Nuclear Disaster in Chernobyl

Perhaps the worst nuclear power plant accident in history occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in present day Ukraine, next to the town of Pripyat. Then it was the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. At 1:23 AM on the 26th, reactor number four had a catastrophic power rise which caused explosions in the reactor core. This shot out large amounts of radioactive fuel and core materials into the atmosphere and also caught the graphite moderator on fire. A moderator regulates the temperature of uranium in a power plant, causing them to be highly radioactive. And since it burned, it released radioactive particles in the smoke which was carried by the wind. Unfortuneatley this reactor was not contained by any kind of containment building, such as the concrete ones at San Onofre power plant. Ironically, the accident occurred during a scheduled experiment to test an emergency core cooling feature, to be used during a shutdown procedure.

The explosion sent a cloud of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere which eventually drifted over a large geographical area. This impacted the towns of Pripyat and Belarus most substantially but most of Ukraine, large parts of the western Soviet Union, and all over Europe except the Iberian Peninsula, had experienced the fallout. The immediate towns like Pripyat and Belarus were evacuated in the first 36 hours and other areas in Ukraine and the USSR were evacuated later, causing over 335,000 people to have to resettle. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus, while the power plant’s home town of Pripyat has been abandoned for the most part, as there is a 17 mile exclusion zone where no one is allowed to live. Any use of this land would not be safe for at least another 200 years, and the area around the explosion site would be safe in 20,000 years.

About four hundred times more radioactive material was released by the meltdown than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. What possibly scares people the most in learning about this disaster is that the USSR government had tried to keep it a secret, in embarrassment. That is why they evacuated people in Pripyat over a day later when it was obviously very dangerous to stay there. The Soviet government also did the evacuation in secrecy before it became known in the western Soviet Union. The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry as well as nuclear power in general. These worries slowed its expansion for a number of years while forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history and is the only level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Although most people were not deathly afraid of nuclear annihilation like during the peaks of the Cold War, this accident slowed down advancements in power plants. The immediate death toll after the explosion was 31 of the power plant workers but the Ukrainian government has estimated the number of deaths among clean-up workers alone as 7,000-8,000. Unfortunately, many people back then were completely unaware of the dangerous effects of radiation and did not wear any protective gear while entering highly radioactive areas. This, without a doubt, cause a majority of the deaths. Total civilian casualties are unknown but it is estimated that over a million were affected by the radioactive fallout. However, the toll on the environment will possibly never recover.

