Southern Cross
A Novel Of The South Seas (Hardcover)

Laurence Hyde was infuriated with the United States, who continued testing in the Bikini Atoll, following the mass destruction and unthinkable horrors resulting from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Hyde's graphic novel involves a Polynesian island and the islanders' idyllic and secure life that is forever lost after American sailors arrive on the island and evacuate the islanders from their homes. During the evacuation, an island fisherman kills a sailor who assaults and attempts to rape his wife. The couple flees with their child into the jungle to avoid capture, unaware of the danger they are risking by keeping themselves hidden. After the other islanders have evacuated, the Americans detonate an atom bomb on the ocean floor. The island receives the brunt of the bomb's destructive force, annihilating all flora and fauna. The fisherman and his family are subjected to horrific suffering and pain before dying from the resulting blast and radiation.