Filling the hole in the nuclear future

"Lively and thought provoking. A nice mix of nationalities, of artists and scholars, of prose and poetry and artwork, of demonstration and oral history and analysis." --Richard Minear, University of Massachusetts Amherst. "These sobering yet very readable essays from Japanese and American scholars, activists, and cultural creators explore a fascinating array of artistic and popular-cultural responses to the atomic bomb, the Cold War nuclear arms race, and proliferation threats that dominate today's headlines." --Paul S. Boyer, author of By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age. From the dawn of the atomic age, art and popular culture have played an essential role in interpreting nuclear issues for the public and investigating the implications of nuclear weapons for the future of human civilization. Political and social forces often seem paralyzed in thinking beyond the advent of nuclear weapons and articulating a creative response to the dilemma posed by this apocalyptic technology. Art and popular culture are uniquely suited to grapple with the implications of the bomb and the disruptions in the continuity of traditional narratives about the human future endemic to the atomic age. Filling the Hole in the Nuclear Future explores the diversity of visions evoked in American and Japanese society by the mushroom cloud hanging over the future of humanity during the last half of the twentieth century. It presents historical scholarship on art and popular culture alongside the work of artists responding to the bomb, as well as the artists' discussions of their work. From the effect of nuclear testing on science fiction movies during the mid-1950s in both the United States and Japan to the socially engaged visual discussion about power embodied in Japanese manga, Filling the Hole in the Nuclear Future takes readers into unexpected territory. --Book Jacket.