Did you know that the uranium used to bomb the citizens of Hiroshima
was mined at a forbidden site known as ‘the money place’ by First
Nation people in northern Canada? Or have you heard about the
environmental damage and social upheavals at the Atomic City of Oak
Ridge? And how about the bikini swimwear? Did you know that the gaze
on a woman’s belly button was that of military men carrying out
atomic bombardments on the Bikini Atoll while fetishising ‘sex
bombs’ and (an)atomic ‘bombshells’? And how about the poor
Pacific Islanders who got their atolls blown to pieces. Have you heard
about the colonial history of violence and oppression of those whose
only aspiration was to live in peace with their coconut islands? And
everyone is talking about climate change these days. Did you know that
the debate emerged as a reaction to the fear of ordinary citizens
wondering if atomic bombs would blow up the entire sky? If some of
this was news to you, it might have to do with how the story of atomic
bombs has been told. The truism that history is written by its winners
is very much the case in the literature about how the bomb came about,
with numerous apologetic books most often written by U.S. scholars.
These are usually cast as stories of the tormented souls of scientists
who made a ‘Faustian bargain’ with the military in pursuit of
atomic knowledge. The physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the nuke’s
‘father’, is repeatedly centre stage, as in the case of the recent
film about him. These are elitist stories that more often than not
ignore the suffering and violence of the bomb to laypeople in general,
and to marginalised groups in particular. This book offers alternative
perspectives.
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The Trail of Nuclear Suffering
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781839993176
Publisert
2024
Utgiver
Vendor
Anthem Press (NBN)
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter