Some sobering thoughts for your July 4 fireworks celebration. Flash back to July 4 in the final years of WWII.
All the following information comes from our own government. Realizing the momentous accomplishment of the Manhattan project, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission published in 1962 a complete and official (but supposedly sanitized) history of the beginning of the atomic age entitled, "The New World, 1939/1946. " This is *official material* and may contain only errors of omission. Nothing extraneous was added. It was written by contract historians Richard Hewlett and Oscar Anderson and carefully reviewed to rid it of any secret material. But in a volume this long, perfect �cleansing� is impossible. BTW the �fear� was not helping the Soviets. Because of their spy network, they actually knew the secrets of Los Alamos and Oak Ridge sooner than many officials in Washington. There was another fear. Keep in mind this exact timeline (it is all official, from the above mentioned document): 1)On 4 July 1944 General Groves was officially informed that detonation of the first completed bomb, the Mark II utilizing only 9 kg U235 (20 pounds)in a �moderated� core, was expected to yield an energy equivalent of 1,000 tons TNT, and was expected to cause Class B damage (damage beyond repair) to an area of 2-5 square miles. Ten square miles of Class B damage was the goal Los Alamos. No test date was mentioned. 2)On the evening of 17 July 1944, 13 days later, a huge explosion occurred aboard the merchant ship SS Bryan, ready to depart to Tinian Island the following day. The holds were packed with high explosive and incendiary bombs. The explosion was the equivalent of a few hundred tons of TNT � which could have been present in the holds, had it all exploded simultaneously � something that had never been seen before in accidental TNT bomb explosions. Working in the area were 320 cargo handlers, crewmen and sailors, mostly afro-American, who were killed instantly. A mutiny followed, due to the severity of the incident and callous official attitude afterwards. 3)By 17 August, 1944 only a month later, the �upper limit of effectiveness� achieved by the Mark II was officially KNOWN, documented and already classified as �top secret�. Despite no official testing, it is now stated that a �test of the Mark II was predicted to yield a �moderate� explosion equivalent, of �only a few hundred tons of TNT.� Notice that in the space of less than 6 weeks, Gen. Groves was informed that the yeild of the completed Mark II had been officially cut by two thirds or more � something that would never have happened without a test. Groves was also informed the Mark II yield could be �raised somewhat,� but that it would never accomplish Class B damage. It was then shelved. 4) On July 16, 1945, a year later, the Mark III atomic bomb was tested at Trinity, NM. Los Alamos scientists were told that they the first humans to witness the power of a nuclear weapon. Even 32 kilometers (20 miles) away, observers felt the heat of the explosion on exposed skin. The radiation level in the rising mushroom cloud was so intense that it emitted a glow identical to that seen at Port Chicago but never seen in TNT explosions. This bomb achieved the 10 square miles damage goal. 5)On August 6, 1945 the Enola Gay left Tinian Islands with the �Little Boy� in its bomb bay. The crews target was the Aioi Bridge located in the heart of Hiroshima, Japan. You can fill in the remaining blanks� but ask yourself this. Doesn�t our government owe the families of those Black sailors and cargo handlers, incinerated by the Mark II, whether it was a tragic accident or not (and also the later mutineers) at least an official apology? Jones
