Nuclear Propaganda: How "Nuclear Power" Has Been Exhibited

2024/05/22

There are various facilities across Japan themed around nuclear power, including nuclear power PR facilities built in various locations, memorials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that convey the disasters of the atomic bombings to the present day, the Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall which preserves the hull of the irradiated ship, and the Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels which exhibits "The Hiroshima Panels." This book was written to introduce the exhibitions of such facilities and to examine the post-war social history of nuclear power.

My specialty is art and design, and I am not in a position to be actively involved in nuclear power. The reason why someone like me wrote this book is that I encountered the theme of nuclear power in the course of my research on world expos and museums, which I have been working on for the past ten years. In recent world expos that emphasize problem-solving, SDGs and renewable energy are often highlighted, but in the past, exhibitions themed around nuclear power were also frequently attempted. Taro Okamoto's "Tower of the Sun," the symbol of the 1970 Osaka Expo, actually has a deep connection with nuclear power. Meanwhile, museums, which are facilities for collecting and exhibiting materials and works, have increasingly been required to contribute to society in recent years. ICOM (International Council of Museums), the international governing body, adopted a new definition at its 2022 General Conference in Prague. That definition, which set forth diversity and sustainability as new missions, prompted a reconsideration of nuclear power exhibition facilities.

Many books have been published about nuclear power, but I cannot write the kind of book that a scientist or a civic activist would write, and in the first place, I have no reason to do so. However, I thought that discussing nuclear power from the perspective of exhibitions might raise new issues. What drove me to write this book may have been the ambition to write a book for which there are few similar works—a book that no one has ever written before.

The film "Oppenheimer" is a masterpiece depicting the footsteps and struggles of the genius scientist who succeeded in developing the world's first atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project. In this book, I detail the circumstances under which atomic bomb development was also planned in Japan around the same time but was not realized, and I also present a fictional exhibition concept that turns that process into an exhibition. It is a sensitive issue, but as long as minimum consideration is given to not making readers uncomfortable, I believe there should be opportunities to develop such thought experiments.

Nuclear Propaganda: How "Nuclear Power" Has Been Exhibited

Takemi Kuresawa

Heibonsha

368 pages, 3,740 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.