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Reading Across the Curriculum in an Urban Secondary School: A Staff Development Model and Literacy Strategies

IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas

Welcome to the Social Studies/English Portion of…

Reading Across the Curriculum in an Urban Secondary School: A Staff Development Model and Literacy StrategiesIRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas

Michael SmithSocial Studies

Curie Metro High SchoolChicago, Illinois

[email protected]

Sara SpachmanEnglish

Curie Metro High SchoolChicago, Illinois

[email protected]

All materials in this portion of your packet are also available at:

http://s.spachman.tripod.com/home.htm

http://s.spachman.tripod.com/home.htm

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]




The Atomic Bomb & Hiroshima: Anticipation GuideRead the statements below. Decide if you agree or disagree; circle your opinion. For statement #4, please complete the statement as you see fit. For ALL: Write a few sentences explaining why that is your opinion.

1. In a time of war, you must act in the interest of your nation’s troops before considering the lives of enemy civilians.

Agree Disagree

2. In the face of an unrelenting enemy and significant loss of life, it is appropriate to use any means necessary to end a conflict.

Agree Disagree

3. In a time of war, surrendering is a dishonor to those who have sacrificed so much for their nation.

Agree Disagree

4. In a time of war, responsibility for a morally questionable military act ultimately falls on ___________________________________ (e.g., soldier who carries out the act; military official who gives the directive; civilian official—like the President—who oversees the directive; an expert on the matter—like a scientist who worked on a new weapon—who supported the decision; etc.)

5. Any nation with substantial technological, economic, and political power has a duty to the global community to lead by example.

Agree Disagree




The Atomic Bomb & Hiroshima: Reader Response Log

Text I’m reading: __________________________________________________________

Snippet from Text Response Symbol

My comments about this piece of text

Possible Responses:Important Info I Don’t Get It

-Write down the most critical facts -Keep track of words and phrases that you don’t understand

Personal Response ? I Have a Question -Comment on the text: make a connection, -What would you like to know write a reaction more about?



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas[Japanese Leaders]

PREMIER SUZUKI'S SPEECH BEFORE THE JAPANESE IMPERIAL DIET June 9, 1945

New York Times

Having heard the gracious words of His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor, following the opening of the Diet, I am filled with trepidation and inspiration. It is my sincerest wish to be able to serve as an administrator in complete response to His Majesty's wishes.

I was filled with trepidation when the Imperial Palace and the Omiya detached palace were set afire by enemy bombings the other day. Fortunately, their imperial majesties were not harmed and I am thankful that His Majesty has been able to conduct all state affairs in his office in the Imperial Palace.

Today our empire is facing the most critical situation in the history of our nation. The war situation gradually is becoming more acute, despite the efforts made by the whole nation, and we have witnessed the advance of the enemy on Okinawa.

However, through the courageous and brilliant fighting of our land and sea forces, together with the efforts of our Government and people, we have inflicted enormous losses on the enemy on Okinawa. The unswerving loyalty and heroism and the undying exploits of our men will long remain in the pages of history. I want to pay deep respect to their noble deeds.

There are factors in the situation on Okinawa today that arouse anxiety and we have reached a stage where wee can expect the advance of the enemy, at some time, to other areas of our mainland. The time has arrived when all our 100,000,000 people must look at the situation objectively and meet it with manifest determination.

From the very beginning the Greater East Asia war has clearly been a holy war. This has clearly been stated in the imperial rescript. The tyrannical attitude adopted by the United States and Britain at that time, as well as their evil designs, jeopardized the existence and safety of our empire.

Our empire had no choice but to take her stand and fight in order to assure her own existence and defense and to maintain the fruits of her many years of effort to stabilize conditions in East Asia.

I have served His Imperial Majesty over a period of many years and I am deeply impressed with this honor. As bold as it may seem, I firmly believe there is no one in the entire world, who is more deeply concerned with world peace and the welfare of mankind than His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor.

The brutal and inhuman acts of both America and England are aimed to make it impossible for us to follow our national policy as proclaimed by the Emperor Meiji, who said: "Our fundamental policy is based on justice and righteousness in the past as well as at the present, and that is true and infallible both at home and abroad."

This means that Japan is fighting a war to uphold the principle of human justice and we must fight to the last.




PREMIER SUZUKI'S SPEECH continued

In this present war, various participating nations have cleverly declared their reasons for becoming involved in the conflict, but in the final analysis the war was brought about by jealousy, which is the lowest of human emotions.

I hear that the enemy is boasting of his demand for unconditional surrender of Japan. Unconditional surrender means that our national structure and our people will be destroyed. Against such boastful talk there is only one measure we must take, to fight to the last.

I am thankful that Manchukuo, China and other nations of Greater East Asia are standing firm by their treaties with our empire and that they are contributing a great deal to the holy war.

In the final analysis, the current war is a war for the liberation of East Asia and should it miscarry the freedom of the peoples of Greater East Asia will be lost forever. Not only that, but world justice will be trampled underfoot.

The fundamental policy of our empire for world order is the establishment of laws guaranteeing security based on the principle of non-aggression and non-menace in order to insure the co-existence and co-prosperity of every nation and every people under a general principle of political equality, economic reciprocity and respect for the traditional culture of each nation.

From this standpoint, our empire awaits the unification of China, which will be the salvation of that nation, and desires the furthering of friendly relations with neutral countries.

Should our mainland become a battleground, we will have all the advantages of geography and the solidarity of our people. In other words, we can easily concentrate a large number of forces as well as keep them supplied, which will be greatly different from the situation we faced at the outset of the war. We certainly will be able to repulse the enemy and crush his fighting spirit.

In this critical war situation, there will be a shortage of food and difficulties in transportation. Furthermore, difficulties in the manufacture of munitions will increase. But if the whole people will march forward with death-defying determination, devoting their entire efforts to their own duties and to refreshing their fighting spirit, I believe that we will be able to overcome all difficulties and accomplish our war aims.

Judging from the trends within enemy countries and considering the developments in the international situation, I cannot help feel strongly that the only way for us is to fight to the last. With this conviction I undertook the organization of the new Cabinet under the command of His Imperial Majesty.

It is truly a critical time. I wish to be able to fulfill my desire to serve His Majesty with the support of the whole people. These are the reasons that this - extraordinary session of the Diet was called, where new bills will be submitted for deliberation.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450609c.html




IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas [Japanese Leaders]

EMPEROR HIROHITO'S BROADCAST TO THE JAPANESE PEOPLE ON SURRENDER August 14, 1945New York Times

TO OUR GOOD AND LOYAL SUBJECTS:

After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in our empire today, we have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.

We have ordered our Government to communicate to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, China and the Soviet Union that our empire accepts the provisions of their joint declaration.

To strive for the common prosperity and happiness of all nations as well as the security and well-being of our subjects is the solemn obligation which has been handed down by our imperial ancestors and which we lay close to the heart.

