August 6 2026 – Eighty-one years ago this morning, a mere 1.7% of 141 pounds of Uranium 235 went critical 1,900 feet over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Some 70,000 people were instantly vaporized or burned to death in a radioactive firestorm. The total killed by the first use of nuclear weapons in combat would rise to more than 140,000.

The next day President Harry Truman declared: “The atomic bomb is too dangerous to be loose in a lawless world,” and that America would keep its production technology secret “until means have been found to control the bomb so as to protect ourselves and the rest of the world from the danger of total destruction.”

No human saved alive?

This author was privileged to review both threat and hope on the 75th anniversary of the advent of today’s dangerous nuclear age in the pages of Beyond Today magazine in 2020.

At the time of publication, the fear of nuclear war or use of tactical nuclear weapons had temporarily faded from public interest. Today, the power and terrible efficiency of existing nuclear weapons in the megaton range is far greater by several orders of magnitude.

Real hope

With the production and stockpiling of near-weapons-grade plutonium by Iran and operational nuclear weapons (and delivery systems) by North Korea, a renewed threat of nuclear weapons has arisen. But there exists real hope, even in the face of fearful weaponry and unstable governments with their finger on a nuclear trigger.

For more information, consider reviewing the article “75 Years After Hiroshima – Real Peril, Real Hope” at this link.