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Cuban Missile Crisis

The closest event in which the world has come to nuclear war is without a doubt the Cuban Missile Crisis during the Cold War. The roots of this conflict between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union started in December of 1960 over the political system known as communism. Under the power of Fidel Castro, Cuba’s newly revolutionized communist government adopted the policies of the Soviet Union, causing the US to cut off any diplomatic support or relation to the country. Americans were still afraid of the Soviet expansion of Stalinism and for a Latin American country to openly ally with the USSR was not acceptable because it violated the Monroe Doctrine, a US policy that European powers shouldn’t interfere with matters in the Western Hemisphere.
President John F. Kennedy announced the US would not interfere militarily to attempt to overthrow Castro, but a week later on April 17, 1961 the Bay of Pigs rebellion was launched. A group of exiled Cubans invaded the country at the Bay, trying to start an anti-Castro revolt. They failed and over a thousand of the rebels were captured by Castro’s forces. When the media heard about this, Kennedy is embarrassed by the half-hearted attempt and Castro announces that any sort of US attack on Cuba would be equal to starting a world war. Leader of the USSR, Nikita Khrushev, knew how important holding down Cuba was for the sake of spreading communism, especially in Latin America. He had secretly decided to move the equipment, supplies, and personnel needed for the beginning of missile site in Cuba, during Fall of 1962. The workers and supplies are disguised as civilians on cruise ships. Before taking action, Kennedy orders a U-2 reconnaissance flight over western Cuba. Photographs of the discovered missile sites are hard evidence that Soviets have missiles in Cuba. This marks the beginning of the crisis, on October 14, 1962. The day after, a team at the Nation Photographic Intelligence Center analyzes the photos and confirms that the objects are MRBM (medium range ballistic missile) components. McGeorge Bundy, the National Security advisor decided to inform the president the next day. Kennedy assembles a crisis team know as EX-COMM and they discuss possible militaristic options. They urge the president for an air strike to take out the missiles but instead he orders another U-2 reconnaissance flight that confirms there are intermediate range (IRBMs) SS-5 nuclear missiles. On the 18th, Kennedy and Soviet PM of foreign affairs, Andrei Gromyko, meet for several hours and he tells the president that the USSR is only aided Cuba in its “defensive capabilities.” During the crisis, Kennedy is stuck with the added pressure of going to all of his campaign speeches but on the 20th he cancels the rest of his campaign trip because of an “upper-respiratory infection.” He is told by General Taylor that an air strike will not guarantee destruction of the missiles so he decides on a quarantine of Cuba instead. Kennedy then addresses the US with a televised speech of the missiles in Cuba. On the 23rd, he orders Crusader jets to fly another reconnaissance mission and by the end of the day US ships were in position in quarantine, 800 miles off Cuba. Kennedy also gets a letter from Khrushchev that comments, “a serious threat to peace and security of peoples.” So the president decides to give Khrushchev more time and pulls back the quarantine line. The next day, US forces go to DEFCON 2 readiness, the highest ever in history. This is just below maximum readiness for an expected attack on US territory. On the 25th, Kennedy replies to Khrushchev stating the responsibility of the crisis is on the Soviet Union and EX-COMM discusses a proposal to remove the US missiles from Turkey in exchange for removing Soviet missiles in Cuba. The next day Khrushchev sends another letter to Kennedy offering to get rid of his missiles if the US would publicly announce to never invade Cuba. On the 27th, the height of the crisis, Khrushchev sends a new letter agreeing to the removal of missiles exchange. Although before Kennedy responds, an American U-2 is shot down over Cuba. The pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson gets killed. After meeting with Soviet ambassador, Anatoly Dobrynin, President Kennedy writes Khrushchev saying that he will make a statement that the US will not invade Cuba if he removes all the missiles from Cuba. The next day, October 28, 1962, Khrushchev agrees to the terms and announces over radio in Moscow that he agreed to take the missiles out of Cuba and the crisis was averted.
But after the closest event of a nuclear war the world has ever seen, people ask, who was responsible for preventing it? And who was a better leader throughout it? It is obvious that the Soviets were trying to get their point of communism across to the world, but it was the most radical way possible and could have ended horribly. President Kennedy showed some of the best leadership skills the US has ever seen. After failing in the beginning with the Bay of Pigs invasion, he redeemed himself by doing all the right things during the 14 days at the height of the crisis. The reconnaissance flights were the best way of getting photographic evidence of the weapons and the president took the most peaceful and least confronting ways to avoid war. The Soviets thought he would be indecisive and “too weak and intelligent” to defend his country, but in the end it paid off. If Kennedy had decided to invade Cuba, US forces would have been outnumbered because they had underestimated the number of Soviet/Cuban soldiers. By using nonviolent tactics like quarantines, embargos, and reconnaissance, the president was able to single-handedly dodge a world war, all while trying to balance a campaign for re-election. Nikita Khrushchev on the other hand, was removed from power by his party colleagues in 1964, being replaced by Leonid Brezhnev. They thought he was not strong and decisive enough because during the crisis, he often spoke through his advisors, not wanting to meet up with the president. The letters were their only communication. Also it was not clear whether Khrushchev was set on going to war with the US or if he was just trying to be bold and make an example. Therefore, Kennedy is seen as the hero who stopped a nuclear war, and Khrushchev is seen as the one trying to start a massacre of millions of people.

The Bataan Death March

War crimes were a major problem during WWII and they sparked racism and hatred throughout countries. Among these, the Bataan Death March is no different. After the three-month long Battle of Bataan, the march took place in 1942 and involved the transfer of about 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, who were captured by Japanese Empire soldiers.

On April 9, 1942 American and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula on West Luzon Island decided they must surrender. They were no match to the Japanese because they were very low on food and supplies, and had been on half-rations since January. General Masahuro Homma took the soldiers prisoner but there were a lot more men than he had expected. He could not take all of them by trucks like he had planned, so the soldiers had to march the 70 miles from Mariveles to San Fernando and then would be taken to the prison camps in Capas by train. The Japanese government expected the march to only last three days but it ended up taking a full week.

The death march is known today by its various torture methods, mass-murders, and the high fatalities of the prisoners and civilians along the route. Beheadings, cutting of throats, and shootings were the more common actions, compared to bayonet stabbing, rifle-butt beating, and running over unconcious troops with trucks and tanks. The most despicable actions were of the Japanese officers not providing any food or water to the POWs, and killing them on sight if they attempted to get water from the artesian wells on the side of the roads. Falling down or not being able to continue was a death sentence, as was any expression of protest or displeasure.

