Atomic Age

Monthly gas mask test in case of a nuclear explosion in a school.

With the invention of the nuclear weapon, a huge burden for mankind was created. Many countries and men soon became obsessed with the destructive weapon, dedicating millions of dollars on mass producing it. I did my research on the “Atomic Age”, the era from when the first bomb was dropped, to current day. A lot of fear was put on the people of the world when it was created, and it became a huge debate for the leaders of the world whether they should, or when they should be allowed to be used. Overall, I have learned that it is now impossible to stop the creation of nuclear weapons, and it will forever be a tactic of warfare to be used around the world.

The most intriguing part about the beginning of the Atomic age was how clueless and naive some of the American population and even some leaders of America were about the bomb. After the first bomb was dropped, the whole world seemed to be in a scramble and panic, but they had a sense of safety because they knew the Americans were the only ones capable of producing such a weapon at the time. Soon after hearing about this weapon, the Soviets were well on their way to creating one as well. When it was found out that the Soviets had a nuclear weapon as well, the American population went into panic mode. The American government did a very good job on informing their population on what was going on with the atomic weapons, and they also did a good job telling them protocol to follow if there ever was an atomic bomb dropped in their area.

Personally, I do not think it was entirely necessary to drop the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, because of how destructive these bombs are. It is not like the American leader did not know what the bomb was going to do, because they had dropped the test bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico. They easily could have told the Japanese government what they were capable of doing, and if they did not comply with that reasoning, then take further steps to win the war, which could mean dropping the bomb. But instead, they decided to drop the bomb without warning, killing 40,000 japanese with just the first bomb. I thought they should have tested the bomb much more than just doing one test, but I’m assuming they felt like they did not have the time or resources to do that. The best option would have just waited longer, rather than wiping out two cities, and killing many civilians that were not involved in this affair to begin with.

I do think the American government did a very good job doing research on how the radiation affected things, and what the atomic bombs would do to these cities. They did many tests throughout the learning process with the nuclear weapons, and with these test came a lot of experience with the bombs. The scientists and other military officers became so informed on how the bomb worked, they were able to tell how far the blast radius would be, how far away you should be to stay safe from radiation poisoning, what radiation poisoning does to the human body, and many other things that became very useful when dropping atomic bombs.

They learned a lot of this through the test they did in the middle of the ocean, right off the coast of an island during The Castle Bravo Test. The Americans seemed very humane when asking the natives of the island if they would move  their homes a little bit so they could test their weapon on the coast of their island. Even though the natives cooperated, some of them were still subject to radiation poisoning. They did another test, to learn how the radiation would affect a living organism close to the blast radius. The Americans decided to put a bunch of pigs inside the blast radius to see how the radiation would affect them. This process, in my opinion, makes America’s leadership look very good, because they decided to take the time to test these weapons before they used them any longer.

I do believe the controversy initially created on whether nuclear weapons should be used is still a major problem in today’s world. Now that so many people are able to create such a destructive weapon, there is nothing truly stopping them from blowing up the entire world. That is why I think we are still living technically in the Atomic Age.  I think it would have been better for mankind if nuclear weapons never would have been invented, because now every major country has the option to literally destroy another, with the push of a button.

The first step of my process was to watch the movie The Atomic Cafe. I think this was the most helpful part of my research process because of the perspective it gave me on how the people reacted to this new powerful weapon. Many websites I used as sources did not really give me a great sense on how scared and clueless some people were on the subject, and all the government did to inform the public on what atomic weapons were capable of. Also, this was a source that showed the point of view of Americans when other countries created nuclear weapons. It showed the protocol taken in case countries tried to drop an atomic bomb on America. Although it is considered a secondary source, it had many primary sources inside the film, including clips and videos of presidents, politicians, and other average american’s stance on whether they thought nuclear weapons were morally, the right thing to use. I used many other websites and sources, many of them informing me on more factual and date based information, but there was no source that helped me understand the perspective of the American population like The Atomic Cafe.

This is a picture of a mushroom cloud after a nuclear explosion.

Children enter bomb shelter on an Air Force base.

"Duck and Cover" drill at a school.

"Fat Man" the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssKiI1P3lT4
This was the best source I used, also the recommended one. It gave me a great perspective on how the American population reacted. It also had a lot of primary sources within it.

http://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2011/03/17/134604352/images-of-the-atomic-age
I used this source because it had comment from people that they sent to NPR, about what symbol reminded them most of the possibility of nuclear annihilation.

https://www.raptureready.com/time/rap31c.html
I used this source because it had the facts and dates of the atomic age, in chronological order. It was easy to find when and where bombs were dropped.

http://www.atomicarchive.com/historymenu.shtml
I used this source because it had a summary of all the events so it was easier to understand.
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/
I used this source because it had good information of the Atomic bomb and had question that were brought up in the discussion of the Atomic bomb which helped me in my thinking process.
http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/timeline/
I used this source because it had a timeline that goes all the way to present day.