"Many splendid fictions" : atomic narratives in Australia, 1945-1965

Abstract

Atomic energy burst into the world's consciousness in August 1945 when the United States detonated its second atomic weapon on the Japanese seaport of Hiroshima. Over the next twenty years Australians encountered atomic technology from both a distance and closer to home. On the international stage they witnessed a series of dramas: the media circus of the 1946 Bikini trials, the outpouring of enthusiastic rhetoric about atomic possibilities, the U.S. and U.S.S.R.'s failure to reach agreement on the international control of atomic weapons, reports of long term consequences of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the frightening development of the hydrogen bomb. Closer to home they observed the British atomic tests at Maralinga and Monte Bello, the mining and export of uranium and debates about Australian nuclear power.

This thesis is not concerned with these events themselves but with their depiction in the public sphere. It examines the authoring of these narratives and their evolution over time, arguing that the resulting discourses suggested limits to the public's understanding of nuclear issues. The process of shaping these atomic narratives ranged from direct censorship to more subtle persuasion: the repetition of certain ideas and the denial or disregarding of others; the publication or withholding of certain images; the use of familiar metaphors and language; and the recourse to scientific or political authority. Radiation and the perspective of the bomb's victims were slighted, while power, safety, and the survival of the West were emphasised. The thesis also explores several themes over the twenty year period: the odd juxtaposition of atomic energy's fear with awe; the tension between atomic energy's 'newness' and attempts to normalise, contain and make it familiar; and Australia's attempts to participate in the nuclear adventure. Show more