World / The Anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Have Special Meaning in a World Out of Control As the last US-Russia nuclear arms control treaty expires, the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki carry renewed urgency for a world edging toward a new arms race. Over 80 years ago, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These consequences did not start with the bombings in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. That choice—its weight—also strained the diplomatic relationship between the United States and Japan, raising a question that still lingers: How does a nation set norms it did not itself follow? The stories of the civilian victims of nuclear arms racing are increasingly at risk of being rewritten, sanitized, or erased from official histories altogether.