Berger Publishes Article on Obama’s Hiroshima Visit
Thomas Berger, Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, recently published an article discussing President Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, the first time a sitting American president has visited the site of the 1945 atomic bombing.
Berger penned the May 31, 2016 article, entitled “Coming Full Circle?“, for the The Cipher Brief.
From the text of the article:
Obama’s visit to Hiroshima takes on added significance in this context. The visit’s primary goals are to reaffirm the strength of the U.S.-Japan alliance and to tap the symbolic capital of Hiroshima to rally support for nuclear non-proliferation. The trip also may prove useful at the time when Japan is compelled to redefine its position in the world. By linking the U.S.-Japan alliance to the larger goal of nuclear disarmament, the visit may help the Japanese people to find a way of resolving the tension between their pacifist/anti-military ideals and their national security policies. By coming full circle – back to where the War in the Pacific was ended and Japan’s post-1945 approach to security began – we can hope that the President can help usher Japan into a new world.
You can read the full article here.
Thomas Berger joined the Department of International Relations in 2001. Previously, he taught for seven years at the Johns Hopkins Department of Political Science in Baltimore. He is the author of War, Guilt and World Politics After World War II, Cultures of Antimilitarism: National Security in Germany and Japan and is co-editor of Japan in International Politics: Beyond the Reactive State. You can read more about him here.