Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Frontispiece
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Preface to Volume II
- Part VII Rethinking the Pacific
- Part VIII Approaches, Sources, and Subaltern Histories of the Modern Pacific
- Part IX Culture Contact and the Impact of Pre-colonial European Influences
- Part X The Colonial Era in the Pacific
- Part XI The Pacific Century?
- 54 The USA and the Pacific since 1800
- 55 World War II and the Pacific
- 56 The Nuclear Pacific
- 57 Shrinking the Pacific since 1945
- 58 China and the Pacific since 1949
- 59 Pacific Island Nations since Independence
- Part XII Pacific Futures
- References to Volume II
- Index
56 - The Nuclear Pacific
From Hiroshima to Fukushima, 1945–2018
from Part XI - The Pacific Century?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2022
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors to Volume II
- Frontispiece
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Preface to Volume II
- Part VII Rethinking the Pacific
- Part VIII Approaches, Sources, and Subaltern Histories of the Modern Pacific
- Part IX Culture Contact and the Impact of Pre-colonial European Influences
- Part X The Colonial Era in the Pacific
- Part XI The Pacific Century?
- 54 The USA and the Pacific since 1800
- 55 World War II and the Pacific
- 56 The Nuclear Pacific
- 57 Shrinking the Pacific since 1945
- 58 China and the Pacific since 1949
- 59 Pacific Island Nations since Independence
- Part XII Pacific Futures
- References to Volume II
- Index
Summary
The Nuclear Pacific is a term born from a uniquely resonant pairing of a science and technology that made its historical appearance as an expression of military power in an Oceanian and archipelagic world – and has legacies that extend thousands of years into the future. From the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, to years of the Pacific being utilized as an experiment site for America, British, and French nuclear testing, to renewed concerns about environmental and global public health issuing from the breach of a reactor in Fukushima, Japan as a consequence of a devastating 2011 tsunami, the Pacific has been a figurative and literal ground zero for nuclear diplomacy, popular resistance, and continuing debates about human rights, international law, economic and political power, and the environment (Figure 56.1).
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- The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean , pp. 614 - 633Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023