| dc.description.abstract | The Canadian federal government used a civil defence program
to sustain public support for World War Two and afterwards for a
defence policy based on nuclear weapons.
The successful implementation of civil defence measures
depended upon the public's perception of their credibility. During
the Second World War, enduring and widespread participation in
Canadian civil defence activities suffered because the likelihood
of an enemy attack was perceived as being too remote. As Allied
victory became more apparent, civil defence was dropped from the
government agenda and did not re-emerge until after 1949, when the
Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb.
Civil defence, responding to the perceived threat of an enemy
attack, was practiced during the Cold War as part of the military's
strategy of nuclear deterrence. Three reasons are identified for
public acquiescence and support for a defence policy based on
nuclear weapons: censorship of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, political restructuring of the post-war international
order, and public association of communism with "the enemy." These
three issues provided a rationale for a re-emergence of civil
defence measures in Canada.
An analysis of civil defence pamphlets, municipal survival
plans, and mock attack exercises show how civil defence helped
convince people that it was possible to survive a nuclear war by
minimizing the danger from radioactive fallout and its associated
health hazards. However, the credibility of civil defence measures
was undermined by the 1954 hydrogen bomb detonation, code named
BRAVO, which declassified the occurrence of widespread radioactive
fallout. As the dangers of radioactive fallout became better known
the federal government increasingly emphasized the individual's
responsibility to provide for his or her own survival. A review of
civil defence policies in Canadian news magazines (1950-1965) shows
a growing public resistance for evacuation and shelters as
radioactivity weakens the belief in the possibility of surviving a
nuclear war.
Canada's civil defence programme was carefully manufactured
for very purposeful utilitarian reasons; to demystify an atomic
bombing without discussing the human cost. Civil defence
strengthened the idea that nuclear weapons could provide for
national security. Through civil defence organizations and
preparations, public participation was co-opted in favour of
nuclear war. By appearing to provide civilians with the means to
protect themselves during an attack and the resources to meet their
needs in the aftermath of a nuclear war, support was increased for
nuclear deterrence. | |
