B Reactor History Room: A Postcard to the Future

The Postcard to the Future exhibit panel in the History Room.

See exhibit panel for specific image credits.

Main Text
Text on the postcard describes the human toll of World War II, and the legacy of the Manhattan Project. The last paragraph reads: “Write a postcard to citizens of the world in the year 2145, 200 years after the end of World War II. Share with them—your future family, teachers, world leaders—advice, hopes, and fears from your life experience living in the post-World War II world and the nuclear age. Notice: If you want to share your postcard, pin it to one of the bulletin boards in this room.”

Exhibit Panel Description
A poster exhibit, entitled “Postcard To The Future.” An image of a large post card fills the center, with a green one-cent postage stamp at the top right, with an image of the Statue of Liberty. The date beneath the stamp reads: August 9, 2145. The card is addressed to: My friends and family. Background black-and-white photographs show Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill at Yalta, Adolf Hitler, a young Emperor Hirohito, emaciated people in a prison camp, a devasted and flattened, rubble-strewn landscape, instructions from the Western Defense Command to all persons of Japanese ancestry, a large metal ball covered with wires, a crowd of people with someone holding a newspaper with the headline, “War Ends,” and two men seated at a desk in front of a man in military uniform.

Visit This Exhibit Panel
In-person visitation of the B Reactor is only authorized on guided tours offered by the Department of Energy.