The
Atomic Cafe documentary is a great source for understanding certain aspects of the Cold War period. Please view portions of the film and add your comments here. What did you learn about the Cold War period from the footage here that would be less easy to learn from a lecture or a textbook?
When I watched a portion of this film I was surprised at how mechanical Tibbets described dropping the bomb on Hiroshima. He used word like, "routine, initial point, bomb release point, and primary [target] Hiroshima." We have learned how brutal the Japanese were throughout WWII, but it's shocking to see how happy people were when they dropped the bomb on Japan. When the "bomb was released," Tibbets and his men felt shockwaves, but it was still "unexciting." It thrilled American people and I find it disturbing. I know it swiftly ended the war, but civilians, especially woman and children, were targeting to have the most psychologically damaging effects on the Japanese army. Toward the end of the clip, people on the radio were making jokes about it and the destruction they saw and I don't think it should ever be joked about. Too many people died and people still are feeling the effects of it. I think it was a serious action and not a joking matter. Seeing the pictures were very disturbing.
ReplyDeleteAnd when the documentary talked about it being a big experiment it made me think that we just didn't value Japanese lives. We talked about this same thing in Ancient Israel last week: for some reason we don't think they their lives were as important as American lives and they were at the disposable of American officials to study.