The exact death toll has been impossible to determine because thousands of captives were able to escape from the guards, but postwar Allied reports figured that only about 54,000 prisoners reached their destination. This adds up to a killing rate from one in four to two in seven (25-29%). Surely this massacre was absolutely unacceptable, especially on an international stage, and Japan had to pay. General Homma gave the orders for the march but did not actually participate in it. Therefore he was not directly responsible for the murders and atrocities. Homma left Colonel Masanobu Tsuji in charge of the captives but this turned out to be a monumental mistake which would cost him his life in the end.

After Japan’s surrender in September 1945, American authorities arrested Homma so that he could be tried by an American military tribunal rather than the International Allied War Crimes Commission. He was convicted by the U.S. military tribunal for war crimes in the Philippines, such as the Bataan Death March and the following killings at Camp O’Donnell and Cabanatuan (the prison camps) and sentenced to death by firing squad.

This verdict was highly controversial for several reasons. Homma, who was busy preparing an attack on Corregidor, left the POW problems to his lower ranked officials and ordered the entire command in charge to treat the prisoners with a “friendly spirit.” Homma claimed that he did not know about the massacre until after the war. Most people at the time wanted Tsuji to be tried but he was in hiding in Thailand after being defeated. He was left in charge of the men in the death march and was open about not wanting to spare them. It was publicly stated that Homma ordered the POWs to be treated fairly. Colonel Tsuji and his followers began calling officers in the field and ordering them to kill all the prisoners that were under their control. They justified this saying that the orders were from the Japanese Army General Staff. Tsuji believed that disposing of all the POWs would save time, energy, and supplies and insisted that examples needed to be made of anyone who resisted the will of Japan.

He was known to commit senseless murders after Singapore fell and was responsible for Sook Ching (Operation Clean-up) which involved killing upwards of 10,000 Chinese residents of Singapore. There was plenty of evidence to convict Colonel Tsuji of these war crimes once he was out of hiding but for unknown reasons, the Allied Commission never tried him for anything. As for General Homma, he was executed for the actions of his men rather than having ordered the actions himself.

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Influence of Early Newsreels

From the beginning of the century until the 1950s, newsreels served as a source of entertainment, current events, and news in the U.S. and Europe. They were shown in dedicated theaters in major cities during the 1930s and 1940s. A newsreel was a short documentary with filmed news stories and items of popular interest. The Daily Bioscope was the first British news cinema that showed newsreels and opened in London in May of 1909. The first newsreel in the U.S.was seen in August, 1911, the same time as the French company, Pathe, made its first weekly release to theaters. Before the newsreels were shown independently, the only way for Americans to visually witness the news was in commercials before major motion pictures, like we see today. That was how many Americans saw Lindbergh’s Atlantic flight, major sporting events, and developments of WWI and WWII. Many americans enjoyed this new type of news because of its audio and visual aspect. While reading the news paper, stories could seem boring or unimportant but it is much easier to just sit and watch a news story in a theater. Also, some people liked the bias of the newsreels which was much more obvious than bias in newspaper. If you are reading something, then it is up to you to form your opinions about it but watching films gives you more ideas and puts more images in your head than a newspaper could. Although, some people still prefered newpapers as they were easy to get and you could take them where you went and read them on your own time.

1929 was an important year for newsreels. William Fox bought a theater on Broadway to show newsreels and changed the format from a two dollar a show two times a day, to an ongoing 25 cent show, which was the first newsreel theater in the USA. It became such a success that Fox and his supporters started a chain of newsreel theaters across the country. They were usually showed with cartoons or short movies. The Universal City studios started producing reels twice a week to show before major movies. Most were usually only a minute or two in length, covering news, sports, the arts, fashion and more. Newsreels in the US were huge but their future was carried on in other countries.

In France, the Occupation newsreels and short documentaries were very popular and their influence was compared to newspapers and radio. One of the most successful documentary series was La France de Marche, which was a 66-episode bimonthly that first aired in November 1940 and went until the end of the war. It competed with other newsreel series like the Germans’ Actualites Mondiales, Vichy’s France-Actualites Pathe-Gaumont, and a French/German production known as France-Actualites. These corporations shaped public opinion and the fact that the Germans and the French did a series together encouraged alliance in some ways as well as resistance.

After the war on August 15, 1948, CBS started their evening TV news show Douglas Edwards and the News. NBC, CBS, and ABC television news would soon take over all newsreel business. The theaters devoted to reels either closed or switched to showing ongoing cartoon programs and short subjects.