Atomic Cafe

I found the documentary "Atomic Cafe" to have sort of a dark humor. While nuclear war is not something that is considered funny, the way that scientists carried out experiments and the things people in the country were told were funny because of their ignorance. While watching the "Duck and Cover" clip, the fact that people believed that by simply ducking on the ground in a fetal position would protect them from the explosion and radiation was strange. I then realized that if I were living in that time period, it would be comforting to believe that there was something that could be done to protect myself when in reality there was not. I also found it interesting that in the video they were telling people about the dangers of the atomic bomb and to make sure to protect themselves in whatever way possible, but when the government was testing the bombs on soldiers, the generals told them there was no harm and that they had nothing to worry about. They even said that the atomic bomb is one of the most beautiful sights they will ever see. They put the soldiers in trenches dug out from the ground to give them some idea of safety but after the explosion, soldiers stepped out of the trenches and towards the explosion not worrying about radiation because they could not see it and they were told that it would not hurt them. It was strange to me that they said the radiation can only enter through the mouth, nose, and cuts because with more research we have found that this is not the case.