Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation

This article examines the mode of censorship and reportage of atomic damage in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in one of Japan's leading newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun, during the months of August and September 1945, as well as representative cases of censorship during the early years of the Allied Occupation to answer the question of why there was not more immediate "horror and repulsion sweeping over the rest of the world" as predicted by the Franck Report. By going back to the very start of press coverage of atomic damage we hope to be able to shed light on the evolution of nuclear discourse in Japan, and, to a lesser extent, the United States.