Hiroshima 70 years later

With all the attention I gave to the GOP debate yesterday, I neglected an event that has more direct bearing on the theme of this blog, the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.  For a blog about the collapse of civilization to ignore the beginning of the time when nuclear weapons were feared and expected to be the most likely cause of the end of civilization would be a shameful act of neglect.  Under the guise of "better late than never," I'm avoiding this dereliction of my duty as a doomer blogger by commemorating the anniversary a day later.

I begin with Test Tube News explaining the history behind Why The U.S. Dropped A Nuclear Bomb On Japan.

It has been 70 years since the U.S. dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. What was the reasoning behind this devastating act of war?

That was the beginning of a nuclear-armed world.  What's it like nearly a lifetime later?  Follow over the jump for the answers.

Wochit News gives one answer in 70 Years After Hiroshima, World Still Has 16,000 Nukes.

Seventy years after the U.S. dropped the first wartime atomic bomb on Japan, nine nations are estimated to possess a total of around 16,000 nuclear weapons. This potentially world-ending technology was introduced at exactly 8:15 a.m. Japanese time on the morning of August 6, 1945. A U.S. Air Force B-29 dubbed the Enola Gay flew over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and dropped the bomb code-named "Little Boy."
Three days later, the U.S. dropped an even larger bomb, "Fat Man," over Nagasaki.

Continued proliferation of nuclear weapons was one of the reasons why the Doomsday Clock was advanced to 11:57 earlier this year.  That is one of the few entries where I directly address nuclear weapons, which shows how other issues have replaced them as a source of concern.  For example, nuclear warfare barely made the radar of the Prophets of Doom and then as an effect of other problems, not a cause in and of itself.

Another answer comes from Euronews, which reports on Hiroshima holds 70th memorial of atomic tragedy to show how Japan sees the role of both itself among nations as well as the importance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as symbols of peace.

Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park has seen the entire Japanese political class and friends from abroad turn out for a memorial service for the city, one of only two to ever suffer an atomic attack.

May the Japanese be right about what they can do about the issue and may others follow their lead.