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- Fake news and government censorship play a key role in the nuclear age
E. William Colglazier wrote an article of "War and peace in the nuclear age" (1). Although he emphasizes the role of science and scientists, Japanese scientists have been little involved in disarmament. The United States dropped two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities including Hiroshima on August 6 of 1945 and Nagasaki on August 9 of 1945 respectively. Japan is the only country to have suffered atomic bomb attacks. However, Japan did not sign nuclear weapons ban treaty because its approach to achieving a nuclear weapons ban is different from the treaty, even though nuclear abolition is their ultimate shared goal (2). My father and mother were atomic bombs survivors in Nagasaki. They did not talk about the atomic bomb and the war. During the world war II, because of the Japanese government censorship in the media, fake news through newspapers and NHK radio were spreading in public. Scientists and lay public must know how to detect fake news and to suppress the government censorship.
References:
1. E. William Colglazier, "War and peace in the nuclear age," Science 09 Feb 2018: Vol. 359, Issue 6376, pp. 613
2. Eric Johnston, "Truth hurts: censorship in the media," the Japan Times
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/08/08/national/history/truth-hurt...Competing Interests: None declared.
