scholarly journals Atomic Metaphors, Victims, and the Contestations of Nuclear Discourse

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 962
Author(s):  
Rachel DiNitto
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Japanese Literature ◽  
Fukushima Accident ◽  
Literary Community ◽  
Fukushima Daiichi ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Post Disaster ◽  
Insight Into

Atomic metaphors permeated daily life as the world reacted to the atomic bombings of Japan and the nuclear threat of the Cold War. These metaphors reveal a widespread sense of ownership of atomic narratives and public conceptions of victimhood that are often divorced from actual nuclear victims. Japan faced the reality of the nuclear again in 2011 when three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant exploded, spreading toxic radiation far and wide. Rather than turn to religion to make sense of the traumatic destruction and existential threat of this invisible force, the Japanese have processed the catastrophe through a secular discussion of victimhood. In the decade since the Fukushima accident, the discourse about victims in Japan has narrowed to emphasize the authority of the tōjisha—victims with direct experience of the disaster—to tell their story. The debate over narrative ownership has challenged the literary community, and post-disaster Japanese literature is an important site of imaginative exploration of this victimhood. Using the theories of Jean-Luc Nancy and Michael Rothberg, this article examines collective memory and the catastrophic equivalence of Hiroshima and Fukushima, as well as the Japanese terminology for victims, in order to provide insight into the struggles for ownership of atomic narratives. Rather than proposing solutions, the article interrogates the ongoing literary controversy over the victim/non-victim divide.

scholarly journals Preventing Nuclear Weapon Proliferation as Nuclear Power Expands

MRS Bulletin ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 340-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siegfried S. Hecker
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Nuclear Attack ◽  
The Cold War

Raj et al. describe the promise of nuclear energy as a sustainable, affordable, and carbon-free source available this century on a scale that can help meet the world's growing need for energy and help slow the pace of global climate change. However, the factor of millions gain in energy release from nuclear fssion compared to all conventional energy sources that tap the energy of electrons (Figure 1) has also been used to create explosives of unprecedented lethality and, hence, poses a serious challenge to the expansion of nuclear energy worldwide. Although the end of the cold war has eliminated the threat of annihilating humanity, the likelihood of a devastating nuclear attack has increased as more nations, subnational groups, and terrorists seek to acquire nuclear weapons.

scholarly journals The “Cuban Question” and the Cold War in Latin America, 1959–1964

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 114-151
Author(s):  
Tanya Harmer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
Cuban Missile Crisis ◽  
American System ◽  
American States ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Insight Into

This article explains how Latin American governments responded to the Cuban revolution and how the “Cuban question” played out in the inter-American system in the first five years of Fidel Castro's regime, from 1959 to 1964, when the Organization of American States imposed sanctions against the island. Drawing on recently declassified sources from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and the United States, the article complicates U.S.-centric accounts of the inter-American system. It also adds to our understanding of how the Cold War was perceived within the region. The article makes clear that U.S. policymakers were not the only ones who feared Castro's triumph, the prospect of greater Soviet intervention, and the Cuban missile crisis. By seeking to understand why local states opposed Castro's ascendance and what they wanted to do to counter his regime, the account here offers new insight into the Cuban revolution's international impact and allows us to evaluate U.S. influence in the region during key years of the Cold War.

scholarly journals Adelante! Military Imaginaries, the Cold War, and Southern Africa's Liberation Armies

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 619-650
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Alexander ◽  
Joann McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Military Training ◽  
Liberation Movement ◽  
International Solidarity ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractStudies of southern Africa's liberation movements have turned attention to the great importance of their transnational lives, but have rarely focused on the effects of the military training Cold War-era allies provided in sites across the globe. This is a significant omission in the history of these movements: training turns civilians into soldiers and creates armies with not only military but also social and political effects, as scholarship on conventional militaries has long emphasized. Liberation movement armies were however different in that they were not subordinated to a single state, instead receiving training under the flexible rubric of international solidarity in a host of foreign sites and in interaction with a great variety of military traditions. The training provided in this context produced multiple “military imaginaries” within liberation movement armies, at once creating deep tensions and enabling innovation. The article is based on oral histories of Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) veterans trained by Cuban and Soviet instructors in Angola in the late 1970s. These soldiers emerged from the Angolan camps with a military imaginary they summed up in the Cuban exhortation “Adelante!” (Forward!). Forty years later, they stressed how different their training had made them from other ZIPRA cadres, in terms of their military strategy, mastery of advanced Soviet weaponry, and aggressive disposition, as well as their “revolutionary” performance of politics and masculinity in modes of address, salute, and drill. Such military imaginaries powerfully shaped the southern African battlefield. They offer novel insight into the distinctive institutions, identities, and memories forged through Cold War-era military exchanges.

