How did the DIY shelter prepare for nuclear attacks become fashionable and obsolete

There are shelters in each area to protect themselves from radioactive fallout, assuming there is a nuclear bomb attack in the United States. There are many things that this shelter made with DIY by a single person, but how did DIY shelter gather popularity and became obsolete, a movie that uncovers the history was released.

The rise and fall of the American fallout shelter - YouTube


A black and white image of a man kneading concrete.


Although it seems that it is going to be on a do-it-yourself carpenter by breaking the concrete which it made, ... ....


Actually, this picture is a picture by the federal government that explained how to make nuclear shelter for the general public.


In the United States "nuclear shelter boom" occurred from the 1950s to the 1960s, shelter was made in various places by the general people. In the parking lot where the man is standing in the image, the mark of the nuclear shelter is also displayed.



Below is a cut-out picture of the time. "Each shelter for the family in a modern American family is something that must be present, now is the nuclear era."


Such civil defense movements were activated in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the beginning of it was seen from the time the National Council was held by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. And as the World War II heats up, the consciousness of national defense is increasing, and when it is found in 1949 that the Soviet Union is conducting a nuclear bomb experiment, the importance of civil defense is more cried out I will.


In 1950, Congress created the Federal Defense Defense Headquarters (FCDA) to promote home defense methods.


In the United States the evacuation behavior is called "Duck and Cover", but since around this time Duck and Cover began to be invited to the general public. The following is an animation with a turtle called Bert as the main character. "Duck and Cover, even if danger threatens him, he will not hurt, because he knows what to do," a song of lyrics will flow.


When Bart turns backward, there is a bomb.


The bomb that the monkey has had exploded ... ...


The surroundings disappear with each monkey, but Bart, which was hidden inside the shell, is to take up the lives.


The importance of Duck and Cover is explained by animation, and training at Duck and Cover will be held for children at school.


At first glance it sounds stupid, but Bart's animation was never made for joke purposes.


At that time, the nuclear bomb of the Soviet Union was a threat to the US, but on the one hand its power was limited and it was of the type dropped by airplane. In other words, the citizen can confirm the imminent threat with eyes, because it was thought that life and death can be divided by the act of entering the building and covering the head.


In response to the threat of the Soviet Union, the hydrogen bomb tests carried out by the United States in 1952 demonstrated greater power than any weapon that existed so far.


A countdown is taking place from the command center.


"It is the biggest thing in fireballs I have ever seen"


"To be grasped afterwards, the microphone experiment recorded a nuclear output of 10 megatons or 10,000 kilotons, which means that it released one or more times more energy than the sum of all the past nuclear bombs in one shot It also has about 4 times more energy than the combination of all the bombs Britain and the United States dropped to Germany and its colonies. "


And in 1953 "Duck and Cover" became obsolete by announcing that the Soviet Union conducted a hydrogen bomb experiment. The validity of the FCDA was questioned and President Eisenhower prioritized deterrence by the military, so it was thought that FCDA should be abolished ... ...


Nuclear test conducted in Bikini Atoll etc. in 1954Bravo experiment"After all, it is judged that private defense is necessary. In the bravo experiment, the setting of the dangerous water area that the United States did was insufficient, so more than 20,000 people were exposed by radioactive fallout.


This will shift the center of what the FCDA calls attention to radioactive fallout rather than bomb.


And to avoid radioactive fallout, FCDA and related organizations started to discuss the necessity of nuclear shelter.


The importance of the nuclear shelter will be further increased by the fact that the Soviet Union developed the intercontinental ballistic missile in 1957 and "the way to evacuate into the building" became obsolete.


However, as it took a huge cost to build a nuclear shelter so that citizens could evacuate, President Eisenhauer suggests through FCDA a method of "letting citizens create their own nuclear shelters by themselves".


"We all have to help each other, animation that the whole family should understand about radioactive fallouts and how to protect themselves".


A method for making a nuclear shelter with DIY is also disclosed.


After that, in 1961 President Kennedy told the Berlin Wall construction with a speech, but at this time you can also tell about the change of the civil defense policy. President Kennedy requested Congress for civil defense funds and announced the intention of the government to grasp what can be used as a nuclear shelter for existing places. This was a preparation for the attack and a message to the Soviet Union that "Americans survive attacks".


At this time the nuclear shelter registered by the government was made publicly and homemade. So, are those shelters really useful for emergencies?


In 1961, the Soviet UnionTsari BombaWe have developed the biggest hydrogen bomb of the past with an output of over 50 Megatons.


A nuclear explosion simulator developed by Professor Alex Wellerstein, a historianNUKEMAPExplodes nuclear bombs on the map on the map and you can see how far the damage will be.


Exploding Tsar and Bomba with Washington D.C. using NUKEMAP is like this. You can see that the entire city will be destroyed. Because the city is destroyed by gusts and fireballs, we are not far from worrying about radioactive fallout. Nuclear shelters at home also destroy themselves.


Meanwhile, as the movie made in the 1950s says, people who live in places beyond the extent destroyed by gusts and fireballs should worry about radioactive fallout. If a city is attacked, only the people in the country's nuclear shelter will survive.


Following the assassination of President Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson is promoted to President, but due to President's assassination and the Vietnam War, private defense expenses in the Johnson administration have been decreasing year by year. And the civil defense agency returned to form "Preserve and survive a movie" before President Kennedy.