The dropping of the atomic bomb by the United States on two Japanese cities remains, eighty years later, one--or two--of the most controversial events in human history. This talk will consider the decisions to build and use the bombs, the evolution of wartime doctrine that permitted the mass killing of civilians from the air, the role of the bombings in ending the Pacific War, and the legacy of the attacks.

Presenter: Andrew Rotter is Charles A. Dana Professor of History Emeritus, at Colgate University. He has written on US policy toward Asia, including the book Hiroshima: The World's Bomb, published by Oxford University Press in 2008.