Nuclear Bodies: The Global HibakushaBy Robert A.Jacobs. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2022. 344 pp. $30.00 (hardcover). <scp>ISBN</scp>: 978‐0‐30‐023033‐8

In this groundbreaking work, Robert A. Jacobs, a US-born professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute of Hiroshima City University, offers a radical reinterpretation of the nuclear age. The book is based on his work (with Mick Broderick of Murdoch University) on the Global Hibakusha Project. Departing from conventional analyses that silo nuclear events by type and nation, Nuclear Bodies centers the experiences of “global hibakushas”: all who have suffered the radiological effects of nuclear technologies since 1945. Foregrounding the bodies of global hibakushas as inextricably linked to land, communities, and ecosystems, Jacobs argues that the ongoing suffering of these victims, marked by early mortality, disease, and displacement, constitutes a “limited nuclear war,” even in the absence of overt weapon use. By examining in detail how this human-made, slow-moving disaster unfolded in colonial, postcolonial, or remote parts of the world, he demonstrates how its victims remain largely invisible due to their subaltern status. Through a synthesis of extensive research, including original fieldwork in radiation-inflicted communities, Jacobs has produced a truly global, decolonized history of the nuclear age. The first four chapters of the book meticulously document the devastating consequences of nuclear activities worldwide. Two key insights emerge. First, the book critically examines the role of science and medicine in concealing the suffering of global hibakushas. Chapter 1 examines how the Life Span Study (LSS) with atomic bomb survivors was constructed with an exclusive focus on external radiation from sources outside of the body. This research, however, did not account for internal exposures resulting from the inhalation or ingestion of radioactive particles. While some have attributed malicious intent to the study design, Jacobs argues that “the truth is more mundane: the impact of external radiation was more pressing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and importantly, quantifying internal exposures was simply hard science to do” (41). As Chapter 4 demonstrates, the problem was rather that the LSS was subsequently “weaponized” by public officials, utility managers, and scientific experts worldwide to dismiss and obscure the potential health effects of living in environments contaminated with radionuclides. The LSS thus has played a key role in the invisibility of most, if not all, global hibakushas since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Second, the book goes beyond the physical toll of affected communities, emphasizing how radioactive contamination unravels their social, cultural, and ecological fabric. For instance, the forced displacement of the Pitjantjatjara people in South Australia and the Marshallese in the Pacific led to the loss of traditional knowledge about and connections to their homelands. Returning to contaminated environments often brings health anxieties and social fragmentation, leading to perpetual dependency on the very entities responsible for their suffering for work, food, and medical care. However, these emotional and psychological effects, like the impacts of internal exposures, are often dismissed as irrational and self-inflicted. As Jacobs argues, “Reducing people and cultures to data points that can be displaced as authorities dictate, whose communities—embedded in traditional cultural and ecosystems—are separable from their health outcomes and subordinate to state liability management, is structural violence” (103). The last three chapters of the book zero in on the mechanisms of violence that have produced millions of these global hibakushas while keeping their suffering invisible. Chapter 5 demonstrates how nuclear colonialism drove the selection of nuclear test sites at the margins of nations or empires. A wide range of geographically, racially, and socioeconomically marginalized communities, from Mormons to Muslims, Polynesians to Nenets, were systematically targeted as nuclear dumping grounds due to their subaltern status. Chapter 6 fully develops the notion of limited nuclear war. Invoking Emmanuel Kreike's notion of environcide, Jacobs argues that nuclear weapons testing constituted a form of limited nuclear war due to the wholesale and indiscriminate contamination of the living environment worldwide. Yet, as he notes, the specter of an all-out nuclear war during the Cold War cloaked this violence by creating a “‘Bizarro World’ dynamic in which it made more sense to nuclear weapon states to harm populations under their own care” (185). Chapter 7 concludes the book by scrutinizing the notion of competence in nuclear management. While the nonuse of nuclear weapons and the infrequency of reactor meltdowns might suggest a degree of success in managing nuclear technologies, Jacobs sees incompetence everywhere. Aside from minor accidents and near misses, he highlights the limitations of risk assessments in fully accounting for internal exposures and systems complexity. Moreover, the disposal of nuclear waste exemplifies a form of “temporal violence,” where the burden of long-term toxicity is transferred to future generations with no benefit or consent. Of the book's many virtues, two stand out. First, it provides a sophisticated and multifaceted analysis of violence. Transcending the traditional focus on overt warfare, Jacobs expands the notion of violence to encompass the slow, insidious effects of nuclear technologies on human health, the environment, and societies. Second, the book masterfully employs the power of juxtaposition in historical analysis. Jacobs examines the experience of diverse radiation-inflicted communities side by side, revealing the interconnectedness and shared experiences of global hibakushas as well as the same forces of nuclear colonialism in concealing their suffering. Deeply researched, powerfully argued, and elegantly written, Nuclear Bodies serves as a stark reminder about the global and enduring consequences of nuclear technologies. As Jacobs observes, the damage has already been done, and we must commit ourselves to responsible stewardship of existing nuclear waste. However, as he emphasizes, “The most important thing we must do is to stop making more nuclear waste: we must abolish nuclear weapons and abandon nuclear power” (xii–xiii). Undoubtedly controversial, this powerful statement nevertheless serves as a call to action, urging us to break the chain of violence that continues to produce global hibakushas and to strive for a world free from the pain and agony inflicted by nuclear technologies. The author declares no conflicts of interest.