A grave injustice in American history marks its 80th anniversary this December. The US Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case Korematsu v. United States on December 18, 1944. The decision helped ratify the federal government’s 1942 decision to remove roughly 120,000 people of Japanese heritage, most of whom were American citizens, from … Continue reading “This Legalization of Racism”: Remembering the Korematsu Decision and Japanese-American Internment after 80 Years
Category: History
A Complex Man’s Complex Legacy: What the Movie ‘Rustin’ Leaves Out
The great civil rights activist and thinker Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) has received renewed attention thanks to the recently released movie Rustin. The movie is an engrossing look at Rustin’s role as an advisor to Martin Luther King and as the organizer of the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC. Rustin organized one … Continue reading A Complex Man’s Complex Legacy: What the Movie ‘Rustin’ Leaves Out
Sleepwalking toward Nuclear War: The Lessons of the Able Archer Scare
Since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, nations have repeatedly come close to using nuclear weapons again and even to all-out nuclear war. The most famous episode in which nations came close to nuclear war was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.[1] However, another terrifying case of narrowly averted nuclear war occurred 40 years ago this … Continue reading Sleepwalking toward Nuclear War: The Lessons of the Able Archer Scare
Comprehending Horror through Animation: The Art of the Anti-War Animated Movie
Animation fascinates me. Like painters, animators can create images of stunning beauty. Being free from the limitations of human actors or physical locations, animators can also depart from strict realism and create images that are fantastical, metaphorical, or otherwise stylized. Animation’s stylization can allow animated films to deal with darker, more serious topics such as … Continue reading Comprehending Horror through Animation: The Art of the Anti-War Animated Movie
Stepping Back from the Brink: The Cuban Missile Crisis and Lessons for Today
We are now 60 years away from the Cuban Missile Crisis. The October 1962 confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear missiles stationed in Cuba was a moment when the world came perilously close to nuclear war. The episode’s extraordinary danger has understandably made the crisis the subject of much … Continue reading Stepping Back from the Brink: The Cuban Missile Crisis and Lessons for Today
“Sacrificed in the Name of Global Power”: How US Nuclear Policy Harmed Native American Nations
The lethal effects of nuclear weapons in wartime are well known. What is less appreciated is how nuclear weapons can kill and hurt people in other ways, through their production, their testing, and the waste they create. The United States’ creation of its vast nuclear weapons arsenal has harmed many beyond the tens of thousands … Continue reading “Sacrificed in the Name of Global Power”: How US Nuclear Policy Harmed Native American Nations
Fallout at Home Base: Nuclear Testing within the United States
The United States conducted the world’s first test of a nuclear weapon in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.[1] The test was followed in August by the use of nuclear weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although the wartime use of nuclear weapons has mercifully never been repeated since 1945, nuclear testing was repeated. From the … Continue reading Fallout at Home Base: Nuclear Testing within the United States
Unholy Trinity: The Terrible Consequences of the First Nuclear Test
The nuclear age officially began when the United States conducted the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. On that day, years of work by civilian and military personnel involved in the Manhattan Project culminated in the use of the most destructive weapon in history. While overshadowed by the wartime use … Continue reading Unholy Trinity: The Terrible Consequences of the First Nuclear Test
“An Inferno That Even the Mind of Dante Could Not Envision”: Martin Luther King on Nuclear Weapons
Although Martin Luther King is most famous for championing racial and economic justice and nonviolent protest, an aspect of King’s thought that has received relatively less attention is his opposition to the ultimate tools of violence, nuclear weapons. Historian Vincent Intondi, in his work African Americans against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black … Continue reading “An Inferno That Even the Mind of Dante Could Not Envision”: Martin Luther King on Nuclear Weapons
Racial Discrimination and Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Navajo’s Struggle against Uranium Mining
A long struggle against injustice took a new turn this fall when a group of Navajo activists moved forward with an appeal to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The New Mexico-based activists are trying to stop the Canadian company Laramide Resources, and its US subsidiary NuFuels, from mining for uranium on Navajo Nation land.[1] … Continue reading Racial Discrimination and Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Navajo’s Struggle against Uranium Mining
Peacemaking for Life 