Indeed, we declared war on America and Britain out of our sincere desire to insure Japan's self-preservation and the stabilization of East Asia, it being far from our thought either to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.

But now the war has lasted for nearly four years. Despite the best that has been done by everyone-the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of our servants of the State and the devoted service of our 100,000,000 people-the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest.

Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.

Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects, or to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors? This is the reason why we have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the joint declaration of the powers.

We cannot but express the deepest sense of regret to our allied nations of East Asia, who have consistently cooperated with the Empire toward the emancipation of East Asia.

The thought of those officers and men as well as others who have fallen in the fields of battle, those who died at their posts of duty, or those who met with death [otherwise] and all their bereaved families, pains our heart night and day.




EMPEROR HIROHITO'S BROADCAST continued

The welfare of the wounded and the war sufferers and of those who have lost their home and livelihood is the object of our profound solicitude. The hardships and sufferings to which our nation is to be subjected hereafter will be certainly great.

We are keenly aware of the inmost feelings of all of you, our subjects. However, it is according to the dictates of time and fate that we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the [unavoidable] and suffering what is unsufferable. Having been able to save * * * and maintain the structure of the Imperial State, we are always with you, our good and loyal subjects, relying upon your sincerity and integrity.

Beware most strictly of any outbursts of emotion that may engender needless complications, of any fraternal contention and strife that may create confusion, lead you astray and cause you to lose the confidence of the world.

Let the entire nation continue as one family from generation to generation, ever firm in its faith of the imperishableness of its divine land, and mindful of its heavy burden of responsibilities, and the long road before it. Unite your total strength to be devoted to the construction for the future. Cultivate the ways of rectitude, nobility of spirit, and work with resolution so that you may enhance the innate glory of the Imperial State and keep pace with the progress of the world.





IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas[Scientists]

A PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATESSource: U.S. National Archives, Record Group 77, Records of the Chief of Engineers, Manhattan Engineer District, Harrison-Bundy File, folder #76.

On July 17, 1945, Leo Szilard and 69 co-signers at the Manhattan Project "Metallurgical Laboratory" in Chicago petitioned the President of the United States.

July 17, 1945

A PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Discoveries of which the people of the United States are not aware may affect the welfare of this nation in the near future. The liberation of atomic power which has been achieved places atomic bombs in the hands of the Army. It places in your hands, as Commander-in-Chief, the fateful decision whether or not to sanction the use of such bombs in the present phase of the war against Japan.

We, the undersigned scientists, have been working in the field of atomic power. Until recently, we have had to fear that the United States might be attacked by atomic bombs during this war and that her only defense might lie in a counterattack by the same means. Today, with the defeat of Germany, this danger is averted and we feel impelled to say what follows:

The war has to be brought speedily to a successful conclusion and attacks by atomic bombs may very well be an effective method of warfare. We feel, however, that such attacks on Japan could not be justified, at least not unless the terms which will be imposed after the war on Japan were made public in detail and Japan were given an opportunity to surrender.

If such public announcement gave assurance to the Japanese that they could look forward to a life devoted to peaceful pursuits in their homeland and if Japan still refused to surrender our nation might then, in certain circumstances, find itself forced to resort to the use of atomic bombs. Such a step, however, ought not to be made at any time without seriously considering the moral responsibilities which are involved.

The development of atomic power will provide the nations with new means of destruction. The atomic bombs at our disposal represent only the first step in this direction, and there is almost no limit to the destructive power which will become available in the course of their future development. Thus a nation which sets the precedent of using these newly liberated forces of nature for purposes of destruction may have to bear the responsibility of opening the door to an era of devastation on an unimaginable scale.

If after this war a situation is allowed to develop in the world which permits rival powers to be in uncontrolled possession of these new means of destruction, the cities of the United States as well as the cities of other nations will be in continuous danger of sudden annihilation. All the resources of the United States, moral and material, may have to be mobilized to prevent the advent of such a world situation. Its prevention is at present the solemn responsibility of the United States -- singled out by virtue of her lead in the field of atomic power.

The added material strength which this lead gives to the United States brings with it the obligation of restraint and if we were to violate this obligation our moral position would be




Szilard PETITION continued

weakened in the eyes of the world and in our own eyes. It would then be more difficult for us to live up to our responsibility of bringing the unloosened forces of destruction under control.

In view of the foregoing, we, the undersigned, respectfully petition: first, that you exercise your power as Commander-in-Chief, to rule that the United States shall not resort to the use of atomic bombs in this war unless the terms which will be imposed upon Japan have been made public in detail and Japan knowing these terms has refused to surrender; second, that in such an event the question whether or not to use atomic bombs be decided by you in light of the considerations presented in this petition as well as all the other moral responsibilities which are involved.

Signers listed in alphabetical order, with positions added:1. DAVID S. ANTHONY, Associate Chemist2. LARNED B. ASPREY, Junior Chemist, S.E.D.3. WALTER BARTKY, Assistant Director4. AUSTIN M. BRUES, Director, Biology Division5. MARY BURKE, Research Assistant6. ALBERT CAHN, JR., Junior Physicist7. GEORGE R. CARLSON, Research Assistant-Physics8. KENNETH STEWART COLE, Principal Bio-Physicist9. ETHALINE HARTGE CORTELYOU, Jr. Chemist10. JOHN CRAWFORD, Physicist11. MARY M. DAILEY, Research Assistant12. MIRIAM P. FINKEL, Associate Biologist13. FRANK G. FOOTE, Metallurgist14. HORACE OWEN FRANCE, Associate Biologist15. MARK S. FRED, Research Associate-Chemistry16. SHERMAN FRIED, Chemist17. FRANCIS LEE FRIEDMAN, Physicist18. MELVIN S. FRIEDMAN, Associate Chemist19. MILDRED C. GINSBERG, Computer20. NORMAN GOLDSTEIN, Junior Physicist21. SHEFFIELD GORDON, Associate Chemist22. WALTER J. GRUNDHAUSER, Research Assistant23. CHARLES W. HAGEN, Research Assistant24. DAVID B. HALL, position not identified25. DAVID L. HILL, Associate Physicist, Argonne26. JOHN PERRY HOWE, JR., Associate Division Director, Chemistry27. EARL K. HYDE, Associate Chemist28. JASPER B. JEFFRIES, Junior Physicist, Jr. Chemist29. WILLIAM KARUSH, Associate Physicist30. TRUMAN P. KOHMAN, Chemist-Research31. HERBERT E. KUBITSCHEK, Junior Physicist32. ALEXANDER LANGSDORF, JR., Research Associate33. RALPH E. LAPP, Assistant to Division Director34. LAWRENCE B. MAGNUSSON, Junior Chemist35. ROBERT JOSEPH MAURER, Physicist

