The Atomic Cafe

The Atomic Café After viewing The Atomic Café, I noticed many similarities to the film Radio Bikini that I viewed recently. Both films start off by showing the celebrations after Japan’s surrender and The Atomic Café had a song playing that stated the bomb on Hiroshima was the answer to a fighting boy’s prayers. The film, along with Radio Bikini, shows a clip of Vice Admiral W.H.R. Blandy who was the commander of the Bikini test, assuring to the American people that the test was safe. He stated that the bomb would not start a chain reaction in the water, converting it all to gas and making all the ships in the ocean drop down to the bottom. He continued by saying the bomb would also not blow out the bottom of the sea and let water run down the hole. It would not destroy gravity and lastly he stressed that he was not preforming this test to satisfy any of his personal desires or whims. When I saw this clip in both films, I thought that it seemed silly to think that had even a possibility of happening but later on in the movie, I started to see how frequently people worried about the A-bomb and I probably would have been equally as worried if I grew up during that era. Something that The Atomic Café incorporated into the film that I had not seen elsewhere was the use of U.S. Army training videos and Army information films. One of the training videos showed a communist advocate and then showed U.S. soldiers telling her to be thankful for the country she lives in because she would not have the opportunity to openly protest over in Russia. This then lead into the discussion of the Rosenberg spies and their execution. The film showed the protests of their death and signs that read: “Don’t fry them, they’ll stink too bad” and “ Don’t let two children be orphaned.” Radio clips allowed the whole execution processed to be documented and presented to the American public. The Atomic Café definitely incorporates many propaganda clips that were most likely used to