First act of the Cold War

SOME contemporary observers had called the atomic bombing of Japan not the last act of World War II, but the first act of the Cold War.

Put simply, the argument was that the nuclear use in Japan was about excluding Soviet Russia from the post-war settlement in Asia.

In Europe, Washington had to share the political spoils of the war with Moscow.

There was no choice, given the Red Army’s role in defeating Nazi Germany.

The US was eager, the argument goes, to avoid a similar outcome, given the plans for mobilising the Red Army to force Imperial Japan’s defeat.

Other historians argue that Emperor Hirohito was preparing to surrender in any case and there was no need for the use of atomic weapons against Japan.

Many historians researching the US’ decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan do not concur with these views.

But there was no question that the atomic focus quickly shifted to Europe as Soviet Russia was seen as an existential threat to the West.

As the alliance between Russia and the West, forged during World War II, morphed into an all-out confrontation in Europe, nuclear weapons became quite central to the new tragedy that unfolded in Europe and across the Atlantic.

Russia followed America to test its nuclear weapons in 1949; Britain and France joined the nuclear club in 1952 and 1960 respectively.

In the years that followed, the US began to deploy hundreds of nuclear weapons in Europe, in the name of deterring a Soviet aggression.

As the military confrontation escalated in Europe, Asia became increasingly marginal to the nuclear calculus of the US and the Soviet Union.

To be sure, the Asia-Pacific region remained a testing ground for American, British and French nuclear weapon development.

As the nuclear contestation became global, many Asian nations became sites for the location and transit of nuclear weapons, and the affiliated infrastructure of bases and communication facilities.

The People’s Republic of China tested its first atomic weapon in October 1964.

India tested a nuclear device a decade later in 1974, and was later followed by Pakistan and North Korea.

Israel never admitted to any nuclear test, but no one doubts the existence of its atomic arsenal.

Although many Asian powers crashed into the atomic club, they made little difference to the central nuclear balance between the US and the Soviet Union.

—AP Dark history: Smoke rising 20,000 feet over Hiroshima after the first atomic five-tonne bomb was released on Aug 6, 1945. Hiroshima was targeted because it was a major Japanese military hub filled with military bases and ammunition facilities.