Introduction The essay is a critical examination of the major factors that contributed to the non-use of nuclear weapons after they were first used back in 1945 in Japan’s two major cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The attacks were made by the United States of America in trying to make the Japanese surrender. It is worth noting that the two attacks are the only ones where nuclear weapons were used in war upto date. Prior to this close to 70 cities in Japan were bombed by the U.S. All these attacks were due to failure of the Japan to surrender in Potsdam Declaration on 26 July 1945. ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ were dropped to Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively under the direction of the then American President Harry Truman (Hogan, 1996). It is worth noting that the effects were far beyond human imagination as within the first 2 to 4 months between 90,000 and 166,000 individuals in Hiroshima and between 60,000 and 80,000 in Nagasaki lost their lives. It has been estimated that 50% of these deaths occurred on the first day. The deaths were attributed to flash and flames, falling debris/objects and other causes. The update of the bombing causalities as at august 2010 reveals that close to 450,000 individuals have so far lost their lives close to 270,000 in Hiroshima and 153,000 in Nagasaki (Pellegrino, 2010). Despite the fact that the number of those who died is manipulated for political reasons, it is no doubt that the serious negative consequences of the nuclear use are evident. Harry is quoted as saying “It is terrible to order the use of something that …is so terribly destructive beyond anything we have ever had. You got to understand that this is not a military weapon… it is used to wipe out women and children…” (Paul, 2009: 52). From this statements rest the foundation of nuclear weapon non use tradition. It is worth noting that since 1945 the concept of non use of nuclear weapons have occupied the minds of scholars, the general public and have remain the most and single important issues in the age of nuclear. The tradition of non use of nuclear weapon begun during the times of Truman and Eisenhower thanks to the reluctance of using such weapons during times of crisis (Paul, 2009). Factors contributed to the non use of nuclear weapons Before engaging in addressing the factors that fostered the tradition of non use of nuclear weapons it will be rational to bring to light major characteristics of nuclear detonation. In the strictest sense nuclear bombs usually produce energy that is heavier in millions times as compared to conventional explosions, similarly it produces instantaneously a huge and very hot fireballs, produces electromagnetic pulse which interferes completely with electronic equipment, it also transmits very huge forms of energy (heat and light) within a shorter time resulting to burns as well as causing fires and it produces within the first few seconds a penetrating radiation which are harmful to human health (Pellegrino, 2010). According to Paul, 2009 nuclear detonations can interfere with communication signals for a longer period of time, produces residual nuclear radiation over a long period of time, produces busts that can d