Atomic Bomb Darts--Kids' Games from the 1950's

JF Ptak Science Books Post 339

Outside of duck-and-cover routines and other schemes for teaching children the survivability of nuclear holocaust, the approach for installing nuclear-think in the psyche of the young was through games. One such game was this cheap, affordable-by-all bombing game, "Target for Tonight" (a "Selected Budget-type Toy" by "Thrift Toys, Imported"), in which kids would use their "Atomic Darts" to reign terror over foreign lands.  But be careful!  Missing the primary targets and hitting something in the outside ring will cost you points!  If you bombed the hospital, school or chapel, you'd lose 25 points; if you hit the "civilian city" you'd get 50 points docked from your total.  Of course the game goes on no matter how many points you lose, just so long as you hit something positive and whose point add up to a total of 175. 

The bullseye of the game is the "Atomic Bomb Dump" (an expression I've never seen before) at center.  Since it would be relatively easy to score 175--you could do it with four or five decent hits--the makers must've assumed that there would be plenty of collateral damage taking points from the total, otherwise the game would be over in two rounds and how much fun would that be?  So I guess that the message in this medium would be that into every winning effort some considerable unhappy rain must fall. 

I guess too that the kids playing this game could've been throwing their atomic darts wearing their Lone Ranger Atomic Bomb ring.  I'm no toy expert, but I cannot remember any other children's jewelry from before 1960 (this ring is from 1946) using such a graphic depiction of The Bomb for casual wear.
  I'm also fairly positive that there must've been a good, causal bit to go along with "Atomic bomb" and "the Lone Ranger", though I can't think of what would connect the Western hero with the a-bomb.

Another no-holds-barred toy appears in the form of this manual dexterity game from the late 1940's--the child was supposed to maneuver the three marbles into the hole/position at Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo.

Did I mention that the "Target for Tonight" game was made in Japan?

 

Comments

[ryan]

want.the.ring.

[Frank Sayre]

I find this game almost subversive. Who could fail to notice their own tendency to waste civilians and hospitals? Amusing nonetheless.

[John Ptak]

It is interesting, Frank, and probably subversive, in a numbing, lets-get-used-to-killing-people sort of way. It was probably just a game, just a way for some folks to make a little money. But of course at the expense of children.

[patent translation X]

not good for children's mind but intriguing.

[patent translation X]

not good for children's mind but intriguing.

[patent translation X]

not good for children's mind but intriguing.

[Jarrad]

Great find!! Best for the kids!!