The Saddest Love Song (a different kind of nuclear umbrella)

One of Japan's golden oldies was a love song that went something like this:
"I want to come to you, but I can't.
The night is rainy, and I have no umbrella."

Sound wimpy? It's not.

In the 50s and 60s, nuclear devices were tested in the open air, often over the Pacific where "no one lived"--no one except millions of Pacific islanders, including the Japanese people. The fall-out was expected to disperse, and it did: carried on the wind, it filled the raindrops that fell on rainy Japan.

Often black, the rain could be lethal. No one wanted it on themselves, and no one would ever want to carry it into the home of a loved one.

To this day, it is still considered bizarre to go out in the rain without an umbrella in Japan. This habit took root thanks to unrestrained US nuclear testing, and now it is once again a necessary habit.