Posted December 27, 2025
RIVER FALLS, Wis. –University of Wisconsin-River Falls hosted Hiromi Mizuno on Tuesday Oct. 28 as part of the “Edward N. Peterson Lecture Series.” University of Minnesota history professor’s presentation, titled “Global WWII: The Atomic Bomb and Empires,” examined the creation and aftermath of the atomic bomb.
Mizuno split her presentation into two sections focusing on the “Global Making,” which focused on the Manhattan Project and the development of “Fat Man” and “Little Boy,” and the “Global Un-making,” which addressed the consequences of their use in Japan.
In discussing the Manhattan Project, Mizuno noted its origins in a 1939 letter from physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard to President Franklin D Roosevelt, warning of Germany’s atomic ambitions.
In the ‘Global Un-making,” Mizuno looked at the aftermath of the bombs dropped over Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan, highlighting how Japanese school textbooks gradually removed references to the bombings. “As a result, in 1969, a Hiroshima survey found that almost 10 percent of middle schoolers in Hiroshima did not know which country dropped the bomb,” she said, adding many students were unaware of the reasons behind teacher disfigurements.
Mizuno also referenced a 1950s episode of, “This Is Your Life” where Hiroshima resident Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto met U.S. Air Force Capt. Robert Lewis 10 years later after he and co-pilot Paul Tibbits dropped the bomb. “I’m looking down thousands of feet over Hiroshima,” Lewis said. “All I could think of was ‘My God. What have we done?’”
She concluded by noting the Nobel Peace Prize awarded last year to Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, recognized for its advocacy against nuclear weapons.
According to the University of Minnesota’s website, Mizuno teaches courses including “History of Modern Japan,” “Post-colonial/Cold War Asia” and “The Politics of Hunger: The Green Revolution and the World.”
UW-River Falls states, the “Edward N. Peterson Lecture Series” honors the memory of the former late professor and addresses issues central to his academic life.
The article may be found online at https://uwrfjournalism.org/2025/12/history-professor-mizuno-speaks-at-uw-river-falls-lecture-series-presentation/.