The Beginnings of Atoms for Peace in Japan

This chapter discusses the early history of the development of nuclear power in Japan. Not only did some influential Japanese commentators feel a sense of entitlement as victims of the bomb to exploit the energy source but also American officials and politicians felt that it would be an appropriately Christian gesture to assist Japan given what had occurred at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese media mogul Shōriki Matsutarō enthusiastically supported President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” program and sought funding for Japan. Shōriki’s newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun gave extensive coverage and sponsored exhibitions that promoted the peaceful application of nuclear technology in Japan. The narrative of Alice in Wonderland was used in books and exhibitions to convey to children the wonders of the atomic age, serving to offset images of nuclear destruction that were also in circulation. Visitors to an exhibition in Tokyo in August 1954 could gaze at an Alice in Atom-Land diorama and see a model of an atomic reactor for themselves