The Coming of the A-Bomb

Unlike the physical shockwaves that immediately destroyed Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, the bomb’s psychic shockwaves took more than a year to hit America. John Hersey published his searing account of the event at the end of August 1946—taking up an entire issue of the New Yorker. After that, Americans began debating the bomb and never stopped. Were the atomic bombings of Japan justified? Could the war have been ended without them? Was the attack used to cow the Soviets as much as the Japanese? As Christopher Nolan’s movie “Oppenheimer” shows, the shockwaves reverberate still.