Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Difference between revisions

Contrast our modern attitude about nuclear weapons to fiction of the pre-war eras in which devastating super-weapons were romanticized to the point of being able to end all war forever. For example, Alfred Nobel believed that if such a tremendously powerful weapon could be devised, the potential war casualties would become so high when compared to any possible gains that nations of the world would abandon warfare altogether. Following this, there would be no need for the weapons themselves, and everyone would just hold hands and get along. When real-life superweapons appeared at the end of World War II, military and political leaders still considered nuclear weapons to be really big bombs, but not inherently different than any other munition. The Nuclear Weapons Taboo only came as people learned about the hideous and lingering effects of these weapons and came to realize that nuclear war could push humans to extinction.

 

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** It's outright stated that a number of cities, including "Old Tokyo", were nuked during the Post-Impact Wars that had raged in the early 21st Century. It even led to the presumed revocation of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution (renouncing war "forever" and banning the government's right to declare an offensive war), and the establishment of the "J'''S'''SDF" (Japanese '''Strategic''' Self-Defence Forces). Considering the fact that they have 40-foot technorganic mechas developed from [[Eldritch Abomination|Angels]], the idea that they were able to develop bombs with power roughly equal to smaller strategic nukes is one of their [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]].

** The "Non-Nukes" still produce an EMP effect, however, as can be seen in the first episode of the TV series.

** Curiously, it was averted in the original series. In the episode 36 it was clearly stated Dr. Hell was fabricating nukes, and a nuclear missile was detonated, even.

* "Reaction weaponry" in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]''.

* [[Colony Drop|Meteor bombs]] from ''[[Uchuu Senkan Yamato]]''.

* The [[Fantastic Nuke|nuclear-like non-nukes]] introduced late in ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]''.

** In ''[[Turn a Gundam (Anime)|Turn a Gundam]]'' (an [[After the End]] setting), the heroes unearth a cache of nuclear missiles and realize how dangerous they are when one gets set off by accident. [[The Hero]] Loran carries the remaining missiles around in the Turn A's chest for a good portion of the series, eventually using them to destroy a rogue asteroid headed for Von City on the moon.

** Also completely averted in [[Space Runaway Ideon]], made by the [[Yoshiyuki Tomino|same guy]].

* In the ''[[Giant Robo]]'' [[OVA|OVAs]], the shameful secret of Giant Robo wasn't that it was a massive engine of destruction commanded by the will of a twelve-year-old boy, but that it was powered by a nuclear reactor.

* The FLEIJA weapon from ''[[Code Geass]]'' averts this by being a combination of fission and Sakuradite, the show's resident [[Green Rocks]] which has been shown to be a highly volatile explosive. The fact that it was created by {{spoiler|Nina '''Einstein'''}}, who was shown to be studying nuclear cells and Uranium isotopes in the first season, is rather telling.

* In Fate's [[As You Know]] speech in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS'' on the [[The Singularity|dangers and eventual banning of mass-based physical weapons]], we are shown scenes of the various [[Endofthe World As We Know It|world destroying weaponry]] that were used before the [[The Federation|Time-Space Administration Bureau]] era. One of these looked suspiciously liked nuclear missiles that left behind mushroom clouds and much devastation.

** Incidentally, based on the timeline, the start of the Time-Space Administration era, marked by the banning of mass-based physical weapons in favor of [[Magitek]], takes place at around 1941, the year when Japan provoked America into joining World War 2. Coincidence?

* In ''[[Heat Guy J]]'' most of the world's population has been destroyed after they appropriated the technology of the resident [[Superior Species]]. Originally, it was used for peaceful purposes (e.g. energy production), but [[Humans Are Bastards|people started wars]] using this [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. The survivors stopped trusting each other and closed themselves into seven city states, and the [[Superior Species|Celestials]] closely monitor any peaceful use of their technology. It's never stated what it is exactly, but it does sound an awful lot like nuclear power.

* [[Axis Powers Hetalia]] manages to be about anthropomorphic countries, set partly during World War II, with the personifications of America and Japan as main characters, and still never mention nuclear weapons. Partly because the WWII part of the story never gets to that point (it's more or less [[Aborted Arc|abandoned]] by now), and partly because the series avoids showing the [[Darker and Edgier]] parts of history.

* The A-bomb is central to the plot of ''[[Senkou no Night Raid]]'' but it's only ever called "new type of bomb." It makes sense: most characters don't know anything more about it, and those who know don't call it by name.

