American University Nuclear Studies Institute
Encyclopedia
The Nuclear Studies Institute was founded in 1995 at American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...

 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 as a component of the American University College of Arts and Sciences
American University College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest academic unit at American University in terms of student enrollment and faculty lines. It offers more than 50 masters, doctoral, and certificate programs taught by award-winning faculty. A low student-to-faculty ratio allows students to...

. The purpose of the Institute is to educate American University graduate and undergraduate students, as well as the general public, about the key points of nuclear history
History of nuclear weapons
The history of nuclear weapons chronicles the development of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive potential derived from nuclear fission or nuclear fusion reactions...

, nuclear culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and the threats still posed by nuclear weapons in the modern world.

Under the direction of Dr. Peter Kuznick, the Institute runs during the University summer session, offering on-campus classes dealing with American nuclear culture and also a two-week study trip to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. In Japan, American University students, along with other American and Canadian students, travel and study alongside Japanese students, mainly from Ritsumeikan University
Ritsumeikan University
Ritsumeikan University has a growing reputation as one of the main private universities of Japan. It is part of a group of prestigious private universities in the Kansai area, called "Kan -Kan -Dou -Ritsu "...

 as well as other universities in Japan and the region. The study tours the cities of Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

, Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...

, and Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...

, where the students hear lectures, visit landmarks, and attend the memorial ceremonies for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

, as well as their respective peace museums, in an effort to foster closer ties on both sides of the Pacific.

The 2010 Nuclear Studies Institute trip to Japan was covered by NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

, Japan’s national broadcasting corporation, and broadcast on Japanese television and featured on the NHK program “Japan Seven Days.”

The Institute provides participants to hear many stories of the hibakusha
Hibakusha
The surviving victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are called , a Japanese word that literally translates to "explosion-affected people"...

 (被爆者, literally “explosion-affected people"), including those of Koko Kondo, peace activist, American University graduate, and daughter of Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto
Kiyoshi Tanimoto
was a Methodist minister famous for his work for the Hiroshima Maidens. He was one of the six Hiroshima survivors whose experiences of the bomb and later life are portrayed in John Hersey's book Hiroshima....

, who figures heavily in John Hersey
John Hersey
John Richard Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer and journalist considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling devices of the novel are fused with non-fiction reportage...

’s Hiroshima (book). Tadatoshi Akiba
Tadatoshi Akiba
is a Japanese politician and served as the mayor of the city of Hiroshima, Japan from 1999 to 2011.- Early life :He studied mathematics at the University of Tokyo, receiving a B.S. in 1966 and an M.S. in 1968. He continued his studies under John Milnor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,...

, mayor of Hiroshima and president of the Mayors for Peace
Mayors for Peace
Mayors for Peace is an international organization of cities, dedicated for the promotion of peace that was established in 1982 at the initiative of then mayor of Hiroshima Takeshi Araki....

 organization, also regularly meets with the participants during their study in Hiroshima.

The Institute participates in the Nuclear Education Project; a worldwide effort to improve access to teaching and learning materials regarding the history of the nuclear arms race and the ongoing movement to curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Education Project was founded in 2004 by Dr. Peter Kuznick, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, Dr. John W. Dower
John W. Dower
John W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...

 of MIT and Dr. Mark Selden
Mark Selden
Mark Selden is a Coordinator of the open access journal The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, a Senior Research Associate in the East Asia Program at Cornell University, and Bartle Professor of History and Sociology at Binghamton University. He graduated from Amherst College with a major in...

.

Staff

  • Peter J Kuznick, Director
  • Vincent Intondi, Director of Research
  • Kana Kobayashi, Outreach Liaison
  • Christine Cohn, Assistant Director of Research
  • Ryan Shapiro, Assistant Director of Research
  • Eric Singer, Assistant Director of Research

See also

  • American University
    American University
    American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...

  • Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution
    Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution
    Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is a clause in the National Constitution of Japan that prohibits an act of war by the state. The Constitution came into effect on May 3, 1947, immediately following World War II. In its text, the state formally renounces war as a sovereign right and bans...

  • Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
    Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
    The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...

  • Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
    Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
    The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996 but it has not entered into force.-Status:...

  • Nuclear arms race
    Nuclear arms race
    The nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War...

  • Nuclear-free zone
    Nuclear-free zone
    A nuclear-free zone is an area where nuclear weapons and nuclear power are banned. The specific ramifications of these depend on the locale in question....

  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
    Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
    The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to...

  • Nuclear proliferation
    Nuclear proliferation
    Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "Nuclear Weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the...

  • Nuclear warfare
    Nuclear warfare
    Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...

  • Nuclear weapon
    Nuclear weapon
    A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

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