36. NORMAN FREDERICK MODINE, Research Asst.37. GEORGE S. MONK, Physicist38. ROBERT JAMES MOON, Physicist39. MARIETTA CATHERINE MOORE, Technician40. ROBERT SANDERSON MULLIKEN, Coordinator of Information41. J. J. NICKSON, [Medical Doctor, Biology Division]42. WILLIAM PENROD NORRIS, Associate Biochemist43. PAUL RADELL O'CONNOR, Junior Chemist44. LEO ARTHUR OHLINGER, Senior Engineer45. ALFRED PFANSTIEHL, Junior Physicist46. ROBERT LEROY PLATZMAN, Chemist47. C. LADD PROSSER, Biologist48. ROBERT LAMBURN PURBRICK, Junior Physicist49. WILFRED RALL, Research Assistant-Physics50. MARGARET H. RAND, Research Asst., Health Section51. WILLIAM RUBINSON, Chemist52. B. ROSWELL RUSSELL, position not identified53. GEORGE ALAN SACHER, Associate Biologist54. FRANCIS R. SHONKA, Physicist54. ERIC L. SIMMONS, Associate Biologist, Health Group56. JOHN A. SIMPSON, JR., Physicist57. ELLIS P. STEINBERG, Junior Chemist58. D. C. STEWART, S/SGT S.E.D.59. GEORGE SVIHLA, position not identified [Health Group]60. MARGUERITE N. SWIFT, Associate Physiologist, Health Group61. LEO SZILARD, Chief Physicist62. RALPH E. TELFORD, position not identified63. JOSEPH D. TERESI, Associate Chemist64. ALBERT WATTENBERG, Physicist65. KATHERINE WAY, Research Assistant66. EDGAR FRANCIS WESTRUM, JR., Chemist67. EUGENE PAUL WIGNER, Physicist68. ERNEST J. WILKINS, JR., Associate Physicist69. HOYLANDE YOUNG, Senior Chemist70. WILLIAM F. H. ZACHARIASEN, Consultant

http://www.dannen.com/decision/45-07-17.html

http://www.dannen.com/decision/45-07-17.html



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas[Scientists]

excerpts fromThe Franck Report, June 11, 1945

Report of the Committee on Political and Social ProblemsManhattan Project "Metallurgical Laboratory"

University of Chicago, June 11, 1945(The Franck Report)

Members of the Committee:James Franck (Chairman)

Donald J. HughesJ. J. Nickson

Eugene Rabinowitch

Glenn T. SeaborgJ. C. StearnsLeo Szilard

Source: U.S. National Archives, Washington D.C.: Record Group 77, Manhattan Engineer District Records, Harrison-Bundy File, folder #76.

Copyright Notice: The original of this document is believed to be in the public domain. Its transcription and formatting as an e-text, however, is copyright 1995-1998 by Gene Dannen ([email protected]). The URL of this page is: http://www.dannen.com/decision/franck.html

excerpt from the “Preamble”

Scientists have often before been accused of providing new weapons for the mutual destruction of nations, instead of improving their well-being. It is undoubtedly true that the discovery of flying, for example, has so far brought much more misery than enjoyment or profit to humanity. However, in the past, scientists could disclaim direct responsibility for the use to which mankind had put their disinterested discoveries. We cannot take the same attitude now because the success which we have achieved in the development of nuclear power is fraught with infinitely greater dangers than were all the inventions of the past. All of us, familiar with the present state of nucleonics, live with the vision before our eyes of sudden destruction visited on our own country, of Pearl Harbor disaster, repeated in thousandfold magnification, in every one of our major cities.

excerpt from the “Summary”

The development of nuclear power not only constitutes an important addition to the technological and military power of the United States, but also creates grave political and economic problems for the future of this country.

Nuclear bombs cannot possibly remain a "secret weapon" at the exclusive disposal of this country, for more than a few years. The scientific facts on which their construction is based are well known to scientists of other countries. Unless an effective international control of nuclear explosives is instituted, a race of nuclear armaments is certain to ensue following the first revelation of our possession of nuclear weapons to the world. Within ten years other countries may have nuclear bombs, each of which, weighing less than a ton, could destroy an urban area of more than five square miles. In the

http://www.dannen.com/decision/franck.html




The Franck Report continued

war to which such an armaments race is likely to lead, the United States, with its agglomeration of population and industry in comparatively few metropolitan districts, will be at a disadvantage compared to the nations whose population and industry are scattered over large areas.

We believe that these considerations make the use of nuclear bombs for an early, unannounced attack against Japan inadvisable. If the United States would be the first to release this new means of indiscriminate destruction upon mankind, she would sacrifice public support throughout the world, precipitate the race of armaments, and prejudice the possibility of reaching an international agreement on the future control of such weapons.

Much more favorable conditions for the eventual achievement of such an agreement could be created if nuclear bombs were first revealed to the world by a demonstration in an appropriately selected uninhabited area.

If chances for the establishment of an effective international control of nuclear weapons will have to be considered slight at the present time, then not only the use of these weapons against Japan, but even their early demonstration may be contrary to the interests of this country. A postponement of such a demonstration will have in this case the advantage of delaying the beginning of the nuclear armaments race as long as possible. If, during the time gained, ample support could be made available for further development of the field in this country, the postponement would substantially increase the lead which we have established during the present war, and our position in an armament race or in any later attempt at international agreement will thus be strengthened.

On the other hand, if no adequate public support for the development of nucleonics will be available without a demonstration, the postponement of the latter may be deemed inadvisable, because enough information might leak out to cause other nations to start the armament race, in which we will then be at a disadvantage. At the same time, the distrust of other nations may be aroused by a confirmed development under cover of secrecy, making it more difficult eventually to reach an agreement with them.

If the government should decide in favor of an early demonstration of nuclear weapons it will then have the possibility to take into account the public opinion of this country and of the other nations before deciding whether these weapons should be used in the war against Japan. In this way, other nations may assume a share of the responsibility for such a fateful decision.

To sum up, we urge that the use of nuclear bombs in this war be considered as a problem of long-range national policy rather than military expediency, and that this policy be directed primarily to the achievement of an agreement permitting an effective international control of the means of nuclear warfare.




[Scientists]excerpts from

Jurassic Parkby Michael Crichton

IAN MALCOLM, a genius mathematician:

Science has attained so much power that its practical limits begin to be apparent. Largely, through science, billions of us live in one small world, densely packed and intercommunicating. But science cannot help us decide what to do with that world, or how to live. Science can make a nuclear reactor, but it cannot tell us not to build it. Science can make pesticide, but cannot tell us not to use it. And our world starts to seem polluted in fundamental ways—air, water, and land—because of ungovernable science. This much is obvious to everyone…

We are witnessing the end of the scientific era. Science, like other outmoded systems, is destroying itself. As it gains power, it proves itself incapable of handling the power. Because things are going very fast now. Fifty years ago, everyone was gaga over the atomic bomb. That was power. No one could imagine anything more. Yet, a bare decade after the bomb, we began to have genetic power. And it will be in everyone’s hands. It will be in kits for backyard gardeners. Experiments for school children. Cheap labs for terrorists and dictators. And that will force everyone to ask the same question—What should I do with my power?—which is the very question science says it cannot answer.

