In The Media
Children of Public School 152 in the Queens borough of New York are the actors in the motion picture “Duck And Cover" to teach school children civil defense, Nov. 21, 1951. The movie camera trained on a third grade student who has ducked under a table in her classroom as she acts out the safety precautions that the Civilian Defense Administration recommends for use on the event of an atomic attack in New York. (AP Photo/Bob Wands)
Although the tests were extremely dangerous, the scientists needed to collect data in order to stay ahead of the Soviets. To justify the harm they were doing to the public and the environment, the government used a very different, yet just as powerful, type of weapon: the media. Besides the soldiers that served as human guinea pigs, "tourists stood atop hotel roofs to watch mushroom clouds rising from the Nevada Test Site (NTS) 65 miles away". Children would find “atomic rings” as prizes in their cereal box, and “atomic cocktails” became a favorite in bars everywhere (Sonya Padgett, Atomic Legacy). Many newspapers and magazines also investigated the technological possibilities created with the use of nuclear energy, such as atomic-powered cars and farming tools. Storm clouds could be fizzled, and a sad rainy day could easily become a bright, sunny one, according to one optimistic reporter. Because of this, few citizens felt any moral qualms about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; instead, they were relieved that the war was over, and how many American lives were saved by the surrender of Japan. Most people had little knowledge of the peril they were in, and the government had almost no opposition.
Although the tests were extremely dangerous, the scientists needed to collect data in order to stay ahead of the Soviets. To justify the harm they were doing to the public and the environment, the government used a very different, yet just as powerful, type of weapon: the media. Besides the soldiers that served as human guinea pigs, "tourists stood atop hotel roofs to watch mushroom clouds rising from the Nevada Test Site (NTS) 65 miles away". Children would find “atomic rings” as prizes in their cereal box, and “atomic cocktails” became a favorite in bars everywhere (Sonya Padgett, Atomic Legacy). Many newspapers and magazines also investigated the technological possibilities created with the use of nuclear energy, such as atomic-powered cars and farming tools. Storm clouds could be fizzled, and a sad rainy day could easily become a bright, sunny one, according to one optimistic reporter. Because of this, few citizens felt any moral qualms about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; instead, they were relieved that the war was over, and how many American lives were saved by the surrender of Japan. Most people had little knowledge of the peril they were in, and the government had almost no opposition.