Atomic bombs from 1945 to 1998 mapped by Japanese artist

Isao Hashimoto, a Japanese artist, has mapped every atomic explosion since 1945 in a chronological video that is both fascinating and instructive. Take a look.

The first atomic blast is near Alamogordo, New Mexico, July 16, 1945. The next two are the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs in Japan, August 1945, ending World War II. Now the video compresses each month into 1 second. The testing accelerates in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it becomes clear why the United States and Soviet Union agreed in 1963 to ban atomic testing in the atmosphere. The sky was becoming radioactive.

Hashimoto’s points of atomic light don’t seem to distinguish between basic atomic bombs and the much larger hydrogen bombs, which where introduced in November 1952. They also don’t distinguish between above-ground tests and underground tests. But the flashes remind us that, while most of the atom bombs were going off in the U.S. and U.S.S.R., other nations were testing, too. The British set off nuclear devices in Australia, and the French tested atomic bombs in Africa.

Nuclear powers. The video is a vivid document of the Cold War's nuclear stalemate, during which totalitarian governments of the Soviet Union and China used the threat of atomic attack to lock in Communist oppression. (Notice how quiet everything gets after the Soviet Union collapses in December 1991.) But Hashimoto also alerts us to the more recent nuclear proliferation.

Obviously, the democracies cannot disarm before the dictatorships do. And because dictatorships are inherently secretive, they’ll have to become democracies before they can be trusted to give Hashimoto’s story a happy ending.

Frank Warner

Comments

[Kevin]

I think I see a fault in your logic. You say, "Obviously, the democracies cannot disarm before the dictatorships do." I think you're suggesting that it is possible for democracies to ever disarm.

It's not. In the worst of times, arms are necessary to defend freedom. In the best of times, arms are insurance against the loss of freedom. I'm not willing to go without insurance against a loss of freedom any more than I'm willing to go without catastrophic health insurance, home insurance, or even collision.

There is no good reason to ever disarm.

Great video though! Before watching it, I had thought that only perhaps 200 bombs had ever been detonated. Glad to see the USA still in first place :). We're number one!

[CJW]

The animation should have also emphasized how many didn't kill anyone. And those that did kill people, he should have had the balls to say why.

[Frank Warner]

Hmmm. I think we need a video that shows the number of people murdered and intentionally starved to death by their governments, by month and nation, over the 20th century.

And another video showing which nations were free, partly free, not free and in totalitarian hands, by month, over the last century. We'd see freedom spreading, but we'd see who the stubborn tyrants are.

[jj mollo]

I think that's a great idea Frank! We've often observed here that the toll of tyranny remains out of sight while the cost of war is dramatized and exaggerated for political effect. Peace proponents have to remember that there is another side to the balance sheet.

All and all, I have to agree with Kevin's depressing conclusion. There is no way to disarm, and it's unlikely there ever will be. In fact, our greatest concern should be to make sure that our ability to defend and retaliate is always supreme. Being peaceful without being defeated is almost impossible, but we have, by and large, accomplished it. We can never take for granted, however, that such a condition remains feasible for very long.

What we can do about peace is what we have done. We can take every step to insure that weapons are not used by mistake and that irresponsible parties do not acquire them. MAD was the single best invention of the Cold War, but it is certainly not enough to protect us in the future.

[Frank Warner]

I'm enough of a Robert Kennedy liberal to dream of a day when we're all free and no one needs arms to guarantee things will stay that way, but I'm also realistic.

The point I was making was in response to those who suggest the United States scrap all of its nuclear weapons before the dictatorships scrap theirs, and before the dictatorships die. It would be suicide.

And yes, I like more and more the idea of using Hashimoto-style videos to put big things into perspective. Too often, we who live in democracies hear only the problems of democracy, which are aplenty, but we don't hear about the problems of tyranny, which are infinitely worse.

In these videos, how about a scream for every murder and intentional starvation by each government? You know where 90-plus percent of the outcry would come from -- unelected governments. And how about a scream for every person who has had no chance to elect his government in free and fair elections? That kind of video would be fair.