Sangyong Son (NYU), “Extreme Wartime Violence and Attitudes toward the Use of Force: Evidence from Atomic Bomb Survivors”

U.S. ET: May 29 (Thursday), 8 – 9 PM

JST: May 30 (Friday), 9 – 10 AM

Zoom Registration: Link

Paper will be posted one week in advance.

Authors: Sangyong Son (NYU)

Abstract:
Previous studies have examined how conventional wartime violence influences human attitudes toward the use of force. However, despite the frequent past and potential future use of excessively destructive weapons, no research has explored how extreme wartime violence shapes these attitudes. I argue that exposure to extreme wartime violence fosters anti-militarism. To test this argument, I leverage the natural experiment of the atomic bombings in Japanese cities and collect original data from Japanese and Korean atomic bomb survivors. I find that direct exposure to atomic bombings leads to a strong aversion to war and the instruments of war. However, the strength of such anti-militaristic preferences is conditional on external security threats. Although both Japanese and Korean atomic bomb survivors oppose the use and acquisition of nuclear weapons, Korean survivors express significantly weaker aversion to possessing an independent nuclear arsenal as a means of deterring imminent nuclear threats from North Korea. 

Presenter: Sangyong Son (NYU)

Discussant: Christopher Blair (Princeton University)

Chair: Daniel M. Smith (University of Pennsylvania)