Ah, America: the land where conflating violence and freedom are a way of life. In addition to being the home of baseball, junk food, and some damn good music, America holds the distinction for being the only country in the world to have wiped out hundreds of thousands of people by using nuclear weapons in war times, allegedly to fight evil, but realistically because Harry Truman wanted to see what all the hype was about. In any case, as always, the good white dudes in ‘Murica beat those damn Japanese and Nazis and the whole world loves us for it.
Regardless of my personal opinions and the historical half-truths surrounding the end of World War II, I have always been fascinated with the elephant in the room anytime the subject of nuclear weapons comes up; namely questions of ethics and our collective responsibility when it comes to the use of such weapons. This recently led me to do a little bit of research and I stumbled upon a gallery depicting images of nuclear weapon tests on US soil. For now, I’ll let the images do the talking and defer to you the reader to ponder the big questions in the comment section below.
1Mt, Christmas Island, 10.Jun.1962
20kt-1Mt, Christmas Island, 9.Jun.1962
17kt, Nevada Test Site, 18.Aug.1957
13.7kt, Eniwetok, 6.Jun.1956
8.9Mt, Eniwetok, 28.Jun.1958
10.4Mt, Eniwetok, 31.Oct.1952
10.4Mt, Eniwetok, 31.Oct.1952
<1Mt, Johnston Island, 1.Nov.1962
15kt, Nevada Test Site, 25.May.1953
Eniwetok, 1951
225kt, Nevada Test Site, 8.May, 1951
11kt, Nevada Test Site, 14.Sep.1957
“Buster Dog,” 21kt, Nevada Test Site, 1.Nov.1951
14kt, Nevada Test Site, 30.Oct.1951
1Mt, Johnston Island, 18.Oct.1962
“Buster Charlie”, 14kt, Nevada Test Site, 30.Oct.1951
1Mt, Christmas Island, 30.Jun.1962
<1Mt, Johnston Island, 26.Oct.1962
1M, Christmas Island, 27.Jun.1962
21kt, Bikini, 24.Jul.1946
* All photos (and more) from Trinity Atomic Web Site.
