This week marks 80 years since the first use of nuclear weapons in war, when the United States dropped a pair of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in the bombings. Many died instantly, and many others died more slowly from severe burns and radiation sickness. Some estimates put the combined death toll over 250,000 killed. We speak with veteran journalist Greg Mitchell, whose new documentary, streaming at PBS.org and airing on PBS, reexamines a remarkable episode in the U.S. occupation of Japan after the end of World War II, when the U.S. military held an all-star football game in the ruins of Nagasaki, reflecting what Mitchell calls a “careless” and “heartless” U.S. attitude. The Atomic Bowl is “horrifying history” that is worth reexamining, says Mitchell, because “there is not a real taboo on using nuclear weapons, because so many historians, so many in the media continue to support the use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima and even Nagasaki.”

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