by Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.
War Legacies
I have never forgotten the anniversary days for the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). Years later, images remain in my mind. Rising, unfolding mushroom cloud. As I a kid, and now as an adult, I try to grasp the bizarre meaning of events! A mushroom cloud.
I became hyper-religious, reading the Father Peyton Catholic Bible sold to us by a door-to-door priest salesperson. He convinced my mother to “donate” $20.00. The words and pictures were fascinating. I even read the Catholic Newspapers, with their list of forbidden movies. I would go to the darkened Church, sit in silence and awe at the statues of saints and Blessed Virgin Mary. Clusters of candles were burning in red votive jars. There was mystery about it all, but I could not understand! Should I become a priest? Annihilation!
Movies of Nuclear Catastrophes
In the 1950s there was an omnipresent fear of nuclear war. Scores of protests and anti-war organizations emerged. One of these organizations was Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR), founded by Alex Red Mountain with the help of many others (e.g., Anne Anderson). I later served as the President of PsySR, 2005-2007. Destiny!
In 1959, the movie, On the Beach, brought tears and sobs to me and others as a group of survivors from a deadly nuclear attack gathered on a beach in Melbourne, Australia, awaiting a nuclear dust cloud. Couples and families took suicidal pills to escape the horrible consequences of surviving. The movie was a poignant reminder of horrors of a nuclear war. I was 19 years old at the time, a college student, confused and still afraid.
Another nuclear war left an impression on me: Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. This 1964 movie was supposed to be a dark satire of Soviet Union and USA nuclear threats.
How could anyone forget the last scene? A mis-communication resulting in the image of an rabid American soldier shouting as he rode a hydrogen bomb from orders for a first strike on the USSR. The President of the USA and his staff tried to recall the bombers to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. They failed! (see Wikipedia, 2018, 11:00AM)
Like many others, I remember vividly where I was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962. The confrontation between President John F. Kennedy and USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev! We watched and waited. No desks to hide under! We learned it was the closest we had come to nuclear war. Both countries continued to build more powerful nuclear weapons. Annihilation!
Nuclear-War Risks Continue
I continue to have memories of total destruction and death of hundreds of thousands of human beings. I visited Nagasaki. I could not escape the guilt. I was alive, but death was inscribed in the name and place.
I still recall crouching beneath school desks as sirens blared. Classmates, giggles, and fear and trembling! Victims in Japan below saw a circling plane; it was their last sight! The legacy of horror of remains!
History is the story of survival! We recall and remember! Until the time lessons are learned, we remain, as Bishop Tutu of South Africa poignantly stated, we remain, “Prisoners of hope.”