Hiroshima and the Inheritance of Trauma

Hiroshima and the Inheritance of Trauma

The paper context unveils the inheritance of trauma depicted in Hiroshima. Precisely, the selected option for the project is an explanation of whether the decision to use nuclear weapons at Hiroshima was ethical or unethical. The reason behind choosing the topic is to bring into limelight the profound impacts allied with the decision. The essay focuses on evaluating the inheritance of trauma basing arguments from Stillman’s article. The essay also proposes to bring a comprehensive understanding that trauma can be a contagious disease with profound impacts on the current and future generations. Concisely, the paper focus on explaining to the readers that trauma can be inherited, as seen in Hiroshima. The explanation is of much significance as it will ensure that people avoid actions causing trauma. In general, the discussion will play a pivotal role and ensure people work towards eliminating trauma backed by the fact that it can have diverse impacts on the victims but also the future generation.

Backed by the Stillman argument on the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the context gives a clear picture that it was unethical decisions due to its social, political, and economic impacts. To bring into the limelight, Stillman’s article starts by ascertaining that the decision to use nuclear weapons in Hiroshima was unethical. The assertions emanate from the profound impacts allied with the nuclear weapon decision. The action was catastrophic and hazardous to the regions since it brought long term and short impacts on people. Stilman argues that Hiroshima catastrophic impacted the lives of many, and this extended to their future generation. The incident left thousands of people dead. Furthermore, there was a massive loss of properties and economic recession in Japan. The incident brought tension in the region since most people were subjected to intense fear.

The article makes assertions; the nuclear bomb caused disabilities, which were later inherited from generation to generation. For instance, many people lost sights, and this is still reported in Japan’s generation. Due to the massive death of people, the Hiroshima’s economy was greatly affected. To stabilize the economy, the government had to spend a lot of money to ensure the affected areas and families were compensated. The amounts could be used to enhance economic and infrastructural developments. From the arguments presented by Stillman, it is vibrant that the decision to use nuclear weapons had negative impacts than the positive sides, and therefore it can be articulated to be the unethical decision that has affected the operations in the United States.

In “Hiroshima and the Inheritance of Trauma” by Sarah Stillman, trauma may be ‘a contagious disease.’ In her opinion, trauma has the capability of being spread from family to family all the way to future generations. The elaboration of her argument Stillman gives an example of Tomiko Shonji, who survived a Hiroshima bombing when she was young. In the incident, she suffered both traumatic post-stress and radiation poisoning (Hersey, 50). However, she was just nineteen when the bombing struck her. Its effects were still felt in her forties when she lost her hearing and sight abilities. Psychological symptoms also faced her at later ages with loss of control during thunderstorms and collapsed with fear every try she spoke of an event. Moreover, her granddaughter Keni Sabbath inherited the trauma from learning her grandmother’s experience through a hard way when he was young.

Several studies have concurred that mass trauma survivors tend to pass the traumatic conditions to their offspring. There are divided opinions on the ethical use of nuclear weapons in the present and future. While some scientists believe that nuclear weapons may be used as a self-defense strategy, others believe that the legalization of the use of nuclear weapons may be more of a harm than an advantage. The critics that the ability of the ethical use of nuclear weapons argue that a world with nuclear weapons may be as much uncontrollable as impossible. Consequently, major studies have backed each other in arguing that the use of nuclear weapons ethically in 2020 and the future are maybe next to impossible.

The success of the ethical use of nuclear weapons majorly relies on persuasion, which mostly fails. Not all nations have nuclear weapons, and thus those with the weapons may need to be persuaded from the time not to use the weapons carelessly. However, the persuasion may fail when the state owners of nuclear weapons are hungered by others. They may need to pass their wrath by using the weapons on their aggressors. Moreover, those nations that contain the weapons may want to control the less privileged in the sector by forcefully dominating them using the power of the weapons. A future world war may emerge as the state owners of the nuclear weapons battle for supremacy. Moreover, the nations that possess nuclear weapons may tend to use the smaller nations as the testing grounds for their weapons. The use of nuclear weapons in 2020 and the future puts people’s lives at risk since the effects of the use of a nuclear weapon is felt in the present and the future since it irrational to believe in the ethical use of nuclear weapons.

Works cited

Stillman, Sarah. “Hiroshima and the Inheritance of Trauma.” New Yorker (2014).

Works Cited

Hersey, John. A Reporter at Large August 31, 1946, Issue Hiroshima, August 24, 1946, www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima.