The Nuclear Juggernaut

Part  1
Hiroshima. PLUS our bright atomic future.

Juggernaut


First the Bad News,
then the 'Good News'


Churchill FDR and Stalin at Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was held in Crimea in early February 1945.

At Yalta, Churchill, Roosevelt,
and Stalin - who looks content in spite of losing 20-30 million citizens, killed ...
discussed what would occur as, and after, World War 2 ended.

Roosevelt would be dead two months after the conference.
Churchill would be out of office in five months.

Truman, Roosevelt's vice president, would drop the first atomic bomb in six months ...
receiving a complete briefing on the weapon after Roosevelt's death and his own inauguration.
Stalin would have his first atomic test explosion in only four years.

Speaking of bombs, you can guess where this is ...

Tokyo after 1945 firestorm


... Tokyo, early 1945
While photos of Hiroshima and the terrible effects of the first of two atomic bombings are associated with the end of the war in the Pacific ... a more 'typical' activity of the this period was the fire bombing of Japanese cities ... whose civilian dwellings were primarily of wood construction.

Some interesting facts about the Japanese campaign come from a documentary ... crafted around Robert S. McNamara's life experiences ... and his conclusions on war and the future of humanity ... "The Fog of War" (2003).

Targeting specific industrial installations by day in Europe ... against intense Flugabwehrkanone defences ... and Luftwaffe fighter pilots doggedly defending their homeland ... had taught the Americans plenty about bomber aircraft losses. For the first while, a new American bomber crew was (statistically) not destined to complete their tour of duty.

The Americans' new pressurized-cabin B-29 Superfortress bomber ... introduced late in the war ... was designed to fly safely above anti-aircraft fire and most enemy fighter planes, at over 30,000 feet. High altitude flying reduced the loss rate, but bombing accuracy was sacrificed.


Flying Fortress B-17; Superfortress B-29
Left: The older B-17 Flying Fortress (introduced 1935) ... an important US bomber in Europe.
Right: The new B-29 Superfortress (introduced 1943) ... was directed to the Japanese bombing campaign.

Although they caught fire with some regularity, the B-29's engines had about twice the power of the B-17's.


Beginning in 1943, Captain Robert S. McNamara used his Harvard MBA to provide efficiency data and analysis to his US Army Air Force boss, Curtis LeMay. He thus contributed to LeMay's decision to strip his B-29's of most defensive weapons and extra weight ... so they could carry more incendiary bombs and fuel for his 'fire jobs' in Japan. Low altitude missions would improve bombing accuracy and were easier on the aircraft engines.

From the massive new air base on Tinian Island (shown below) to Japan - the aircraft flew about 3000 (statute) miles per mission, travelling at around 250 miles per hour.
Tinian to Japan



According to McNamara in "The Fog of War" ... incendiaries were dropped over Japanese cities from an altitude of about 5000 ft. Here are some statistics which attest to the destruction visited on particular Japanese cities with the fire bombing campaign. For comparison, the film juxtaposes American cities of about the same size to 'bring home' the area of destruction and probable loss of life ...


Japanese City
 Percentage
of city destroyed
 American City
(for comparison)
Yokohama
 58 %
 Cleveland
Tokyo
 51 %
 New York
Toyama
 99 %
 Chattanooga
Nagoya
 40 %
 Los Angeles
Osaka
 35.1 %
 Chicago
Shimonoseki
 37.6 %
 San Diego
Kure
 41.9 %
 Toledo
Kobe
 55.7 %
 Baltimore
Omuta
 35.9 %
 Miami
Wakayama
 50 %
 Salt Lake City
Kawasaki
 36.2 %
 Portland
Okayama
 68.9 %
 Long Beach
Kagoshima
63.4 %
 Richmond


In all, 67 Japanese cities suffered 50-90% destruction during the campaign.

On March 9-10, 1945 approximately 100,000 residents of Tokyo were killed in one night
by the firestorm started by a large incendiary raid ordered by LeMay.

(This was less than one month after the infamous 2-day raid on Dresden, Germany by the RAF and the USAAF)
After the war ended, the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey meticulously analyzed the
newly acquired 'enemy' wartime economic and corporate statistics from the European and Pacific theatres ...
to determine the effectiveness of the strategic bombing campaigns in crippling Germany and Japan.


Strategic Bombing Survey graph

US Strategic Bombing Survey graph.
Each B-29 could carry about 10 tons of bombs.
The 'bomb symbols' on the graph each represent 300 tons.

Even the largest cluster of symbols here represents only about 60% ...
of the TNT-power of a single B-29 with a single atom bomb.
(assuming all the symbols represent high-explosive bombs ... not incendiaries)

Hiroshima and the Atomic Bomb


Hiroshima Peace Memorial before bombing.
The now familiar 'Hiroshima Peace Memorial' before the bombing ...
when it was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall.

