Nuclear Testing

The United States detonated the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, where the world moved to the era of the arms race The arms race was the race to produce bigger and more deadly missiles. Nations believed nuclear weapons would protect their nations and guarantee peace and safety. In the climate of the cold war, the world powers believed their weapons had to be tested. US, France and Britain chose the Pacific for their testing sites. US government made the decision to develop future nuclear testing program in Micronesia. The pacific increasingly became the location where the superpowers competed for political and economic influence and military might. As the arms race continued, the Pacific Ocean provided an opportunity for nuclear nations to do what was too dangerous, too secret, or too unpopular to do anywhere else. In 1945, the US began nuclear testing in the pacific referring to nuclear test sites as the pacific proving grounds. The first site was Bikini Atoll. In 1958, more nuclear testing of weapons was conducted over Bikini Atoll as well as on other islands on the pacific. In 1962, the US used British nuclear testing site on Christmas island Between 1946 and 1958 US detonated 66 nuclear bombs on atolls of the Pacific.