The bombing ended World War Two, preventing further deaths from a protracted conflict, and arguably discouraged the descent into nuclear war for the rest of the 20th Century. Following the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – 75 years ago this month – the decision was justified only in terms of its outcome, not its morality. Killing a person with a butcher’s knife may be a morally repugnant act, yet in the realm of geopolitics, past leaders have justified their atomic acts as a political or military necessity. Before killing thousands, the leader must first “look at someone and realise what death is – what an innocent death is. When Fisher made this proposal to friends at the Pentagon, they were aghast, arguing out that this act would distort the president’s judgement. Before authorising a missile launch, the commander-in-chief would first have to personally kill that one person, gouging out their heart to retrieve the codes. That person would carry a heavy blade with them everywhere the president went. Writing in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Fisher suggested that instead of a briefcase containing the nuclear launch codes, the means to launch a bomb should instead be carried in a capsule embedded near the heart of a volunteer. It involved a butcher’s knife and the president of the United States. Swimming pools closed and people avoided public gatherings, fearing they would catch polio.In the early 1980s, the Harvard law professor Roger Fisher proposed a new, gruesome way that nations might deal with the decision to launch nuclear attacks. It caused great fear since every community was affected.
Polio was a crippling young people’s disease that spread throughout the United States in the 1950s. One of the greatest victories over childhood diseases was the development of the poliomyelitis (or "polio") vaccine. The Atomic Age brought many advances in medicine that helped people live longer lives. Things that you are familiar with - like television, Rock ’n Roll, drive-in restaurants (fast foods), hula-hoops, and drive-in theaters - had their start in the Atomic Age. The Atomic Age was also a time of great social change and scientific advances. Anyone - a teacher, politician, friend, or minister - could be part of the communist conspiracy.īut life went on. The allegorical message is that we must be ever vigilant.
The bodies of people who have fallen asleep are taken over by aliens who promise a collective lifestyle free from the individual pains of love, relationships, and ambition.
Other critics have suggested that the 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers was an allegory of communist subversion. Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956) trumped everyone else with a giant dragon caused by testing atomic bombs.The Beginning of the End (1957) features giant atomic grasshoppers.Them (1954) features giant atomic ants.In The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) atomic radiation creates a variety of gigantic sea creatures.Other movies exploited the fear the audience felt about the Atomic Age, but with much less serious results: Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) is a black comedy masterpiece that pokes fun at the absurdity of the Cold War. Fail Safe(1964) explored what would happen if a nuclear war was started by accident.In Seven Days in May (1964) outlaw military leaders take over the government in order to wage the Cold War correctly.The Manchurian Candidate (1962) follows a brainwashed Korean veteran sent to assassinate political candidates.On the Beach (1959) Australia is the last place on earth not yet contaminated by radioactive fallout from a nuclear war.The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) asks what would happen if Jesus Christ returned to earth to argue for peaceful use of the atom and world government - the answer, according to the film, he would be shot.The Red Menace (1949) Communists in California plot to take over the U.S.Some movies were serious films about political issues and nuclear war: Books, movies and popular culture in the 1950s and 1960s were filled with Atomic Age themes.