HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI REMEMBRANCE AND ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS 2020

OMNI

HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI, AUGUST 6 AND 9, 2020, #2

REMEMBRANCE/ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

CONTENTS:  HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI, AUGUST 6 AND 9 (1945), 2020, #2

Remember Hiroshima: Thursday August 6, 7pm, Pulaski County

WAND, ACPJ, Pax Christi
Watch Online.

NATIONAL REMEMBRANCES 2020 FOR ABOLISHING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Peace Action:   Honoring survivors, 75 years later

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Special Coverage of 4 Articles  8-3-20

Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security

Resources: TANIGUCHI’s memoir, The Atomic Bomb on My
       Back, and a film of the bombings.

Beyond the Bomb

War Resisters League, Ban the Nukes!

Global Zero

3 NEW BOOKS Reviewed by Publishers Weekly

The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump by William J. Perry and Tom Z. Collina.   BenBella, 2020.  (334p).

Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-Up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World by Lesley M. M. Blume. Simon & Schuster, 2020,.$27 (288p) .

Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945–1962 by Martin J. Sherwin.    Knopf, 2020.  

TEXTS

Honoring survivors, 75 years later

The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump by William J. Perry and Tom Z. Collina.   BenBella, 2020.  (334p).

Perry (My Journey at the Nuclear Brink), who served as secretary of defense under Bill Clinton, and global security analyst Collina expose the lack of checks and balances to prevent U.S. presidents from triggering nuclear war in this well-documented call for reform. Cataloguing seven decades of domestic policy developments and international power struggles over nuclear arms, including General MacArthur’s tug-of-war with President Truman over nuclear authorization during the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the 1980s Strategic Defense Initiative (commonly known as Star Wars), Perry and Collina argue that presidential monopoly on “the button” has reached a new level of danger under President Trump, whom they regard as a uniquely unstable leader. Their policy suggestions include an end to sole presidential nuclear authority, a prohibition on the first use of nuclear weapons by the U.S., and sustained diplomatic engagement with Iran and North Korea. Perry’s insider perspective on disarmament negotiations between the U.S. and Russia and the vulnerability of the U.S. arsenal to cyberattacks illuminates, but generalists will find themselves overwhelmed with policy minutiae. Still, this authoritative account reveals the true extent of the nuclear threat.   Publisher’s Weekly June 2020.

 Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-Up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World by Lesley M. M. Blume. Simon & Schuster, 2020,. $27 (288p) .

Journalist Blume (Everybody Behaves Badly) delivers a thrilling behind-the-scenes account of John Hersey’s seminal 1946 report on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In the months after Japan’s surrender, Hersey hatched a plan with New Yorker managing editor William Shawn to go into Hiroshima as a “Trojan horse reporter” and describe the bomb’s impact from the victims’ point of view. Blume balances her narrative between Hersey’s journalistic process and Shawn’s editorial decision-making, which culminated in convincing New Yorker founder Harold Ross to devote the entire Aug. 29, 1946, issue to the story. She also documents the dramatic impact of Hersey’s report, which was eventually published as a book, on the public perception of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, and its continued resonance in the debate over nuclear arms. Hersey, she notes, devoted all the proceeds from the work to the American Red Cross and didn’t return to Japan for 40 years. Blume builds tension by expertly interweaving scenes at the New Yorker offices (where Ross and Shawn kept most staffers in the dark right up until publication), with Hersey’s journey into Japan and his search for survivors, and vividly captures a pre-television era when evidence of the nuclear fallout was suppressed by the U.S. government. This enthralling, fine-grained chronicle reveals what it takes to cut through “dangerously anesthetizing” statistics and speak truth to power. (Aug.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly referred to William Shawn as Wallace Shawn.

DETAILS

Reviewed on : 06/03/2020   Release date: 08/04/2020
Downloadable Audio - 978-1-7971-0887-2

 Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945–1962. By Martin J. Sherwin. Knopf, 2020.  (624p) .

Blunders, misunderstandings, and “dumb luck” shape history in this captivating reevaluation of post-WWII nuclear brinksmanship. Examining America’s use of atomic weaponry to contain Soviet expansion in Asia and the Americas, Pulitzer winner Sherwin (coauthor, American Prometheus) relates in nerve-jangling detail how presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy grappled with their Soviet counterparts, Stalin and Khrushchev. According to Sherwin’s portrayal, Truman was “intellectually and emotionally unprepared” to understand the atomic high stakes and often deferred to his hawkish secretary of state, James F. Byrnes. Entangled in an affair with a White House intern, Kennedy wavered during the Cuban Missile Crisis and depended on his brother, Robert, to back-channel with the Soviets to avoid nuclear war. According to Sherwin, military personnel countermanded orders to launch nuclear weapons on multiple occasions during the two-week confrontation. In one instance, a U.S. missile squadron on Okinawa was poised to fire 32 nuclear missiles at targets in China and the Soviet Union before deciding to stand down. Intricately detailed, vividly written, and nearly Tolstoyan in scope, Sherwin’s account reveals just how close the Cold War came to boiling over. History buffs will be enthralled. (Sept.)

DETAILS   Reviewed on : 06/19/2020   Release date: 09/22/2020

CONTENTS: HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI and NUCLEAR ABOLITION 2020 NEWSLETTER #1

https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/07/omni-hiroshimanagasaki-and-nuclear.html

Webinar Sat. 7-25 on Decision to Drop the Bomb, Carolyn Forché 
      Moderator

ICAN Webinar on the Illegality of the Bomb Today, August 3

New Memoir of Hiroshima Bombing: The Atomic Bomb on My Back, Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security

Hiroshima Survivors: Webinars Presented by AR WAND

ICAN: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Remembers Hiroshima and Nagasaki

World Conference 2020  by Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security

Global Zero

Protest at Oak Ridge

END HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI REMEMBRANCE AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION, AUGUST 6 AND 9, 2020, #2