|
Postcard folders for U.S. cities are usually no big deal—beyond the nifty lettering on the front ("Greetings From Boise!"), what you typically find are silk-screened shots of hotels, natural attractions, statues, etc. Certainly, these images can be interesting, particularly if they capture things that no longer exist. But it's rare to see postcards for top-secret government military installations charged with producing doomsday weapons. Nevertheless, here it is: a postcard book for Oak Ridge, Tenn., issued shortly after the end of World War II. During the war, Oak Ridge was a "secret city," built from the ground up by the U.S. government and populated by locals from the surrounding area who weren't aware of the city's true mission: to build the atomic bomb. Once the Bomb was unleashed upon Japan and the war concluded, the existence of Oak Ridge and its secret purpose was revealed. Residents took an unusual pride in the city's sudden notoriety and its role in ending the war. The Bomb was viewed as something of a miracle, a piece of the atomic future that the government began hyping as a soon-to-be world of plenty. Of course, once the U.S.S.R. developed its own atomic capabilities, the Bomb became more of a source of dread: the device that could end the world. Today, Oak Ridge (and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory) fosters an image of being a technology center rather than just the "Birthplace of the Atomic Bomb." While most of its residents remain proud of Oak Ridge's history, many also are active in the fight to clean up the area—families claim mercury poisoning from contaminated groundwater, and some environmentalists charge that aging storage drums are leaking radioactive waste. And protesters do still make their yearly stands against nuclear weapons production.—Coury Turczyn Oak Ridge PostcardsOriginal Text: |
