The atomic bomb has been an enduring feature of postwar culture. After the American atomic bomb had been successfully detonated on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, the United States entered a new era of both promise and peril. Usually, changes in a societyís way of thinking happen gradually over time; they are more apparent to historians than the people living through them. But the nuclear era sprung into the world with horrifying abruptness.
This shock was manifested in the media ñ in newspapers, magazine articles, radio broadcasts, and images. These images are the focus of the accompanying website, ìAtomic Imageryî; they illustrate the shock, regret, fantasy, and resolve of a society that has struggled with the possibility of nuclear destruction. They consist of everything visual ñ including films, comic books, photography and other forms of visual art. Since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Americaís emotions have continued to be manifested through images in popular culture throughout four distinct phases following the war.
The past 60 years can be organized into four phases based on Americaís reactions to nuclear power and weapons. We can call the first phase (1945-1952) the ìAtomic Intrusion,î as it is based around the fear and anxiety Americans felt after the bombings on Japan. Americans were now faced with the realization that just as easy as we dropped the atomic bombs, we could potentially be the victim on the other side of an attack. The Soviet atomic test in 1949 ñ code-named ìFirst Lightningî ñ galvanized these feelings of anxiety and fear. Nuclear tests and information about the long-term effects of nuclear explosions surfaced, sparking a new fear in American society ñ the fear of the fallout effects. The second phase (1953-1963), naturally dubbed the ìFallout,î begins here. This period was characterized by imaginative ideas of the effects of fallout radiation ñ for example the ìradiated monsterî films of these years, together with superheroes that attained their powers through radiation.