The Myth of Triumphalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth A. Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Moral Leadership ◽  
Nuclear Disarmament ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
Us Military ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Virtually no one anticipated the ending of the Cold War. Understanding how this long-standing conflict was peacefully resolved can give us insight into how to conclude other seemingly intractable conflicts. Triumphalists believe that President Ronald Reagan “won” the Cold War by building up US military power and threatening the USSR. His hard-line policies forced Moscow to reduce its arsenal, adopt democratic reforms, withdraw from its war in Afghanistan, and ultimately collapse. Triumphalists assert that contemporary leaders should follow Reagan’s example bycompelling adversaries into submission. However, triumphalism is a myth, a series of falsehoods about Reagan’s intentions, his policies, and the impact his administration had on the USSR.Drawing upon American and Soviet sources,this book demonstrates that Reagan’s initial hard-line policies brought the superpowers to the brink of war and made it more difficult for Moscow to disarm and reform. Compellence failed miserably. The Cold War was resolved through diplomacy, not threats. President Reagan eventually engaged in dialogue so as to ease Moscow’s security concerns, build trust, and focus on the superpowers’ mutual interest in eliminating nuclear arms. For his part, Mikhail Gorbachev sought to end the arms race so as to divert resources to democratization. He too sought dialogue and trust. The ending of the Cold War demonstrates the importance of moral leadership. Reagan and Gorbachev both rose above their differences and introduced radical new ideas about nuclear disarmament. Consequently, both encountered domestic opposition. Each persevered, however, leading their nations toward a safer, more humane future.

Seeing the Present, Remembering the Past: Terror’s Representation as an Exercise in Collective Memory

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbie Zelizer
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
The Past ◽  
Media Events ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Current Representation

This article argues that media events can be fruitfully understood as an exercise in collective memory. It considers how coverage of the so-called war on terror draws from a deep memory of the Cold War. In drawing from that mnemonic scheme, terror’s current representation as an ideological war prosecuted patiently across time assures its seeming success even when its main media events underscore the war’s failure.

Nuclearizing NATO, 1957–1959: the ‘Anglo-Saxons’, nuclear sharing and the fourth country problem

1994 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Melissen
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Western World ◽  
Nuclear Strategy ◽  
Nuclear Issue ◽  
European Nuclear ◽  
The Cold War

The spread of nuclear weapons outside the Western world has become the most important nuclear issue since the end of the Cold War. By contrast, the debate about Europe's nuclear strategy has subsided. Nuclear collaboration in Western Europe now seems an unlikely prospect and so too does proliferation, despite instability in the former Soviet Union, and occasional speculation about Germany's nuclear appetite. A very different atmosphere prevailed during the Cold War, when the need for a European nuclear force was endlessly debated, without any prospect of this political demand being fulfilled, and, in the late 1950s and 1960s, several European countries appeared to be at the threshold of obtaining nuclear power.

scholarly journals BOOK REVIEW_NUCLEAR SUKARNO: INITIAL STUDY OF INDONESIAN ATOMIC POLITICS 1958-1967_NUKLIR SUKARNO: KAJIAN AWAL ATAS POLITIK TENAGA ATOM INDONESIA 1958-1967

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Citra Ajeng Sofia Monica Setya Riswana ◽  
Moses Glorino Rumambo Pandin
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Initial Study ◽  
History Of Technology ◽  
Nuclear Technology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nuclear Arms Race ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War

