actual situation concerning nuclear issues. The nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 8, 1945 have a representative and symbolic meaning for the opening of the nuclear age. Although nuclear materials had already been discovered and used for medical purposes, the mushrooms clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki were powerful illustrations of the destructive potential and dangers of nuclear energy. Can nuclear materials help humanity with the energy deficit and fatal diseases like cancer? Or will they be utilized as weapons, leading to many other Hiroshimas and Nagasakis and become the destroyer of the world? How can human beings control nuclear energy? The discussion on the international control of nuclear materials began before 1945. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech at the United Nations in 1953 accelerated the civilian use of nuclear energy. Exhibitions on the “peaceful use” of nuclear energy were held in many places, not only in the United States but also in West Germany and Japan in the 1950s. As the first and only country victimized by the military use of the atomic bombs, Japan became one of the most dedicated users of nuclear energy. The potential shortage of energy resources in Japan is one reason and the dependence of the conservative Japanese government on the United States was another important factor in Japan developing into a nuclear state. Moreover, many Japanese people wanted to use nuclear energy as a “peaceful” energy source because they comprehended the Asian Journal of Peacebuilding Vol. 7 No. 1 (2019): 1-7 doi: 10.18588/201905.00a136 Special Issue – Introduction