Crichton, Michael. Jurassic Park. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.

excerpt from

Einstein: The Life and Timesby Ronald Clark

“As far as his own life was concerned, one thing seemed quite clear. ‘I made one great mistake in my life,’ he said to Linus Pauling, who spent an hour with him on the morning of November 11, 1954, ‘…when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification—the danger that the Germans would make them” (620).

[excerpt, as it appears above, quoted on: http://www.doug-long.com ]

http://www.doug-long.com/




[U.S. Military Personnel]excerpts from

Report on the Trinity Test by General Groves - 1945

18 July 1945MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF WAR from LESLIE R. GROVES, Major General, USA.

SUBJECT: The Test.

1. This is not a concise, formal military report but an attempt to recite what I would have told you if you had been here on my return from New Mexico.

2. At 0530, 16 July 1945, in a remote section of the Alamogordo Air Base, New Mexico, the first full scale test was made of the implosion type atomic fission bomb. For the first time in history there was a nuclear explosion. And what an explosion! [Three lines deleted.] The bomb was not dropped from an airplane but was exploded on a platform on top of a 100-foot high steel tower.…

4. A crater from which all vegetation had vanished, with a diameter of 1200 feet and a slight slope toward the center, was formed. In the center was a shallow bowl 130 feet in diameter and 6 feet in depth. The material within the crater was deeply pulverised dirt. The material within the outer circle is greenish and can be distinctly seen from as much as 5 miles away. The steel from the tower was evaporated. 1500 feet away there was a four-inch iron pipe 16 feet high set in concrete and strongly guyed. It disappeared completely.

5. One-half mile from the explosion there was a massive steel test cylinder weighing 220 tons. The base of the cylinder was solidly encased in concrete. Surrounding the cylinder was a strong steel tower 70 feet high, firmly anchored to concrete foundations. This tower is comparable to a steel building bay that would be found in typical 15 or 20 story skyscraper or in warehouse construction. Forty tons of steel were used to fabricate the tower which was 70 feet high, the height of a six story building. The cross bracing was much stronger than that normally used in ordinary steel construction. The absence of the solid walls of a building gave the blast a much less effective surface to push against. The blast tore the tower from its foundations, twisted it, ripped it apart and left it flat on the ground. The effects on the tower indicate that, at that distance, unshielded permanent steel and masonry buildings would have been destroyed. I no longer consider the Pentagon a safe shelter from such a bomb. Enclosed are a sketch showing the tower before the explosion and a telephotograph showing what it looked like afterwards. None of us had expected it to be damaged.…

11. Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell was at the control shelter located 10,000 yards south of the point of explosion. His impressions are given below:

"The scene inside the shelter was dramatic beyond words. In and around the shelter were some twenty-odd people concerned with last minute arrangements prior to firing the shot. Included were: Dr. Oppenheimer, the Director who had borne the great scientific burden of developing the weapon from the raw materials made in Tennessee and Washington and a dozen of his key assistants--Dr. Kistiakowsky, who developed the highly special explosives; Dr. Bainbridge, who supervised all the detailed




Trinity Test Report by Groves continued

arrangements for the test; Dr. Hubbard, the weather expert, and several others. Besides these, there were a handful of soldiers, two or three Army officers and one Naval officer. The shelter was cluttered with a great variety of instruments and radios.

"For some hectic two hours preceding the blast, General Groves stayed with the Director, walking with him and steadying his tense excitement. Every time the Director would be about to explode because of some untoward happening, General Groves would take him off and walk with him in the rain, counselling with him and reassuring him that everything would be all right. At twenty minutes before zero hour, General Groves left for his station at the base camp, first because it provided a better observation point, and second, because of our rule that he and I must not be together in situations where there is an element of danger, which existed at both points.

"Just after General Groves left, announcements began to be broadcast of the interval remaining before the blast. They were sent by radio to the other groups participating in and observing the test. As the time interval grew smaller and changed from minutes to seconds, the tension increased by leaps and bounds. Everyone in that room knew the awful potentialities of the thing that they thought was about to happen. The scientists felt that their figuring must be right and that the bomb had to go off but there was in everyone's mind a strong measure of doubt. The feeling of many could be expressed by "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." We were reaching into the unknown and we did not know what might come of it. It can be safely said that most of those present--Christian, Jew and Athiest--were praying and praying harder than they had ever prayed before. If the shot were successful, it was a justification of the several years of intensive effort of tens of thousands of people--statesmen, scientists, engineers, manufacturers, soldiers, and many others in every walk of life.

"In that brief instant in the remote New Mexico desert the tremendous effort of the brains and brawn of all these people came suddenly and startlingly to the fullest fruition. Dr. Oppenheimer, on whom had rested a very heavy burden, grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off. He scarcely breathed. He held on to a post to steady himself. For the last few seconds, he stared directly ahead and then when the announcer shouted "Now!" and there came this tremendous burst of light followed shortly thereafter by the deep growling roar of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of tremendous relief. Several of the observers standing back of the shelter to watch the lighting effects were knocked flat by the blast.

"The tension in the room let up and all started congratulating each other. Everyone sensed "This is it!" No matter what might happen now all knew that the impossible scientific job had been done. Atomic fission would no longer be hidden in the cloisters of the theoretical physicists' dreams. It was almost full grown at birth. It was a great new force to be used for good or for evil. There was a feeling in that shelter that those concerned with its nativity should dedicate their lives to the mission that it would always be used for good and never for evil.

"Dr. Kistiakowsky, the impulsive Russian, threw his arms around Dr. Oppenheimer and embraced him with shouts of glee. Others were equally enthusiastic. All the pent-up emotions were released in those few minutes and all seemed to sense immediately that the explosion had far exceeded the most optimistic expectations and wildest hopes of the scientists. All seemed to feel that they had been present at the birth of a new age--The Age of Atomic Energy--and felt their profound responsibility to help in guiding into right channels the tremendous forces which had been unlocked for the first time in history.

"As to the present war, there was a feeling that no matter what else might happen, we now had the means to insure its speedy conclusion and save thousands of American lives. As to the future, there had been brought into being something big and something new that would prove to be immeasurably more




Trinity Test Report by Groves continued

important than the discovery of electricity or any of the other great discoveries which have so affected our existence.

"The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before. The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray, and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be imagined. It was that beauty the great poets dream about but describe most poorly and inadequately. Thirty seconds after the explosion came first, the air blast pressing hard against the people and things, to be followed almost immediately by the strong, sustained, awesome roar which warned of doomsday and made us feel that we puny things were blasphemous to dare tamper with the forces heretofore reserved to The Almighty. Words are inadequate tools for the job of acquainting those not present with the physical, mental and psychological effects. It had to be witnessed to be realised."

