Vox Sentences: How the bombing of Hiroshima shaped modern Japan

Seventy years since the bombing of Hiroshima; fifty years since the signing of the Voting Rights Act; one more Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

"A very pleasant way to die"

Enola Gay Tail Gunner S/Sgt. George R. (Bob) Caron

• Seventy years ago today, the United States conducted the first atomic bomb attack in history.

  [Washington Post / Richard Johnson and Bonnie Berkowitz]

• If you haven't read John Hersey's Hiroshima, you really have to — it's one of the all-time great works of narrative journalism, and for the anniversary the New Yorker has posted it in full on its website.

  [The New Yorker / John Hersey]

• Most Americans didn't realize how terrible the effects of the bomb were. Leading politicians actively misled the public about the effects of radiation; the director of the Manhattan Project told the Senate in November 1945 that radiation sickness was "a very pleasant way to die."

  [Los Angeles Times / Susan Southard ]

• Did anyone know in advance how radiation would affect people? Alex Wellerstein examined the question in 2012.

  [Nuclear Secrecy / Alex Wellerstein]

• Paul Ham shows how the decision to unleash a previously unknown terror was the product of a perfectly ordinary midcentury bureaucratic process.

  [The Atlantic / John Ham]

• One argument for the bomb: it hastened the end of World War II. But historian Tsuyoshi Hasegawa says...it probably didn't.

  [Boston Globe / Gareth Cook]

• Of course, the US also killed 100,000 civilians or more through conventional weapon attacks, like the firebombing of Tokyo.

  [Jacobin / Rory Fanning]

• Meanwhile, the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has led Japan to embrace nuclear non-proliferation. But Jonathan Hunt thinks that might be changing.

  [Foreign Policy / Jonathan Hunt]

• And as it turns out, before Hiroshima the Japanese were secretly working on a nuclear program of their own; a Kyoto University professor has unearthed blueprints of centrifuges.

  [Los Angeles Times / Jake Adelstein]

Fifty years after the Voting Rights Act, what's next?

Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty

• On August 6, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. His speech after signing the bill is, fifty years later, alternately inspiring and wince-inducing.

  [Lyndon B. Johnson via the Leadership Conference]

• The law made the right to vote real for millions of Americans. The effects on voter registration are staggering to look at today.

  [Vox / Dara Lind]

• So how are voting rights doing, 50 years later? Ehhhhh...

  [Huffington Post / Samantha Lachman and Amber Ferguson]

• Bernard L. Fraga makes a compelling, but depressing, argument that because the country is so much more diverse today, the midterm voting population is whiter relative to the total population than it was in 1965.

  [Washington Post / Bernard L. Fraga]

• State legislatures aren't generally tackling that problem. They're mostly concerned about voter fraud, even though only 35 credible cases have been identified out of 834 billion ballots cast from 2000 to 2014.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• What's next? Well, the Fifth Circuit just ruled that Texas' voter ID law (the strictest in the country) is unconstitutional.

  [Brennan Center for Justice]

• In North Carolina, civil-rights advocates are challenging a set of voting laws (including voter ID and the elimination of early voting and same-day registration), arguing they're racially discriminatory.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• And the Supreme Court will take up a Texas case next session that, depending on how it goes, could wind up substantially diminishing Latino voting power.

  [Pew Research Center / Drew DeSilver]

Jon Stewart absolutely obliterates retirement

Comedy Central

• Tonight is Jon Stewart's last night hosting The Daily Show. This is a trying time for political websites everywhere, so please keep your local aggregator in your thoughts.

• Some of the best paeans to Stewart have recognized that 15 years is a long time to be relevant, and maybe Stewart isn't quite as of-the-moment in 2015 as he was in 2005. Todd VanDerWerff calls him "an angry man for an angry time"...

  [Vox / Todd VanDerWerff]

• ...and Amanda Hess calls him "the face of progressivism in the early 2000s...passionate, self-deprecating, white, male, and super super defensive about those last two."

  [Slate ]

• (This is as good a time, if you haven't already, to read Gene Demby's terrific post on being "the only one in the room," which is partly about Wyatt Cenac's not-so-hot experience working with Stewart.)

  [NPR / Gene Demby]

• Michael B. Dougherty argues (in an enjoyable and mostly loving sendoff) that "If Stewart had any effect on our actual political culture, it was probably to the benefit of conservatives."

  [Deadspin / Michael B. Dougherty]

• But his true lasting effect has been on headline writers. Last night, Stewart mercilessly detonated headlines saying things like "Jon Stewart Mercilessly Detonates."

  [Comedy Central]

• Luckily for hyperbolists, there's still John Oliver — not to mention the John Oliver Headline Generator.

  [Vox / Yuri Victor]

MISCELLANEOUS

"You Only Get What You Give" is, indeed, one of the finest one-hit wonders ever, up there with "Flagpole Sitta" and "Afternoon Delight" and "Come On, Eileen." [AV Club / Annie Zaleski]

• This is a great visual explanation of how machine learning — one of the most crucial and exciting tools in computing today — works.

  [R2D3]

• People are paying as much as $50 an hour to get professional standers-in-line for Rose's Luxury, one of DC's hottest (and apparently not highly priced enough) restaurants.

  [Washington Post / Joe Heim]

• Thomas Kelly gave his kidney to a complete stranger. You can too (it was one of Dylan's New Year's resolutions this year to give away one of his; hasn't happened yet but hopefully mentioning it can spur some of you to shame him to do it).

  [Washington Post / Thomas Kelly]

• In the long, illustrious history of movie distributors taking critics' comments out of context, this might be the single most egregious example.

  [AV Club / AA Dowd]

VERBATIM

"It is, I’m fairly certain, quite unlike any other Sapphic S-and-M lepidoptery-themed psychological romance you have ever seen." [NYT / AO Scott]

• "Records show that bottle-service champagne and a fire extinguisher were both employed in Ibiza brawls."

  [Washington City Paper / Will Sommer]

• "What do you think an apple core is? What's the thing we throw away? It is a ghost. If you eat your apples whole, you are a hero to this ghost. If you do not, you are barely alive."

  [The Atlantic / James Hamblin]

• "Work hard, know your shit, show your shit, and then feel entitled. Listen to no one except the two smartest and kindest adults you know, and that doesn't always mean your parents. If you do that, you will be fine."

  [Glamour / Mindy Kaling]

• "A leathery dominatrix holding hands with a unicorn wished me, using the customary parlance, a happy Beltane."

  [NYT Mag / Alex Halberstadt]

WATCH THIS

YouTube / Johnny Harris

• Turns out primary debates matter way more than the generals

  [YouTube / Johnny Harris and Matt Yglesias]

Will you join us?

Our biggest supporters are our readers — and we’re so grateful to everyone who has made a contribution during our September campaign. We’re less than 1,000 contributions away from reaching our goal for the month, which in turn will allow us to say yes more often when our incredible journalists come to us with questions they want to answer and projects they want to pursue. Will you make a contribution before the month ends and support our policy coverage through 2024 and beyond?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via