Americans won the Pacific war by dropping two Atomic bombs. American hegemony over the world did not last long, but the near worship of the bomb as the savior and defender lingered long.
Japan was defeated in the end of the Pacific war by use of two Atomic bombs. Seeing their world being destroyed without the ability to stop the destruction, the Atom bomb was a weapon of devastation and horrible consequence, poured out by a conquering army. When the conquering nation later occupied their nation, a cult of victimization grew, as the only nation to be attacked by the holder of the power of the Atom.
Do not presume here that I am aiming my view at the morality of use of nuclear power. I am no expert. However by looking at how popular culture mediums, particularly, comics, film and animated films, between the cultures shows immediately that one country sees the Atom as being Godlike power to be used by a hero, and, the other, that the destruction caused by nuclear weapons is devastating and irresponsible and completely without response.
The existence of cross country values is very interesting to me, for it shows what is important, and how our own cultural views become skewed by our experience.
1 comment:
On the other hand... the most popular cartoon character in Japan during the Post-War era was named "Mighty Atom" (re-named Astro Boy in America).
And for that matter, a couple of the images you posted for American Atomic Heroes are parodic (Radioactive Man) or subvert the idea of Atomic Guy as Hero (Dr. Manhatten).
But apart from that, you make an interesting observation.
I remember a Felix the Cat cartoon that freaked me out as a kid which featured a lonely little cloud who was sad because he was so small. At the end, the cloud happens to be floating over the site of a nuclear explosion, and Felix laughs that now the sad little cloud is REALLY big! Ha ha ha ha!
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