12. My impressions of the night’s high-points follow:

After about an hours sleep I got up at 0100 and from that time on until about five I was with Dr. Oppenheimer constantly. Naturally he was nervous, although his mind was working at its usual extraordinary efficiency. I devoted my entire attention to shielding him from the excited and generally faulty advice of his assistants who were more than disturbed by their excitement and the uncertain weather conditions. By 0330 we decided that we could probably fire at 0530. By 0400 the rain had stopped but the sky was heavily overcast. Our decision became firmer as time went on. During most of these hours the two of us journeyed from the control house out into the darkness to look at the stars and to assure each other that the one or two visible stars were becoming brighter. At 0510 I left Dr. Oppenheimer and returned to the main observation point which was 17,000 yards from the point of explosion. In accordance with our orders I found all personnel not otherwise occupied massed on a bit of high ground.

At about two minutes of the scheduled firing time all persons lay face down with their feet pointing towards the explosion. As the remaining time was called from the loud speaker from the 10,000 yard control station there was complete silence. Dr. Conant said he had never imagined seconds could be so long. Most of the individuals in accordance with orders shielded their eyes in one way or another. There was then this burst of light of a brilliance beyond any comparison. We all rolled over and looked through dark glasses at the ball of fire. About forty seconds later came the shock wave followed by the sound, neither of which seemed startling after our complete astonishment at the extraordinary lighting intensity. Dr. Conant reached over and we shook hands in mutual congratulations. Dr. Bush, who was on the other side of me, did likewise. The feeling of the entire assembly was similar to that described by General Farrell, with even the uninitiated feeling profound awe. Drs. Conant and Bush and myself were struck by an even stronger feeling that the faith of those who had been responsible for the initiation and the carrying on of this Herculean project had been justified. I personally thought of Blondin crossing Niagara Falls on his tight rope, only to me this tight rope had lasted for almost three years and of my repeated confident-appearing assurances that such a thing was possible and that we would do it.

http://nuclearfiles.org/redocuments/1945/450718-groves-trinity.html

http://nuclearfiles.org/redocuments/1945/450718-groves-trinity.html



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas[U.S. Military Personnel]

Tibbets focused excerpts from

“One hell of a big bang”Tuesday August 6, 2002The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]

Today is Hiroshima Day, the anniversary of the first use of a bomb so powerful that it would come to threaten the existence of the human race. Only two such devices have ever been used, but now, a decade after the end of the cold war, the world faces new dangers of nuclear attack - from India, Pakistan, Iraq, al-Qaida, and even the US. Launching a special investigation into nuclear weapons, Paul Tibbets, the man who piloted the Enola Gay on its mission to Japan, tells Studs Terkel why he has no regrets - and why he wouldn't hesitate to use it again ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Paul Tibbets: One day [in September 1944] I'm running a test on a B-29, I land, a man meets me. He says he just got a call from General Uzal Ent [commander of the second air force] at Colorado Springs, he wants me in his office the next morning at nine o'clock... Norman said: "OK, we've got what we call the Manhattan Project. What we're doing is trying to develop an atomic bomb. We've gotten to the point now where we can't go much further till we have airplanes to work with."

[When I got to General Ent’s office ] he gave me an explanation which probably lasted 45, 50 minutes, and they left. General Ent looked at me and said, "The other day, General Arnold [commander general of the army air corps] offered me three names." Both of the others were full colonels; I was lieutenant-colonel. He said that when General Arnold asked which of them could do this atomic weapons deal, he replied without hesitation, "Paul Tibbets is the man to do it." I said, "Well, thank you, sir." Then he laid out what was going on and it was up to me now to put together an organisation and train them to drop atomic weapons on both Europe and the Pacific - Tokyo.

Studs Terkel: Interesting that they would have dropped it on Europe as well. We didn't know that.

Paul Tibbets: My edict was as clear as could be. Drop simultaneously in Europe and the Pacific because of the secrecy problem - you couldn't drop it in one part of the world without dropping it in the other. And so he said, "I don't know what to tell you, but I know you happen to have B-29s to start with. I've got a squadron in training in Nebraska… I want you to go visit them, look at them, talk to them, do whatever you want. If they don't suit you, we'll get you some more." He said: "There's nobody could tell you what you have to do because nobody knows. If we can do anything to help you, ask me." I said thank you very much. He said, "Paul, be careful how you treat this responsibility, because if you're successful you'll probably be called a hero. And if you're unsuccessful, you might wind up in prison." …

Studs Terkel: Did Oppenheimer tell you about the destructive nature of the bomb?

Paul Tibbets: No.

Studs Terkel: How did you know about that?

Paul Tibbets: From Dr Ramsey. He said the only thing we can tell you about it is, it's going to explode with the force of 20,000 tons of TNT. I'd never seen 1lb of TNT blow up. I'd never heard of

http://www.guardian.co.uk/




anybody who'd seen 100lbs of TNT blow up. All I felt was that this was gonna be one hell of a big bang.

Studs Terkel: Twenty thousand tons - that's equivalent to how many planes full of bombs?

Paul Tibbets: Well, I think the two bombs that we used [at Hiroshima and Nagasaki] had more power than all the bombs the air force had used during the war on Europe.

Studs Terkel: So Ramsey told you about the possibilities.

Paul Tibbets: Even though it was still theory, whatever those guys told me, that's what happened. So I was ready to say I wanted to go to war, but I wanted to ask Oppenheimer how to get away from the bomb after we dropped it. I told him that when we had dropped bombs in Europe and North Africa, we'd flown straight ahead after dropping them - which is also the trajectory of the bomb. But what should we do this time? He said, "You can't fly straight ahead because you'd be right over the top when it blows up and nobody would ever know you were there." He said I had to turn tangent to the expanding shockwave. I said, "Well, I've had some trigonometry, some physics. What is tangency in this case?" He said it was 159 degrees in either direction. "Turn 159 degrees as fast as you can and you'll be able to put yourself the greatest distance from where the bomb exploded." …

Paul Tibbets: [When I flew over Hiroshima to drop the bomb, I got] to that point where I say "one second" and by the time I'd got that second out of my mouth the airplane had lurched, because 10,000lbs had come out of the front. I'm in this turn now, tight as I can get it, that helps me hold my altitude and helps me hold my airspeed and everything else all the way round. When I level out, the nose is a little bit high and as I look up there the whole sky is lit up in the prettiest blues and pinks I've ever seen in my life. It was just great. …

Studs Terkel: Do you ever have any second thoughts about the bomb?

Paul Tibbets: Second thoughts? No. Studs, look. Number one, I got into the air corps to defend the United States to the best of my ability. That's what I believe in and that's what I work for. Number two, I'd had so much experience with airplanes... I'd had jobs where there was no particular direction about how you do it and then of course I put this thing together with my own thoughts on how it should be because when I got the directive I was to be self-supporting at all times.

