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family history
Aug. 9th, 2015 11:40 am70 years ago, the United States dropped “Fat Boy” on Nagasaki, Japan, which, along with the Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier, either ended, or speeded the end of WW11. I have thought about this since I was 12, (when I spent my Scholastic Books money on the book *Hiroshima* and all the other kids thought that I was a nerd although we didn’t have the term *nerd* at the time.)
Anyone who has been paying attention since that world-altering event has been concerned about it, but added to that is that both my parents had a small amount of direct involvement. My mother was a “Rosie the Riveter” for the Army, only rather than riveting she repaired airplane radios from planes that had been shot down. Towards the end of the war an order came in that they were to halt all other projects and solder cables. The job was what she called “hush hush” and security was even more so during thIs job. They didn’t tell the workers at the time what it was that they were working on. The powers that be separated the various jobs and sent them to different bases all over the United States, so no one would know or could figure out just what it was that they were working on. It was later that she found out what she had been working on and she said “I felt bad that I helped kill so many people.“ A surprising separation of thought from the “anything to help the war effort” mentality that she had espoused.
Dad’s experience was direct too. He was a Marine in the Pacific Theatre, his platoon was ordered to go into Nagasaki with “bayonets fixed”. But when they got to the Island they met no resistance at all. Not surprising to us now who know what the atomic bomb did, but they didn’t know at the time.
They were in Nagasaki even before it was widely known that it was dangerous. Dad said that a Lieutenant and he jumped into a jeep and drove through the city out of curiosity before the city was closed off and people forbidden to enter because of radiation. So he and the Lieutenant drove through ground zero in an open jeep.
As with every person I’ve ever known or heard of who fought in WWII he never talked about it. I’m not sure how I knew but after I was an adult I talked a friend of mine, who was a freelance news reporter to interview Dad, which he did and published a feature article in the local paper. Dad talked a little more to the reporter and talked a little about how everything was flattened, complete devastation and how the world couldn‘t suffer another atomic bomb.
He never got sick from the full-face of radiation he must have experienced, which is curious, but lucky for me.
Anyone who has been paying attention since that world-altering event has been concerned about it, but added to that is that both my parents had a small amount of direct involvement. My mother was a “Rosie the Riveter” for the Army, only rather than riveting she repaired airplane radios from planes that had been shot down. Towards the end of the war an order came in that they were to halt all other projects and solder cables. The job was what she called “hush hush” and security was even more so during thIs job. They didn’t tell the workers at the time what it was that they were working on. The powers that be separated the various jobs and sent them to different bases all over the United States, so no one would know or could figure out just what it was that they were working on. It was later that she found out what she had been working on and she said “I felt bad that I helped kill so many people.“ A surprising separation of thought from the “anything to help the war effort” mentality that she had espoused.
Dad’s experience was direct too. He was a Marine in the Pacific Theatre, his platoon was ordered to go into Nagasaki with “bayonets fixed”. But when they got to the Island they met no resistance at all. Not surprising to us now who know what the atomic bomb did, but they didn’t know at the time.
They were in Nagasaki even before it was widely known that it was dangerous. Dad said that a Lieutenant and he jumped into a jeep and drove through the city out of curiosity before the city was closed off and people forbidden to enter because of radiation. So he and the Lieutenant drove through ground zero in an open jeep.
As with every person I’ve ever known or heard of who fought in WWII he never talked about it. I’m not sure how I knew but after I was an adult I talked a friend of mine, who was a freelance news reporter to interview Dad, which he did and published a feature article in the local paper. Dad talked a little more to the reporter and talked a little about how everything was flattened, complete devastation and how the world couldn‘t suffer another atomic bomb.
He never got sick from the full-face of radiation he must have experienced, which is curious, but lucky for me.
