From my research it looks like the first pictures of the detonations from Operation castle surfaced in the newspapers around 1954. (I could be wrong of course... but this seemed like the time when people really had an idea of it) I am writing a screenplay scene in which some test pilots working for the USAF are reacting to the first pictures of this event. I'm curious as to what could have been or more likely would have been their response. Was this a proud achievement in the eyes of the public? Not a big deal? Were we having any reservations? Or larger thoughts on future repercussions? Super grateful for any insight here. Thank you kindly.
Somehow I missed this question, sorry.
The public response was complicated for a lot of reasons. One was the fact that though the first H-bomb had been detonated in 1952, and news had leaked out of it, it hadn't been confirmed by the government until 1954. So the news was in a state of an odd uncertainty — it was technically old news but it was also new news again. This seems to have diluted what might have otherwise been a strong response, on par with the editorials and whatnot that had followed the H-bomb debate of 1950.
Second, the Bravo detonation was announced only because it was also a radiological catastrophe. Initially the US only announced it was an "atomic device" and gave no hint as to the nature or yield of it. But a bit over a week later, after the Japanese fishing boat Fukuryu Maru arrived in Tokyo and set off the Japanese fear of radioactive tuna, the issue was on front pages globally: the US had set off a multimegaton weapon and unleashed a torrent of fallout.
On the whole, I haven't found a lot of response one way or another. Editorials of the period didn't praise or lament, but they did wring their hands. The uncertain status of the knowledge seems to have robbed it of its "immediate" status, making the H-bomb just another part of a growing dread about the state of the nuclear world.