A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
Apocalyptic Urban Future: Atomic Cities and Cinema
Authors: Kimmo Ahonen, Simo Laakkonen, William M. Tsutsui
Editors: Simo Laakkonen, J. R. McNeill, Richard P. Tucker, Timo Vuorisalo
Publisher: PALGRAVE, HOUNDMILLS, BASINGSTOKE RG21 6XS, ENGLAND
Publication year: 2019
Book title : The Resilient City in World War II: Urban Environmental Histories
Series title: Palgrave Studies in World Environmental History
First page : 259
Last page: 278
Number of pages: 20
ISBN: 978-3-030-17438-5
eISBN: 978-3-030-17439-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17439-2_13
In August 1945, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused the death of about 200,000 people. Atomic warfare, if anything, made the warfare an urban phenomenon. The long-lasting lack of documentary footage of the atomic bombings opened the way for apocalyptic imagination. Cities were constantly attacked by radiation-born monsters, such as giant ants, as a sign of mutilated nature’s revenge. American science fiction films of the 1950s addressed contradictions of modern science by transforming the abstract scenarios of total annihilation into cinematic images of destroyed cities, hideous aliens, and post-apocalyptic survival. The “nuclear monster” movies started a completely new genre in the history of film, eco-horror, which opened the eyes of the general public to the possible futures of Western civilization.