August marks 80 years since atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945—quickly bringing an end to World War II.
At the time, the U.S. was calling for Japan’s unconditional surrender, but Japanese leaders were unwilling to agree without assurances that the Emperor would remain in place and that they could oversee their own war crimes trials. The bombings were carried out in an effort to break the stalemate and bring the war to an end.
Estimates of the death toll range from , with many killed instantly and others suffering long-term effects from radiation exposure. The bombings brought the war in the Pacific to a swift end—Japan surrendered days later—but also ushered in the nuclear age, profoundly shaping international relations and military policy in the decades that followed.
Margarita Estevez-Abe
To help contextualize the legacy of these events, ϲ spoke with , associate professor of political science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Her research focuses on political economy and Japanese politics. She is also a senior research associate and advisory committee member with the East Asia Program and a faculty affiliate of the Aging Studies Institute.
Media inquiries: Reporters interested in speaking with Professor Estévez-Abe can contact Vanessa Marquette, media relations specialist, at vrmarque@syr.edu.
The Hiroshima Victims Memorial Cenotaph stands in Peace Memorial Park to honor those lost to the atomic bombing. Photo by Vanessa Marquette.
The atomic bombings did not impact the political trajectory of postwar Japan per se. The Cold War played a bigger role in shaping the political trajectory of Japan.
Together with the carpet bombing of Tokyo—Tokyo was completely burned to ashes—the atomic bombings led the Japanese to think of themselves as the victims of WWII rather than the aggressors. The Cold War created a context that facilitated this narrative.
The U.S. occupation of Japan (1945-1952) freed communist and socialist political prisoners and purged government officials, conservative politicians and business leaders who collaborated with the wartime leaders. Those suspected of war crimes were sent to Sugamo Prison to await trial.
While the U.S. initial policy was to rid Japan of belligerent fascist elements and democratize its politics, society and economy, the U.S. reversed its policy when the Cold War began in 1947. The new goal was to keep Japan firmly in the capitalist camp.
To this objective, the U.S. occupation forces withdrew its prior sympathetic attitude to unions and leftists and began to help conservatives. Nobusuke Kishi, who had been imprisoned in Sugamo Prison as a suspected war criminal, was released from prison without trial. He was free to pursue an elected office and became prime minister from 1957-1960. He’s also the grandfather of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
With “war criminals” back in office, Japan was not going to reflect upon its own war crimes. The onset of the Cold War meant that Japan lost an opportunity to look back at the atrocities it had committed during the war and as a colonizer.
The Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima is one of the few buildings left standing near the bomb’s hypocenter. Preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it stands as a symbol of peace and a reminder of the devastation of nuclear war. Photo by Vanessa Marquette.
The U.S. played a big role.
Japan’s economy was in total ruins in 1945. The U.S. had bombed all its industrial areas. Under the context of the Cold War, the U.S. needed Japan to be a thriving capitalist economy and helped Japan in multiple ways.
The U.S. had imposed the so-called Peace Constitution on defeated Japan. Japan was not allowed to have a military again. Instead, Japan became the home of the largest U.S. military presence in Asia. The U.S. military presence in Japan is so unusual as it is also the legacy of the U.S. occupation of Japan until 1952. The U.S. has multiple bases in the greater Tokyo area and used to control its airspace for a long time since the end of its occupation of Japan.
This means that the atomic bombings did not really change Japan’s national security and foreign policies—these policies were largely dictated by the U.S. Postwar Japan became a bit like a big Puerto Rico in the Pacific.
However, there’s an interesting nuclear story that involved women and impacted politics beyond Japan. Socially and politically, the U.S. nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands caused a bigger stir in Japan. The biggest event happened in 1954 when a Japanese tuna fishing boat, Daigo Fukuryu Maru, got irradiated in the Pacific Ocean. Two of the 23 crew members died relatively soon.
Housewives became so worried about the safety of food in Japan—fish was the main source of protein for the Japanese. It was discovered that not only fish but agricultural products had been contaminated from the rain that carried the plumes from the nuclear experiments. Mothers stood up in anger in a country where people knew firsthand that radiation could cause cancer not only in one generation but also in children and grandchildren. A big social mobilization calling for the ending of nuclear tests in the Pacific. Unions and housewives took charge.
For most of the Japanese people, the U.S. has been its “closest” neighbor, although the vast Pacific Ocean separates them. (The economic rise of other Asian countries is changing this a little in recent years.)
The U.S.-Japan relationship is a testimony for how peace is possible between two countries that fought a devastating war.
The Cold War made the U.S. prioritize Japan as an ally and as a country that hosted its biggest military presence in the Pacific. This meant that the U.S. tolerated a trade deficit with Japan.
However, Japan became the second largest economy and the biggest creditor of the U.S. public deficit, just around the time of the détente between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. With the Cold War waning, the U.S. began to focus on Japan’s large trade surplus with the U.S. Japan has adopted many of the policies requested by the U.S., including self-imposed export quotas of autos to the U.S., shifting to domestic demand-led economic growth from export-led growth model, etc. Japan today also is the biggest investor in the U.S. like no other country and has contributed to job growth in the U.S.