On the way to the target I was thinking: I can't think of any mistakes I've made. Maybe I did make a mistake: maybe I was too damned assured. At 29 years of age I was so shot in the ass with confidence I didn't think there was anything I couldn't do. Of course, that applied to airplanes and people. So, no, I had no problem with it. I knew we did the right thing because when I knew we'd be doing that I thought, yes, we're going to kill a lot of people, but by God we're going to save a lot of lives. We won't have to invade [Japan].

Studs Terkel: Why did they drop the second one, the Bockscar [bomb] on Nagasaki?




Paul Tibbets: Unknown to anybody else - I knew it, but nobody else knew - there was a third one. See, the first bomb went off and they didn't hear anything out of the Japanese for two or three days.

The second bomb was dropped and again they were silent for another couple of days. Then I got a phone call from General Curtis LeMay [chief of staff of the strategic air forces in the Pacific]. He said, "You got another one of those damn things?" I said, "Yessir." He said, "Where is it?" I said, "Over in Utah." He said, "Get it out here. You and your crew are going to fly it." I said, "Yessir." I sent word back and the crew loaded it on an airplane and we headed back to bring it right on out to Trinian and when they got it to California debarkation point, the war was over. …

Studs Terkel: One big question. Since September 11, what are your thoughts? People talk about nukes, the hydrogen bomb.

Paul Tibbets: Let's put it this way. I don't know any more about these terrorists than you do, I know nothing. When they bombed the Trade Centre I couldn't believe what was going on. We've fought many enemies at different times. But we knew who they were and where they were. These people, we don't know who they are or where they are. That's the point that bothers me. Because they're gonna strike again, I'll put money on it. And it's going to be damned dramatic. But they're gonna do it in their own sweet time. We've got to get into a position where we can kill the bastards. None of this business of taking them to court, the hell with that. I wouldn't waste five seconds on them.

Studs Terkel: What about the bomb? Einstein said the world has changed since the atom was split.

Paul Tibbets: That's right. It has changed.

Studs Terkel: And Oppenheimer knew that.

Paul Tibbets: Oppenheimer is dead. He did something for the world and people don't understand. And it is a free world.

Studs Terkel: One last thing, when you hear people say, "Let's nuke 'em," "Let's nuke these people," what do you think?

Paul Tibbets: Oh, I wouldn't hesitate if I had the choice. I'd wipe 'em out. You're gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we've never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn't kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: "You've killed so many civilians." That's their tough luck for being there.



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas[Truman]

excerpts from

“WHY I DROPPED THE BOMB”by Harry S. Truman

I was the President who made the decision to unleash that terrible power, of course, and it was a difficult and dreadful decision to have to make. Some people have the mistaken impression that I made it on my own and in haste and almost on impulse, but I did nothing like that at all.

If I live to be 100 years old, I’ll never forget the day that I was first told about the atomic bomb. It was about 7:30 p.m. on the evening of April 12, 1945, just hours after Franklin Roosevelt [the President at that time] had died at 3:35 p.m., and no more than half an hour after I was sworn in as President at 7:09 p.m. Henry L. Stimson, who was Roosevelt’s Secretary of War and then mine, took me aside and reminded me that Roosevelt had authorized the development of a sort of super-bomb and that that bomb was almost ready. I was still stunned by Roosevelt’s death and by the fact that I was now President, and I didn’t think much more about it at the time. But then, on April 25, Stimson asked for a meeting in my office, at which he was joined by Major General Leslie Groves, who was in charge of the operation which was developing the bomb, the Manhattan Project. At the meeting, Stimson handed me a memorandum which said: “Within four months we shall in all probability have completed the most terrible weapon ever known in human history, one bomb which could destroy a whole city.”

Stimson said gravely that he didn’t know whether we could or should use the bomb because he was afraid that it was so powerful that it could end up destroying the whole world. I felt the same fear as he and Groves continued to talk about it, and when I read Groves’ 24-page report. The report said the first bomb would probably be ready by July and have the strength of about 500 tons of TNT, and, even more frighteningly, that a second bomb would probably be ready by August and have the strength of as much as 1200 tons of TNT. We weren’t aware then that that was just the tip of the iceberg. That second bomb turned out to have the power of 20,000 tons of TNT, and the hydrogen bomb which eventually followed it had the explosive power of 20 million tons of TNT.

Stimson’s memo suggested the formation of a committee to assist me in deciding whether to use the bomb on Japan, and I agreed completely. The committee was called the Interim Committee…

Then, on May 8, my 61st birthday, the Germans surrendered, and I had to remind our country that the war was only half over, that we still had to face the war with Japan. The winning of that war, we all knew, might even be more difficult to accomplish, because the Japanese were self-proclaimed fanatic warriors who made it all too clear that they preferred death to defeat in battle. Just a month before, after our soldiers and Marines landed on Okinawa, the Japanese lost 100,000 men out of the 120,000 in their garrison, and yet, though they were defeated without any questions, thousands more fell on their grenades and died rather than surrender.

Nevertheless, I pleaded with the Japanese in my speech announcing Germany’s surrender, begging them to surrender too, but I was not too surprised when they refused. On June 18, I met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss what I hoped would be our final push against the Japanese. We still hadn’t decided whether to use the atomic bomb, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggested that we plan an attack on Kyushu, the Japanese island on their extreme west, around the beginning of November, and follow up with an attack on the more important island of Honshu.




“Why I Dropped the Bomb” continued

But the statistics that the generals gave me were as frightening as the news of the big bomb. The Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated that the Japanese still had 5000 attack planes, 17 garrisons on the island of Kyushu alone, and a total of more than 2 million men on all of the islands of Japan. General Marshall estimated that, since the Japanese would fight more fiercely than ever on their own homeland, we would probably lose 250,000 men and possibly as many as 500,000 in taking the two islands. I could not bear this thought, and it led to the decision to use the atomic bomb.

We talked first about blockading Japan and trying to blast them into surrender with conventional weaponry; but Marshall and others made it clear that this would never work, pointing out that the Germans hadn’t surrendered until we got troops into Germany itself. Another general pointed out that Germany’s munitions industries were more spread apart and harder to hit than Japan’s. When we finally talked about the atomic bomb, on July 21, and came to the awful conclusion that it would probably be the only way the Japanese might be made to surrender quickly, we talked first about hitting some isolated, low-population area where there would not be too many casualties but the Japanese could see the power of the new weapon. Reluctantly, we decided against that as well, feeling it wouldn’t be enough to convince the fanatical Japanese. We finally selected four possible target areas, all heavy military-manufacturing areas: Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki, and Niigata.

I know the world will never forget that the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and the second on Nagasaki on Aug. 9. One more plea for surrender had been made to the Japanese on July 29 and rejected immediately. Then I gave the final order, saying I had no qualms “if millions of lives could be saved.” I meant both American and Japanese lives.

The Japanese surrendered five days after the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, and a number of major Japanese military men and diplomats later confided publicly that there would have been no quick surrender without it. For this reason, I made what I believed to be the only possible decision.

