It's been 81 years since the USA dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima
Eighty-one years ago today, the USA did the unthinkable and dropped a nuclear bomb on a city with ~350,000 residents. The bomb (along with the second one dropped three days later on Nagasaki) killed an estimated 150,000 - 250,000 people. While history has deemed this action to be essential to winning WWII, the reality is far more complex. Many historians maintain that Japan's surrender was imminent due to advances made by the USSR, and the atomic bombs were not the game-changer that our modern history textbooks make them out to be.
Five years ago today I released my debut EP, Atomic Dreaming, to coincide with the 76th anniversary of the bombing. Here’s what I said at the time:
>Atomic Dreaming is about living in a world on the verge of complete collapse while everyone around you seems to be going on about their day. "Atomic" has a dual meaning in both the reference to nuclear weapons as well as the highly atomized nature of our society (even pre-pandemic).
In the five years since the EP’s release, we’ve only inched closer to the complete annihilation of our species - whether from nuclear weapons, climate change, pandemics, or killer robots. The majority of people are either passively letting it happen or actively supporting the collapse. To borrow a concept from Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood, humanity may appear from the outside-looking-in to be engaged in a mass suicide.
When I first released my EP, I genuinely thought it would change the world. Maybe it has in some small way. Certainly, if more people would make music that directly confronts the reality that humanity may go extinct in our lifetime, it would be harder for people to ignore the truth.
So I will keep being loud. I will keep using my privilege to confront the ruling class, and I hope you’ll join me.
Listen to Atomic Dreaming on bandcamp: honeykillfm.bandcamp.co…
Watch the music video for AtDm2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-zqPUF6sG8&list=RD8-zqPUF6sG8&start_radio=1