“Nuklir Sukarno: Kajian awal atas politik tenaga atom indonesia 1958-1967” is one of Teuku Reza Fadeli's works published in 2021. This book explains how Sukarno's desire to have nuclear weapons. This book itself has three chapters explaining in detail and coherently how this incident happened, starting from the first chapter, which describes the state of the cold war that caused Indonesia to become involved in it and how President Sukarno's attitude towards nuclear technology. The second chapter describes the formation of LTE, which later turned into BATAN due to changes in Sukarno's thinking in addressing the global political constellation and Western imperialism, which continued to hinder nuclear power. The third chapter describes Sukarno's ambition to have nuclear weapons in Indonesia, then the world response to these conditions, and the last one regarding the end of Sukarno's nuclear politics as it coincided with Suharto's downfall.This book intends to look back on nuclear technology that came to the world's attention in the nuclear arms race after the end of the second world war to inform readers of Soekarno's ideas about nuclear technology, which impacted determining his government in the 1960s. Which at that time, not a few Western countries gave a cautionary attitude. In addition, this book also aims to encourage interest in writing the history of technology in Indonesia because there are still many who ignore science and technology in influencing Indonesian history.This book intends for those who are thirsty for knowledge and always want more insight. Sukarno's Nuclear Book is also very suitable for those who like Indonesian history, especially the history of technology in Indonesia which has had much influence in it. Then for those who like compilation, this book is very suitable because, in the book Nuclear Sukarno, the CIA has been involved in Indonesian history. After reading the book Nuclear Sukarno, much information is obtained by readers, such as in the economic, political, social, and cultural fields that are the reasons for writing Indonesian history; it turns out that technology itself also influences the current situation in Indonesia. The reader also knows that Indonesia wants to have nuclear weapons because of the influence of the cold war that occurred at that time. However, this never happened because of the fall of President Suharto in his leadership.

scholarly journals Deviating memories: Armando Lulaj’s seriously playful excursions into Albania’s history

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (32) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Grgic
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
National History ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Balkan Region ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First Time ◽  
Venice Biennale

This paper examines how certain contemporary audio-visual works from post-socialist countries in the Balkan region, employ archival footage from the communist period, to address and problematize the notion of remembering and suppressing national history through collective memory. I specifically focus on the work of the Albanian artist, Armando Lulaj and his videos Albanian Trilogy: A Series of Devious Stratagems (2011, 2012 and 2015) exhibited at the 56th Venice Biennale. By re-using images and narratives produced during Enver Hoxha’s regime, and still ingrained in Albanian visual memory, these films provide alternative readings of Albanian history from the Cold War to the present day. What is more, some of this archival material is made public for the first time, while the rest has been dormant and purposely forgotten in archival vaults. Lulaj’s playful excursions, create connections between a problematic and suppressed past and the difficult and selective present, by juxtaposing evocative and politically charged visual records and contemporary footage of artist’s commissioned performances.

Transfer of the Fukushima accident-derived radiocesium by hydrological processes in Japanese forests

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroaki Kato ◽  
Tomoki Shinozuka ◽  
Satoru Akaiwa ◽  
Hikaru Iida ◽  
Zul Hilmi Saidin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Water System ◽  
Hydrological Processes ◽  
Fukushima Accident ◽  
Energy Agency ◽  
Technical Report ◽  
Fukushima Daiichi ◽  
Radiological Impact ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Transfer Mechanisms

<p>In Japan's forests, field data on the distribution and migration of radiocesium deposited by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, from the initial dynamics to the distribution in the forest over ten years, have been vigorously collected. The results have been published in an IAEA technical report (IAEA- TECDOC-1927, 2020) as a database of migration parameters to be compiled by an international project (MODARIA II: Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments) promoted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Radiocesium's transfer mechanisms in the forest by hydrological processes and the runoff through the water system were summarized based on investigations in experimental forests and watersheds in Fukushima Prefecture. Besides, we outlined the missing links that need to be clarified by re-analysis of existing data and additional experiments based on previous studies on Fukushima and Chernobyl. Finally, we discussed the direction of future monitoring surveys.</p>

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