* [[Hunter X Hunter]] has the Miniature Rose, which instead of producing a mushroom cloud, produces a rose cloud. {{spoiler|Furthermore, it also produces radiation (called Rose Poison).}} But of course, it's not a nuclear bomb, no. One of the few examples where such weapon is used for [[Your Mileage May Vary|kind of good reason]].

* In at least the early novels of Frank Herbert's ''[[Dune]]'' series, it is implied that most or all of the noble "Great Houses" have nuclear weapons (the "house atomics") but that the Great Convention which binds the houses together expressly forbids any house from using their atomics against another. Houses that do apply those weapons directly are usually cast out, losing their fief and becoming a renegade house. Of course, late in the first book, Paul Atreides {{spoiler|indirectly uses the recovered Atreides family atomics against the Harkonnens and Corrinos when he blasts a hole through the stone Shield Wall near their landing site to allow sandworm riding Fremen fighters through to start a battle.}} In the second book, Paul himself, along with many of his soldiers and associates, {{spoiler|was a victim of a nuclear weapons attack which left him blinded.}}

* Played with in ''[[Young Zaphod Plays It Safe]]'' by [[Douglas Adams]]. The most horrible weapons ever invented, including nuclear and all kinds of engineered gasses and virii, are actually perfectly safe compared to [[Anvilicious|a politician willing to use them]].

 

 

* [[After the End|Naturally]] [[Averted Trope|averted]] in most releases of ''[[Fallout 3]]'' but in Japan, the implications (which are, actually, not so much implied [[Nuclear War|as outright stated]]) of the setting resulted in some changes for localization purposes. The Japanese release of ''Fallout 3'' had the entire questline related to detonating the nuclear weapon at Megaton removed. This also removes the Tenpenny Towers quests that open up in relation to it. The Fat Man launcher was renamed "Nuka Launcher" (Perhaps trying to connect more towards the fictional in game soft drink Nuka Cola), though this one should have been obvious considering that the name "Fat Man" comes from the bomb dropped on Nagasaki...

* Used... ''differently'' in ''[[Singularity]]'': There exist nuclear bombs, but the ''real'' focus is on an E-99 bomb that is a little bigger than a basketball and can turn the ''whole East Coast'' of your United States into a smoldering crater. Then there's the eponymous [[It Got Worse|Singularity]].

* ''[[Command and Conquer Red Alert 3]]'' removed nuclear weapons from the game through a plot device while its predecessors used them amply. This no doubt had to do with the addition of a Japanese faction and someone rightly figuring that creating a game that you won by dropping a nuclear weapon on the Japanese might make someone mad.

* The original ''[[Ace Combat]]'' setting, Strangereal, is supposed to be an alternate universe of our Earth with approximately equal level of technological advancement. However, the only nation that apparently has ever developed its own nukes is Belka (essentially an alternate [[Nazi Germany]]) and even then their warheads counted in ''single units'', not the thousands that world powers possess in [[Real Life]] today. For this reason, Strangereal's two superpowers Osea and Yuktobanian (counterparts of the US and Soviet Union) could duke it out in ''Ace Combat 5'' in what would have basically become [[World War III]] in our world, without risking a nuclear apocalypse. In fact, when Belkan remnants try to use their remaining nuclear warheads in that war, the hostilities soon cease and everyone gangs up on the Belkans instead. That ''[[Ace Combat]]'' was developed by the Japanese company Bandai-Namco probably explains things.

* Averted in the ''[[Civilization]]'' series, where you can indeed build nukes and threaten your enemies with them. Actually using them does tend to mess up the environment, as well as make everybody hate you.

** Ghandi loves Nukes.

* Semi-averted in ''[[Rise of Nations]]''. Players can build nukes, but as soon as a player researches Nuclear Weapons, the Doomsday Counter appears on his screen. It starts at a number based on the number of players in the game, and every time a nuke is launched, it decreases by 1. Each time a player researches the "Missile Shield" supertech it increases by 2. If it ever hits 0, the game ends, with ''everyone'' losing.

* Averted kind of tastelessly in the Japanese version of ''[[The Simpsons|The Simpsons Arcade Game]]''. You can use atomic bombs to clear every enemy on screen.

* Played with in ''[[EV Nova]]''. The EMP torpedo is a nuclear weapon tuned to emit a much stronger electromagnetic pulse than usual. But there aren't any other types of nukes in the game.