The Case for the Atomic Bomb, 80 Years Later

“Might not a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to possess a secret power to destroy a whole block of buildings—nay, to concentrate the force of a thousand tons of cordite and blast a township at a stroke?” So asked Winston Churchill in September 1924. Twenty-one years later he got something of an answer, as the U.S. bombed Japan, instantly killing as many as 70,000 people in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and 40,000 in Nagasaki three days later.