Disturbing perspective!

Nearly eighty years ago, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the skeletons of pulverised bodies and corpses charred by 4000 degrees Celsius within a kilometre radius of the nuclear explosions became the first evidence of what these weapons are capable of doing to human beings – and to all life on Earth.

Others were obliterated by the blast wave, hurled like rag dolls against concrete walls at 1,500 km/h. In the streets of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, mutilated bodies—some with organs exposed—merged into the hellish landscapes forged by two atomic detonations of 15 and 21 kilotons respectively.

Men, women, and children suffered equally under the effects of the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. Some survivors died within minutes or hours, victims of devastating burns and multiple traumatic injuries. Others succumbed days later, either due to lack of medical care or from Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS), a condition that can trigger acute circulatory collapse due to myocardial necrosis, internal hemorrhaging, and untreatable infections (caused by severe bone marrow damage), as well as the destruction of the intestinal mucosa so complete that victims became irreversibly dehydrated, unable to absorb even water to ease their unbearable thirst.

The loss of hair in the first survivors signaled their impending death from ARS, rapidly approaching toward them at full speed.

Eventually, they came to realize that there would be no treatment to save them from their dreadful fate.

Those who survived the initial effects carried the scars of burns, which manifested as horrific keloids across their entire bodies, including their faces.

Leukemia began to surface months later, continuing to manifest throughout the lives of the “hibakusha” (a Japanese term for the survivors of the atomic bombs).

Malignant tumors of the lungs, thyroid, stomach, skin, and colon, among others, relentlessly pursued their victims until death, with some even suffering from up to five different types of cancer simultaneously.

The generation that followed the first hibakusha also had to face a higher prevalence of cancer and congenital malformations, direct consequences of radiation.

Radiation-induced cataracts also represented another significant public health challenge that Japan’s healthcare system had to urgently address.

The psychological damage suffered by the survivors, compounded by the unsettling perspective of having witnessed how the atomic bombs devastated, destroyed, and stripped away both personal and collective dreams and aspirations, left them with an existential void that seemed impossible to fill in a humanity that appeared to have fallen into desolation.

Eventually, aid arrived in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, nine days after the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and six days after the nuclear attack on Nagasaki. Japan began its slow recovery process to become the nation it is today.

In a large-scale nuclear war between the nine existing nuclear powers, the areas of total destruction will be much larger due to nuclear weapons that are hundreds, even thousands of times more powerful than those of nearly 80 years ago.

Aid will likely never reach most survivors due to multiple nuclear detonations in major population centers, and the number of deaths in the short, medium, and long term will be proportionally much higher than what was seen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Most of the medical personnel in the attacked urban areas will be annihilated, and most hospitals will be destroyed. No government in the world will be prepared to assist the victims of a large-scale nuclear attack on its territory.

The rest of the populations around the world, not directly affected by the nuclear detonations, will have to endure the global economic collapse and a nuclear winter that will destroy crops worldwide.

Hunger and malnutrition, both in adults and children, will multiply exponentially across the globe. International trade will come to a complete halt.

Infectious and parasitic diseases, as well as non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer, will go untreated due to a total shortage of medications.

Surgical procedures, both emergency and elective, will disappear in many places due to the lack of surgical facilities, medical supplies, and trained personnel to perform them.

Millions of survivors, marked by radiation-induced cataracts, would stumble through the rest of their lives blindly, unable to grasp the full extent of the disaster surrounding them.

Social chaos will be inevitable, and with it, draconian policies will emerge in the nations that manage to stay standing in an attempt to maintain order.

In the most severely affected countries, mass migrations will occur as millions of people seek to flee to areas less contaminated by the nuclear holocaust.

The least affected people will be those who manage to find shelter in nuclear bunkers in time, which will represent a small percentage of the population due to the inadequate preparedness of most countries, even some of the most developed.

The historical and cultural legacy of many nations could be irretrievably lost, and life across the planet would turn into a constant struggle for survival.

In our latest perspective article, co-authored with my colleague Dr. Reyna Durón and recently published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health in South Korea, we explored and analyzed the most likely global scenario from various perspectives. The conclusions were not only discouraging, but deeply disturbing.

A total nuclear disarmament, in light of current military conflicts, especially the one in Ukraine and in the Middle East, not only seems improbable but even appears to be an unreachable utopia.

In a geopolitical context marked by growing tensions and rivalries, where global powers are caught in an unprecedented arms race, the complete elimination of nuclear arsenals seems like an increasingly distant goal.

The threat of nuclear war, far from diminishing, remains a lingering shadow that shapes the political and military decisions of international actors. In this scenario, the promise of a nuclear-free world is overshadowed by the reality of a global order defined by fear, mistrust, and competition for power.