Despite the experience of military and civil nuclear disasters, Japan has been actively engaged in the development of a nuclear power program since 1954. In order to account for this "persistent" commitment, this paper offers a historical overview of nuclear power development in Japan by identifying three stages in the evolution of techno-political ambitions (import, appropriation/invention, export), and analyze how Japanese pro-nuclear advocates made the atomic energy a requirement for

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... l progress". This approach highlights the efforts of these promoters to constantly revive the Japanese nation's bond to the atom through various technological projects. Therefore, we shall examine how, in their discourses, the experiences of Hiroshima/Nagasaki and Fukushima were instrumental in affirming the legitimacy of "Japanese" nuclear enterprise.