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Kōrero: Cold War

A non-nuclear future

Image
A non-nuclear future

During the 1970s anti-nuclearism became a mass movement. Among the groups promoting the cause was the Campaign for Non-Nuclear Futures. In 1976 they produced this poster, using an image of the inter-island ferry Wahine, which had sunk in Wellington Harbour eight years before with the loss of 51 lives. The poster suggests that if the ship had been nuclear-powered, the resulting radiation could have killed thousands. Such a risk underlined the rationale for anti-nuclear activism. 

Courtesy of Campaign for Non-Nuclear Futures

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-D-NUCLEAR-1976-02

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Gerald Hensley, Cold War – Questioning the Cold War, 1955 to 1985, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/ephemera/32710/a-non-nuclear-future (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Gerald Hensley, i tāngia i te 16 April 2012.