The  atomic bomb's fused airburst occurred 2000 feet above the dome.
The naked steel frame of the dome, and the ruins of the reinforced concrete structure are preserved today.
Its post bombing remains are shown at the white arrow below.

Hiroshima after bombing, showing Hiroshima Peace Memorial location.

On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima's unique T-shaped Aioi Bridge was the aiming point,
which had been selected by the bombardier of the B-29 with the freshly-painted 'nose art' name 'Enola Gay'.

Bombing from an altitude of 6 miles, an easy-to-spot landmark was important to avoid error ...
on what was a symbolic, experimental, and 'necessary' mission.

The Enola Gay ... was named after the atomic bombing unit's Group Commander's mother -
he was the pilot that day ... having bumped the aircraft's usual 'atomic-trained' pilot for the critical mission.

The Group Commander wasn't pulling rank just to get 'the glory'.
There were many problems and failures with the second atomic bombing mission.
In light of this, he would have flown the third atomic bombing of Japan, himself - had it been ordered.


"Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry
can compel the proper meshing
of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense
with our peaceful methods and goals,
so that security and liberty may prosper together."

Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 1961


A lot was riding on the first atomic bombing attempt in August 1945 ...
from the perspective of the few people who had some idea of what was about to happen.

Fewer people still ... knew exactly how many billions of dollars had been sunk to rush this secret project to completion ...
because of the fear that the (by now, defeated) Germans were working on a similar weapon.

At first ... it had been a concerted international scientific effort to stop the Germans from taking over the world.

After the project had developed its own military-industrial culture and momentum ... the bomb then sort of dropped itself ... twice.
The uranium bomb worked well at Hiroshima - never needing a test. 
Then the Alamogordo-tested plutonium implosion bomb went to Nagasaki and it worked too.

In hindsight, the Strategic Bombing Survey later concluded Japan could not have continued past December 1945 even without atomic attacks.
It has often been claimed that the atomic bombing dispensed with the need for beach assaults on the Japanese homeland ...
which would have been very costly to both sides.

But ... if the atomic bomb resulted in a quicker Japanese surrender BEFORE the USSR moved into Japan from the north ...
you were killing two birds with one stone ! ... well ... so to speak.


Atomic bombs were obviously here to stay.
It would be easier to justify the sunk costs because the bombs had worked spectacularly ...
Had they not just forced the Japanese to surrender?

Some felt it might take the USSR ... TWENTY ...  years to get their own A-bombs ... i.e. 1965.

"The United Nations" (aka 'The Allies') have harnessed the awesome power of the atom ... just think of the peacetime possibilities !
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain !
... working on the American Hydrogen Bomb.



Articles from a Toronto Newspaper
August 8, 1945


Atom bomb banner headline.

This had happened on the morning of Monday, August 6 - at 0815hr Hiroshima time.
These stories appeared in the August 8 edition of this evening paper.



Atom bomb. Hiroshima headline.

As people were reading this newspaper on the evening of Wednesday, August 8 ...
 the morning of Thursday, August 9 had already dawned in Japan ...
and Nagasaki was bombed at 11hr, local time.

  Here's the 'good news' ...


Atom may give Canada California's winter.

The article read as follows ...

Cambridge England, August 8

In this quiet and ancient university town, in one of the laboratories where the atom was first split, I have heard predictions so fantastic I hesitate to set them down. I was shown a vision of a re-made Canada, with the climate of California, its topography of mountains, valleys and rivers altered better to suit men's needs, and barren lands made fruitful by the magic of atomic energy.

"Mountains may be disintegrated, glaciers removed and frigid zones warmed by their own hot water system." forecast a scientist who must remain nameless, for scientists are expected by their universities, at least by English universities, to be dull, factual men, and this one spoke with the imagination of a Jules Verne or an H.G. Wells.
MAY WIPE OUT WINTER

Much has been told of the tremendous blast of the atomic explosion, but little of the terrific heat it unleashed, heat said to equal that of the interior of the sun, heat that fused the steel tower in which the test shot was fired in New Mexico and turned surrounding sand into glass.

Some day it may be possible to turn all the energy into heat energy, but even the heat now released has tremendous possibilities. "It might conceivably eliminate the Canadian winter, I was told. "From a plant at Nipigon - at Nipigon because there can be made available the electrical energy needed to transform the atom - atomic heat might be poured into Lake Superior between October and April, raising the water to summer temperature or higher.

"This warmed water, flowing through the Great Lakes and their connecting rivers, would turn Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario into great radiators, surrounding southern Ontario with gentle warmth and giving it the climate of Florida or the French Riviera and continuing on to the sea would moderate the climate as far down as Montreal or even Quebec."

