80 Years After Trinity, Nuclear Threat Still Looms Over Taiwan, World

TaiwanPlus News

Eighty years after the Trinity nuclear test, Taiwan and the world remain under the threat of nuclear conflict, as global tensions rise and air raid drills become routine. With conflicts involving nuclear-armed states ongoing, the danger unleashed in 1945 is far from over.

Transcript

00:00On July 16, 1945, a blinding flash lit up the sky over New Mexico, visible for miles.

00:20Its shockwave still reverberates around the world today.

00:23From this observation tower, scientists watch the result of their years of work.

00:30Miles into the air rises the giant shape of the now-historic explosion.

00:37The Trinity test, the fruit of a top-secret Manhattan project, was the world's first nuclear blast, but it would not be the last.

00:45Less than a month later, the U.S. would drop a smaller atomic bomb on Japan.

00:49One bomb exploding 1,500 feet above the target, leaving no crater.

00:54Half a million people lived in Hiroshima, a town the size of Sheffield.

01:02Here and there, an isolated structure reminds the onlooker that here was once a city.

01:08140,000 people died at Hiroshima, vaporized or burned alive, or later dying from the effects of radiation.

01:14Three days later, the bombings of Nagasaki killed 70,000 more.

01:20The attacks, at the end of World War II, marked the start of an 80-year arms race that still shapes global security today.

01:26The houses actually burn before the following blast brings disintegration.

01:32Early nuclear weapons were essentially carefully timed mechanical devices, like world-ending mousetraps.

01:38After the Manhattan Project, the real challenge wasn't the science, but the fuel.

01:41After all, the Manhattan Project built the Trinity bomb in wooden shacks in the desert,

01:46and it didn't take long for others to follow, in the race for ever-deadlier weapons of mass destruction.

01:52A brilliance of 500 suns lights hundreds of miles of the Pacific,

01:57and the force of a million tons of TNT is released.

02:01Fifteen seconds later, the light is still unbearable.

02:04Observers may well squint, for they may have witnessed a prelude to world destruction.

02:09Eight countries officially have nuclear weapons.

02:13The U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, China, India, Pakistan, and most recently, North Korea.

02:23Israel is believed to have them, but has never officially confirmed it.

02:27China, which has long threatened to take Taiwan by force, tested its first nuclear bomb in the 1960s,

02:33pushing Taiwan to attempt developing its own bomb in the early 1970s.

02:37But the effort was ultimately halted under international pressure.

02:42Meanwhile, the world asks,

02:44if this is the pinnacle of man's creative genius,

02:47then surely world peace is not beyond his reach.

02:51Eighty years since the Trinity test,

02:57Taiwan is holding air raid drills as part of its annual hangwang exercises.

03:02In the event of an attack,

03:03civilians are expected to take cover in shelters across the country.

03:07But against modern thermonuclear weapons,

03:10those shelters would offer little protection.

03:13If a bomb like the Trinity device were detonated over Taipei,

03:16it could level much of the city and kill nearly 200,000 people.

03:21By comparison,

03:23if one of China's Dongfeng-4 missiles hit the same spot,

03:25it could kill over 3 million.

03:28And if it were Russia's Tsar Bomba,

03:30the most powerful weapon ever detonated,

03:32the death toll could reach 6 million.

03:35In seconds, the fireball erupts into a geyser

03:38that towers 25 miles into the stratosphere,

03:41spreading into a 100-mile-wide mushroom cloud.

03:44Treaties and arms controls have helped reduce the threat of nuclear war.

03:48But we are by no means in the clear.

03:50North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States.

03:57They will be met with fire and fury,

04:01like the world has never seen.

04:03Since the start of 2025 there have been multiple conflicts

04:19involving nuclear-armed states and their allies.

04:21Fighting broke out between Pakistan and India.

04:37Russia's invasion of Ukraine is ongoing,

04:39and the U.S. has carried out bombing missions in Yemen and Iran,

04:42and Israel continues its war in Gaza.

04:44And with China stepping up preparations to invade Taiwan,

04:48another could be on the horizon.

04:50As humanity continues to balance on the tightrope

04:53it first stepped onto 80 years ago,

04:55it's unlikely we've felt the last aftershocks of the Trinity test.

04:59John Tsu and Bryn Thomas for Taiwan Plus.

Category

Transcript

Recommended