# You who who grew up tall and proud, in the shadow of the mushroom cloud **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 21, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022 "2014-10-21T13:29:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/141 "2014-10-23T21:31:22Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > Bit of a myth here. Probably nobody was completely vapourised in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but then nobody was in contact with the fireballs. The famous shadow photos involve cases where the victim would have then fallen, fatally burnt and irradiated. All these particular photos were then taken after the bodies had been removed and cremated. The earlier photographers had, after all, the bodies themselves to photograph as the more obviously horrific record. Do you have a cite for this? It sounds right but thats not how those shadows are explained in every documentary on Hiroshima / Nagasaki I’ve ever encountered. But its probably one more example of how a striking image is more important than actual truth. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/142 "2014-10-23T21:35:08Z")
If you drew a triangle with corners at Washington DC, the Naval Academy, and NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, I’d be a tiny pile of ash smack dab in the middle. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/143 "2014-10-23T21:43:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yes, I honestly believe that they wouldn’t, because [they didn’t](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov). World War III was averted not by MAD, but by the fact that, for the most part, people really are fundamentally decent. It had nothing to do with decency there – they correctedly figured out that it was a false alarm. Look, I’m not trying to paint the Soviets as evil, mustache-twirling villains\*. But I doubt that many countries would simply give in if they were attacked, and refuse to fight back, if they were capable of doing so – the Soviets were not the type. I don’t believe either side WANTED a nuclear war, however, I don’t think they’d hesitate to defend themselves if they had to. Enough of this hijack, at least for me. My opinion is that the Soviets wouldn’t have hesitated to retaliate if we actually threw a nuke their way. Nor would we. I also know that in the case of a nuclear war, my city would’ve been reduced to rubble. \*Except maybe Stalin. I can’t imagine that bastard giving a shit. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/144 "2014-10-23T21:56:42Z")
I’ve always lived near bases, and as an adult except in college I’ve always lived close enough to Fort Jackson to hear bugle calls. So I assume we’re going up. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/145 "2014-10-23T22:36:00Z")
If I read the map right, pretty damn dead. Los Angeles. ---
**Author:** ![Fuji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Fuji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/146 "2014-10-23T23:02:34Z")
Growing up in southern New Hampshire in the 80’s, I lived within 5 miles of [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Boston_Air_Force_Station) likely target; I went to school within 1/2 mile of [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Air_Route_Traffic_Control_Center) other bullseye. Stupid, over-excited teenager though I was at the time, I still recall thinking where I’d run if it happened, and my friends at the time thought the same. I also remember the sense of dread when my town carried out a siren test of their Early Warning system on a quiet, overcast day in July '84. I assumed I wouldn’t have to worry about making long-term plans if the nukes flew… ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/147 "2014-10-23T23:04:32Z")
> [@LH75](#): > > I grew up in South Omaha, Nebraska. SLightly more than five miles from where I went to grade school, in the small out lying community of Bellevue, NE is Offutt AFB. SAC Headquarters was there, and this is the airfield from which Looking Glass, the Flying Command Center flew. > > I used to have a sweatshirt with a map of Bellevue with crosshairs centered. It said: "Greetings From Bellevue Nebraska! Ground Zero, USA > > We would have been toast, but we knew what to do. We had duck and cover drills at my grade school. The nuns had us hide under our desks and pray the rosary… Yah, what he said. (Or she). I grew up in North Omaha, but I never heard “duck and cover”, we did have pretty frequent tornado drills, everyone out in the halls away from most the glass windows in the classrooms and fetal position with hands covering the backs of our necks. No nuns in our public school, but there would have been lots of praying if there was a real tornado. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/148 "2014-10-23T23:06:00Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > Do you have a cite for this? It sounds right but thats not how those shadows are explained in every documentary on Hiroshima / Nagasaki I’ve ever encountered. But its probably one more example of how a striking image is more important than actual truth. Actually I don’t. But I said that as someone who: [ul]Literally spent part of last Saturday in the Imperial War Museum flicking through photos of bodies from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[/ul] [ul]Who, having made the post, did wonder whether it was worthwhile trying to nail down the locations of the photos in question and tie that up to the likely injuries. Just because I’m not aware of anybody ever having explicitly done this. [/ul] But the key gruesome observation is that all the initial photos of remains are of horrifically burnt, but obviously humanoid, victims. At their most reduced, still a torso, head, arms and legs. Now one can posit a bias towards photographers thinking that such subjects emphasised the horror, but might you not expect some outliers? Some photographs of people burnt away to almost nothing? You do get photos of scattered bones in both cities, but as far as I can tell these are all much later. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/149 "2014-10-23T23:24:02Z")
> [@skdo23](#): > > I grew up in central Vermont so I likely would have been fighting off looters and zombies while waiting for the fallout to blow in from Boston, NYC and Montreal. You might have had to deal with your [own radiation risks](http://www.webpal.org/SAFE/state/VT/vt-nu.jpg) without any help from [Massachusetts](http://www.webpal.org/SAFE/state/MA/ma-nu.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/150 "2014-10-23T23:47:17Z")
I also hope those poor fuckers in [North Dakota](http://www.webpal.org/SAFE/state/ND/nd-nu.jpg) got some serious compensation from the Feds for risking half the state being wiped out if the Reds launched! Look at that insanity. ---
**Author:** ![snakedog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@snakedog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snakedog)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/151 "2014-10-24T00:03:49Z")
Lived 2 miles from a MAC airbase with a 12000 foot runway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022.md?page=7)