HIROSHIMA - 70 Years After

NOTE:  When I was stationed in Japan during my 22yrs in the U.S. Navy (now retired) I visited both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"A look at world's nuclear reality, 70 years after Hiroshima" PBS NewsHour 5/27/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Obama used his unprecedented visit to Hiroshima to call attention to the grave threat nuclear weapons still pose to the world.  Judy Woodruff talks to former Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Rademaker and Rachel Bronson of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists about that threat — and the president's own nuclear legacy.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  We look at his nuclear legacy and at the ongoing threat from those weapons.

For that we turn to Stephen Rademaker, who was assistant secretary of state for arms control and nonproliferation during the George W. Bush administration, and Rachel Bronson, who is the executive director and publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which focuses on nuclear weapons and disarmament.

And we welcome both of you to the program.

So, we did hear President Obama today in Japan repeating the goal that he laid out, he first laid out when he came into office.  He said the nations that hold nuclear stockpiles must have the courage to pursue a world without them.

Rachel Bronson, how has the president done on that front?

RACHEL BRONSON, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:  Well, I think the President started off very strong.  Obviously, you mentioned his Prague speech in 2009.

But it's a strange bookmark to come out at the end of it today, towards the end of his administration.  We have had enormous progress in the first part of his administration and much less in more recent years, so some big victories early on, I do think important agreements like New START and the Iran deal, but then slower progress in the last few years.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  How would you rate the president's progress on this, Stephen Rademaker?

STEPHEN RADEMAKER, Former Assistant Secretary of State:  Well, I would say the goals that the President set for himself in the Prague speech were completely unrealistic, and so it's not surprising that, having confronted reality during the course of his administration, he's had to back down from those unrealistic aims.

Of course, he continues to articulate the abolition of nuclear weapons as a goal, but I think, unlike in 2009, when I think he was sincere and he really thought this was achievable, I think today he wants to abolish nuclear weapons in the same way that other politicians say they want to abolish poverty or eliminate drug addiction.

It's an aspiration, but not something that we — something we all understand is not going to be achieved anytime soon.

"How a Hiroshima survivor helped remember 12 U.S. POWs killed by bomb" PBS NewsHour 5/27/2016

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SUMMARY:  Among the thousands killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was the crew of the B-24 bomber “Lonesome Lady,” 12 American POWs who are oft-forgotten in the annals of history.  But one man who never forgot was Shigeaki Mori, whose diligent efforts to memorialize the dead Americans are documented in the new film “Paper Lanterns.” John Yang talks to “Paper Lanterns” director Barry Frechette for more.

"In Hiroshima, President Obama renews call to abolish nuclear weapons" PBS NewsHour 5/27/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Obama on Friday visited Hiroshima, which was devastated when the U.S. dropped the atom bomb on it in 1945.  Obama joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in paying solemn tribute to the tens of thousands who died in the strike and met with survivors.  He offered no apologies but renewed his call for nuclear disarmament.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports.

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