Last week was the 77th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagaski. The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more later died of radiation exposure. On August 9th, the US dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. In his new film, "Oppenheimer," Director Christopher Nolan tells the story of the leading physicist behind the development of the atomic bomb. The film follows the rise of Robert Oppenheimer and his fall during the McCarthy era. Jan Haaken talks with Hugh Gusterson, professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia, about the politics of the film and its portrayals of lead protagonists in nuclear weapons development. Gusterson has carried out research on the culture of nuclear weapons laboratories and has published extensively on nuclear weapons, international security, and the anthropology of science. His books include Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the end of the Cold War and People of the Bomb: Portraits of America's Nuclear Complex.
- KBOO