What Hiroshima teaches us about coronavirus and the future of humanity

The nuclear bomb told us we are the greatest threat to our own survival – and the covid-19 pandemic shows the lessons still to learn, say Anders Sandberg and Thomas Moynihan

Health

| Comment

5 August 2020

By Anders Sandberg
and Thomas Moynihan

Nagasaki was hit by an atomic bomb three days after Hiroshima

Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

ON 6 AUGUST 1945, a nuclear bomb was dropped on the Japanese port city of Hiroshima. Three days later, Nagasaki suffered the same fate. Three-quarters of a century on, the full human toll is still unclear. In Hiroshima alone, some 75,000 souls were obliterated instantly, with many more deaths in the following months and years.

These are the only times nuclear weapons have been used in war; debates about the rights and wrongs continue. As we remember those who died, we might also usefully …