Project Crossroads

In July 1946, the United States conducted the first pair of nuclear tests at the Bikini atoll. This film is part of the official record of that operation, which was meant to establish the forces that military equipment and troops would be exposed to at the dawn of a new era of nuclear warfare. 

The archive film shows a fleet of retired warships positioned at various distances from the intended target, equipped with anything you would normally find aboard, from food supplies to tanks. Goats, pigs and mice substitute for military personnel. At a safe distance, a sizeable press delegation has gathered to witness this historic moment. King Juda—who, as the voice-over explains, “unselfishly gave his island to the United States in order that these experiments could be conducted”—is regaled by Commander Blandy to watch the first underwater nuclear explosion.

This official report ends one day after that second test; at that time, the problem of radioactive fallout had not yet emerged. As a result of these and the following tests, the inhabitants of Bikini would never again be able to safely return to their native soil.