In a speech I made at a major university in 1965, I said:“It was a question of saving hundreds of thousands of American lives… You don’t feel normal when you have to plan hundreds of thousands of…deaths of American boys who are alive and joking and having fun while you’re doing your planning. You break your heart and your head trying to figure out a way to save one life… The name given to our invasion plan was Olympic, but I saw nothing godly about the killing of all the people that would be necessary to make that invasion. The casualty estimates called for 750,000 American casualties—250,000 killed, 500,000 maimed for life… I couldn’t worry about what history would say about my personal morality. I made the only decision I ever knew how to make. I did what I thought was right.”

I still think that.

Truman, Harry S. “Why I Dropped the Bomb.” Parade Magazine, December 4, 1988, pp. 15-17.

[Truman]



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, TexasTruman focused excerpt from

“One hell of a big bang”Tuesday August 6, 2002The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]

Today is Hiroshima Day, the anniversary of the first use of a bomb so powerful that it would come to threaten the existence of the human race. Only two such devices have ever been used, but now, a decade after the end of the cold war, the world faces new dangers of nuclear attack - from India, Pakistan, Iraq, al-Qaida, and even the US. Launching a special investigation into nuclear weapons, Paul Tibbets, the man who piloted the Enola Gay on its mission to Japan, tells Studs Terkel why he has no regrets - and why he wouldn't hesitate to use it again ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Studs Terkel: You came back [from the war], and you visited President Truman.

Paul Tibbets: We're talking 1948 now. I'm back in the Pentagon and I get notice from the chief of staff, Carl Spaatz, the first chief of staff of the air force. When we got to General Spaatz's office, General Doolittle was there, and a colonel named Dave Shillen. Spaatz said, "Gentlemen, I just got word from the president he wants us to go over to his office immediately." On the way over, Doolittle and Spaatz were doing some talking; I wasn't saying very much. When we got out of the car we were escorted right quick to the Oval Office. There was a black man there who always took care of Truman's needs and he said, "General Spaatz, will you please be facing the desk?" And now, facing the desk, Spaatz is on the right, Doolittle and Shillen. Of course, militarily speaking, that's the correct order: because Spaatz is senior, Doolittle has to sit to his left.

Then I was taken by this man and put in the chair that was right beside the president's desk, beside his left hand. Anyway, we got a cup of coffee and we got most of it consumed when Truman walked in and everybody stood on their feet. He said, "Sit down, please," and he had a big smile on his face and he said, "General Spaatz, I want to congratulate you on being first chief of the air force," because it was no longer the air corps. Spaatz said, "Thank you, sir, it's a great honour and I appreciate it." And he said to Doolittle: "That was a magnificent thing you pulled flying off of that carrier," and Doolittle said, "All in a day's work, Mr President." And he looked at Dave Shillen and said, "Colonel Shillen, I want to congratulate you on having the foresight to recognise the potential in aerial refuelling. We're gonna need it bad some day." And he said thank you very much.

Then he looked at me for 10 seconds and he didn't say anything. And when he finally did, he said, "What do you think?" I said, "Mr President, I think I did what I was told." He slapped his hand on the table and said: "You're damn right you did, and I'm the guy who sent you. If anybody gives you a hard time about it, refer them to me."

[Truman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/




Harry S. Truman, Diary, July 25, 1945

President Truman told his diary on July 25, 1945, that he had ordered the bomb used.

Emphasis has been added to highlight Truman's apparent belief that he had ordered the bomb dropped on a "purely military" target, so that "military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children."

We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark.

Anyway we "think" we have found the way to cause a disintegration of the atom. An experiment in the New Mexico desert was startling - to put it mildly. Thirteen pounds of the explosive caused the complete disintegration of a steel tower 60 feet high, created a crater 6 feet deep and 1,200 feet in diameter, knocked over a steel tower 1/2 mile away and knocked men down 10,000 yards away. The explosion was visible for more than 200 miles and audible for 40 miles and more.

This weapon is to be used against Japan between now and August 10th. I have told the Sec. of War, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new.

He and I are in accord. The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender and save lives. I'm sure they will not do that, but we will have given them the chance. It is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler's crowd or Stalin's did not discover this atomic bomb. It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful...

Truman quoted in Robert H. Ferrell, Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman (New York: Harper and Row, 1980) pp. 55-56. Truman's writings are in the public domain.

URL: http://www.dannen.com/decision/hst-jl25.html Gene Dannen / [email protected]

[Hibakusha/Survivors]

http://www.dannen.com/home.html

http://www.dannen.com/decision/hst-jl25.html




Testimony of Isao Kitahttp://www.inicom.com/hibakusha/isao.html

Next is Mr. Isao Kita. He was 33 years old when the bomb fell. He was working for the Hiroshima District Weather Bureau 3.7 km from the hypocenter. He was the chief weather man and his shift fell on August 5 to 6. He kept observing the weather even after he was exposed.

MR. KITA: Well, at that time, I happened to be receiving the transmission over the wireless. I was in the receiving room and I was facing northward. I noticed the flashing light. It was not really a big flash. But still it drew my attention. In a few seconds, the heat wave arrived. After I noticed the flash, white clouds spread over the blue sky. It was amazing. It was as if blue morning-glories had suddenly bloomed up in the sky. It was funny, I thought. Then came the heat wave. It was very very hot. Even though there was a window glass in front of me, I felt really hot. It was as if I was looking directly into a kitchen oven. I couldn't bear the heat for a long time. Then I heard the cracking sound. I don't know what made that sound, but probably it came from the air which suddenly expanded in the room. By that time, I realized that the bomb had been dropped. As I had been instructed, I pushed aside the chair and lay with my face on the floor. Also as I had been instructed during the frequent emergency exercises, I covered my eyes and ears with hands like this. And I started to count. You may feel that I was rather heartless just to start counting. But for us, who observed the weather, it is a duty to record the process of time, of various phenomena. So I started counting with the light flash. When I counted to 5 seconds, I heard the groaning sound. At the same time, the window glass was blown off and the building shook from the bomb blast. So the blast reached that place about 5 seconds after the explosion. We later measured the distance between the hypocenter and our place. And with these two figures, we calculated that the speed of the blast was about 700 meters per second. The speed of sound is about 330 meters per second, which means that the speed of the blast was about twice as fast as the speed of sound. It didn't move as fast as the speed of light but it moved quite rapidly. There is a path which leads by here over there. And on that day, a large number of injured persons walked this way along the path toward the Omi Hospital. They were bleeding all over and some of them had no clothes. Many of them were carrying people on their shoulders. Looking at the injured, I realized how seriously the town had been damaged. The fire was [at] its peak at around that time. It thundered 10 times between 10 and 11 o'clock. The sound of thunder itself was not so great but still I could see the lightning over the fire. When I looked down on the town from the top of that hill, I could see that the city was completely lost. The city turned into a yellow sand. It turned yellow, the color of the yellow desert.

