Karl Werner Assignment 4: A World In Pictures

1945 Nagasaki, taken by the U.S. Air Force

This picture, captured by the U.S. air force, depicts the atom bomb's detonation on Nagasaki, Japan. This bomb killed over 80, 000 people and was part of a pair of nuclear weapons that directly led to Japan's WW2 surrender. The picture is of the giant mushroom cloud left in the wake of the bomb, seen high up in the air. This picture represents an event that shook the entire world. The dropping of the atom bomb ended the terrible war, but also ended thousands of innocent lives. It caused the whole of humanity to step back and examine both our own fragility and our capability for destruction. The dropping of the bomb devastated the Japanese community for years after, and its shock waves were felt across all the other continents as well. These were felt through both peace allowed by the war's end and revulsion at the intended and unexpected aftereffects of the bomb. This deployment of nuclear weapons directly led to the historical and modern stance against nuclear weapons, as well as the terror inspired by them during the Cold War. In this picture, we see an event that shook the world politically,  ethically, and scientifically. It was a big step for mankind. But to this day, no one is sure whether that step was in the right direction, wrong direction, or somewhere in between