The atomic bomb may not be one of humanity's proudest achievements, it certainly is an impressive one—and it might be getting its own national park.
Who knew when our ancestors first taught themselves to control fire that millions of years later we would learn how to harness the power of the sun, and use it as weaponry? America's first non-test use of the atomic bomb came during World War II when it was dropped on the unsuspecting people of Hiroshima, Japan, on July 16, 1945, then a month later on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 250,000 people in all—either directly from the bombs' blasts or the lingering radiation. America's use of the bombs is still under debate, as it came down to either losing American lives, or those of the enemy country.
Now, almost seven decades later, the U.S. House of Representatives has set aside $21 million for an Atomic Bomb National Park, to either be built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Hanford, Washington or Los Alamos, New Mexico (the site of some of the atomic bomb's original testing). Of course this is sparking controversy: will the site focus on the technology of the atomic bomb, or the lives which were changed by it?
“The technology which created the bomb cannot be separated from the horror the bomb created," says Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich. "If there was going to be a new park, it should serve as a solemn monument to Japanese American friendship that rose from the ashes and the worldwide work for nuclear disarmament that continues to this day, rather than a celebration of a technology that has brought such destruction to the world. Failure to recognize this dimension, even in its first iteration, really is a significant injustice.”