Revisioning History by Robert A. Rosenstone;

Author:Robert A. Rosenstone;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Factually and symbolically outsiders of the discourse of power, protesters picket the Pentagon’s decision to conduct nuclear tests at Bikini.

A special station, Radio Bikini (which inspired the name of Stone’s film), was set up to broadcast blow-by-blow accounts. An announcer remarks that this is the first radio station to broadcast from Bikini and will “no doubt be the last.” Sailors are paraded before microphones for ritual human-interest interviews in which they attest to their good treatment and safety. Newsmen phone the mother of the pilot whose superfortress carries the bomb; she expresses pride in her son and asks for God’s blessing. U.S. officials repeat their rationales for the tests. Admiral Blandy, resplendent in dark uniform and gold braid, tries to quell legitimate fears by ridiculing the outlandish ones (e.g., the explosion will punch a hole in the ocean floor through which all the water will run out). Of the substantiated fear—radiation—the naval medical officer delivers the blanket assurance that “every precaution” will be taken for safety.

A parade of scientific and military observers from around the world file past the receiving line of naval secretary James V. Forrestal and assorted navy brass. The observers shake hands and sometimes bow, as if in homage to their new rulers. Sheep are confined on the target ships’ decks in order to measure radiation effects. They are about “to draw their last breaths for humanity,” says a radio announcer. As the “Ave Maria” is sung at a shipboard church service, Stone juxtaposes sailors shearing the sheep.

The Able bomb explodes in a tower of steam and smoke. The Baker bomb, detonated in the water, is more visually impressive.4 Mixing with the clouds of steam and smoke, a column of water thunders a mile high and showers the unprotected sailors with radioactive water and debris from the lagoon. Stone lingers on the spectacle, reflecting the mixture of horror and fascination we feel in witnessing atomic destruction. Issued no eye protection, the sailors obediently put their heads down and cover their eyes with their arms at the moment of the blast. Then they look up, awe-struck, from their front-row seats.

Smitherman explains that, being from the country, he would never have had a chance to see anything like that.

Oddly enough, the damage to the target ships, while substantial, lacked the visual impact of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some superstructures were wrecked, turrets were twisted, and hulls were blackened. Yet the ships still rode at anchor. (The submarine Skate even sailed away from the reef under its own power.) From their more distant vantage point congressmen were less impressed. “It resembled a giant firecracker,” said one. The bomb was an auditory dud. Congressman Clair Engle of California contributes to the trivialization of the bomb with the fatuous observation that he isn’t ready to dispense with the army and navy and start lobbing “atomic baseballs.” Crossroads’ images helped reduce public fear of the bomb and convert it into the shield of the republic.

The tests’ immediate drama exhausted, the media went home. But the horror had only begun.

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