Rivers, I was told, do not have enough radiating surface materially to affect the climate, but lakes, even the size of Lake Nipigon, have a moderating influence on the surrounding land. Lakes Winnipeg and Winnipegosis might be heated enough to give parts of Manitoba the climate of southern Ontario.
MAY REMOVE ICE CAP

Another effect of heating the Great Lakes would be to make them navigable all year round.

Even more within the bounds of practicality is the removal of the Greenland ice cap with the resulting moderation of the climate of Labrador, Newfoundland and northeastern Quebec. Some years ago the possibility was considered of removing the ice cap with thermite, an explosive that generates terrific heat, and Prof. Eve of McGill university, experimented on the removal of ice from the St. Lawrence river with thermite, but found the expense would be prohibitive.

"It doesn't seem too much to believe that the ice cap can be removed completely by atomic bombing." I was told. "Thus serving the double purpose of baring Greenland and eliminated icebergs from the Atlantic. Relieved of the refrigerated winds from Greenland, Newfoundland might become warmer and more productive."

There is danger, however, in meddling with the world's climate, I was warned. Improving the climate of one section may have unfortunate results on another. Thus raising temperatures in Canada might also raise them in the United States, and while the northern states might not mind, the south may think they are plenty hot enough.
CANADA THE CENTRE

Unless political considerations direct otherwise, Canada should be the centre of the atom-smashing industry, in the opinion of Prof. Norman Feather, of the Cavendish laboratory here, the laboratory where the atom was first broken by Lord Rutherford. Dr. Feather, who worked with Lord Rutherford and was one of three scientists to carry on after Lord Rutherford's death, first succeeded in splitting the oxygen atom in 1932.

"It would seem to me that Canada is in a most favorable position." he told me with the caution habitual to the scientific man. "Canadians may be quite confident that their country will continue to have a very important part to play in the utilization of atomic energy. Canada is the principal source of uranium and has the abundant electrical energy needed."

I asked him if he though these two factors would make Canada the centre of world production of atomic energy. "You know as well as I do that political considerations often outweigh economic consideration." he replied. "So I will not be rash enough to say that Canada will lead the world despite your natural endowment with the essential raw materials. But I was in Canada not long ago and I can see Canadians making the fullest use of their opportunities."

Dr. Feather's work on splitting the atom has been 'pure science'. A scientist for science sake, he is content to make the discoveries and let others work out their practical application. Thus he admits he is not fully informed on the processes used in developing the atomic bomb.

"But I believe the full concentration has been on releasing the destructive force of the atom," he said. "and that there still has to be found some means of harnessing it and controlling it so it can be used constructively. The explosive matter is not of much use if it expends its full force in a split second. It must be utilized gradually."
MAY BE TOMORROW

His understanding is that at the present stage, the 'pure scientist' has said to the 'practical scientist: "Here is your atomic energy with all its terrifically destructive force: now find a way of doing something useful with it."

"It may be several years before the next step forward is taken," he said. "I believe it will be, but then, it may be tomorrow."

Until 1939 everything Dr. Feather and his colleagues at Cambridge did in the way of splitting the atom was public property and the results were fully published in voluminous reports, but in that year they 'went underground' working thereafter in utmost secrecy. Not a line has been published since 1939, and even now they will not give the location of their laboratory or let anyone see the apparatus. Jap[anese] spies - and perhaps even Nazis - might make desperate attempts to learn the secret.

"As one of the original atom-smashers," I remarked, "you have seen the seemingly fantastic forecasts that have been published in the past couple of days, are they exaggerated or over-imaginative?"

"I have seen no exaggeration, anything is possible," he solemnly replied.


NINE YEARS LATER ...

From a 1954 atomic industry pamphlet,
which lobbies for specific new government measures,
and specific changes to atomic legislation and regulation.
(16 pages)

Nuclear industry lobbying pamphlet.

"Except as a weapon, the atom still plays a small role in our daily lives.
But much is being done to direct $13 billion of Federal research and arms-making knowhow in useful work."

*  *  *

"Basic atomic development has been paid for by the public.
Thus, the public should be assured a maximum return on its investment -

more and cheaper power;
better health;
more and better food;
a whole new range of consumer goods and services.

The best guarantee of this is to give U.S. business a fair and unfettered crack at the atom."


NINE YEARS LATER ...

From the "Nuclear Survival Manual" (1963):
(196 pages)
DEDICATION

This effort is dedicated with love to all the children of the world.

With it goes the fervent prayer that their parents will use more wisdom in making the life or death decisions coming up in the future than they did
in getting our world
into such a predicament.



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