A Comparative Study of the Attitudes Held by Indian and Japanese College Students Towards Nuclear Testing and Proliferation

This is an attempt to study the attitudes held by Indian college students toward nuclear testings, proliferation and India's nuclear capability and to compare these attitudes with those held by Japanese college students studied by Yasumasa Tanaka and Yoko Iwamatsu.The results show that majority of Indian college students believe that Japan will be the 6th nation to become nuclear following China, while majority of Japanese students believe that India will be the 6th nation to become a member.89% Indian subjects anticipate that India will start the nuclear arms production within 20 years whereas only 75% of the Japanese students believe that Japan will develop nuclear arms within 20 years.Japanese students also believe that either India or West Germany would be the 6th nation to become nuclear following China as India will eventually have to defend itself entirely on its own against China and Pakistan.Another study shows that the same group of students give peace the top priority in goals.These apparently contradictory attitudes might be supplementary.The development of nuclear weapons is ancillory to the development of nuclear technology as a whole and it may also act as a deterrant to any future attack by any country, thus achieving the goal of peace.