INTERVIEWER: Was this before the fire broke out?

MR. KITA: Yes. The town looked yellowish. The smoke was so thick that it covered the entire town. After about 5 minutes, fire broke out here and there. The fire gradually grew bigger and there were smoke everywhere and so we could no longer see towards the town. The cloud of the smoke was very tall, but it didn't come in this direction at all. The cloud moved in that direction from the ocean towards Hiroshima Station. It moved towards the north. The smoke from the fire, it was like a screen dividing the city into two parts. The sun was shining brightly just like it was a middle of the summer over here on this side. And behind the cloud on the other side, it was

http://www.inicom.com/hibakusha/isao.html



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, TexasTestimony of Isao Kita continued

completely dark. The contrast was very much. So about 60 or 70 % of the sky was covered by the cloud and the other 30 % was completely clear. It was a bright clear blue sky. The condition had remained like this for some time. From Koi, looking towards Hiroshima Station, you could see the black rain falling. But from here, I couldn't judge how much rain was falling. But based on the information I heard later, it seems that the rain fell quite heavy over a period of several hours. It was a black and sticky rain. It stuck everything. When it fell on trees and leaves, it stayed and turned everything black. When it fell on people's clothing, the clothing turned black. It also stuck on people's hands and feet. And it couldn't be washed off. I couldn't be washed off. I couldn't see what was taking place inside the burning area. But I was able to see the extent of the area which was on fire. Based on the information which came later, it seems that the center of the town suffered the worst damage. The atomic bomb does not discriminate. Of course, those who were fighting may have to suffer. But the atomic bomb kills everyone from little babies to old people. And it's not an easy death. It's a very cruel and very painful way to die. I think that this cannot be allowed to happen again anywhere in the world. I don't say this just because I'm a Japanese atomic bomb survivor. I feel that people all over the world must speak out.



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas[Hibakusha/Survivors]

excerpts from

Hiroshimaby John Hersey

from Chapter 1: “A Noiseless Flash”At nearly midnight, the night before the bomb was dropped, an announcer on the city’s radio station said that about two hundred B-29s were approaching southern Honshu and advised the population of Hiroshima to evacuate to their designated “safe areas.” Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, the tailor’s widow, who lived in the section called Nobori-cho and who had long had a habit of doing as she was told, got her three children—a ten year-old boy, Toshio, an eight-year-old girl, Yaeko, and a five-year-old girl, Myeko—out of bed and dressed them and walked with them to the military area known as the East Parade Ground, on the northeast edge of the city. There she unrolled some mats and the children lay down on them. They slept until about two, when they were awakened by the roar of the planes going over Hiroshima.

As soon as the planes had passed, Mrs. Nakamura started back with her children. They reached home a little after two-thirty and she immediately turned on the radio, which, to her distress, was just then broadcasting a fresh warning. When she looked at the children and saw how tired they were, and when she thought of the number of trips they had made in past weeks, all to no purpose, to the East Parade Ground, she decided that in spite of the instructions on the radio, she simply could not face starting out all over again. She put the children in their bedrolls on the floor, lay down herself at three o’clock, and fell asleep at once, so soundly that when planes passed over later, she did not waken to their sound.

The siren jarred her awake at about seven. She arose, dressed quickly, and hurried to the house of Mr. Nakamoto, the head of her Neighborhood Association, and asked him what she should do. He said that she should remain at home unless and urgent warning—a series of intermittent blasts of the siren—was sounded. She returned home, lit the stove in the kitchen, set some rice to cook, and sat down to read that morning’s Hiroshima Chugoku. To her relief, the all-clear sounded at eight o’clock. She heard the children stirring, so she went and gave each of them a handful of peanuts and told them to stay on their bedrolls, because they were tired from the night’s walk. She had hoped they would go back to sleep, but the man in the house directly to the south began to make a terrible hullabaloo of hammering, wedging, ripping, and splitting. The prefectural government, convinced, as everyone in Hiroshima was, that the city would be attached soon, had begun to press with threats and warnings for the completion of wide fire lanes, which, it was hoped, might act in conjunction with the rivers to localize any fires started by an incendiary raid; and the neighbor was reluctantly sacrificing his home to the city’s safety. Just the day before, the prefecture had ordered all able-bodied girls from the secondary schools to spend a few days helping to clear these lanes, and they started work soon after the all-clear sounded.

Mrs. Nakamura went back to the kitchen, looked at the rice, and began watching the man next door. At first, she was annoyed with him for making so much noise, but then she was specifically directed toward her neighbor, tearing down his home, board by board, at a time when there was so much unavoidable destruction, but undoubtedly she also felt a generalized, community pity, to say nothing of self-pity. She had not had an easy time. Her husband, Isawa, had gone into the Army just after Myeko was born, and she had heard nothing from or of him for a long time, until, on March 5, 1942, she received a seven-word telegram: “Isawa died an honorable death at Singapore.” She learned later that he had died on February 15th, the day Singapore fell, and that he had been a corporal. Isawa had been a not particularly prosperous tailor, and his only capital was a Sankoku sewing machine. After his death, when his allotments stopped



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texascoming, Mrs. Nakamura got out the machine and began to take in piece work herself, and since then had supported the children, but poorly, by sewing.

As Mrs. Nakamura stood watching her neighbor, everything flashed whiter than any white she had ever seen. She did not notice what happened to the man next door; the reflex of a mother set her in motion toward her children. She had taken a single step (the house was 1,350 yards, or three-quarters of a mile, from the center of the explosion) when something picked her up and she seemed to fly into the next room over the raised sleeping platform, pursued by parts of her house.

Timbers fell around her as she landed, and a shower of tiles pommelled her; everything became dark, for she was buried. The debris did not cover her deeply. She rose up and freed herself. She heard a child cry, “Mother, help me!,” and saw her youngest—Myeko, the five-year-old—buried up to her breast and unable to move. As Mrs. Nakamura started frantically to claw her way toward the baby, she could see or hear nothing of her other children.

from Chapter 5: “The Aftermath”In referring to those who went through the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing, the Japanese tended to shy away from the term “survivors,” because in its focus on being alive it might suggest some slight to the sacred dead. The class of people to which [Mrs. Nakamura, or Nakamura-san,] belonged came, therefore, to be called by a more neutral name, “hibakusha”—literally, “explosion-affected persons.” For more than a decade after the bombing, the hibakusha lived in an economic limbo, apparently because the Japanese government did not want to find itself saddled with anything like moral responsibility for heinous acts of the victorious United States. Although it soon became clear that many hibakusha suffered consequences of their exposure to the bombs which were quite different in nature and degree from those of survivors even of the ghastly fire bombings in Tokyo and elsewhere, the government made no special provision for their relief—until, ironically, after the storm of rage that swept across Japan when the twenty-three crewmen of a fishing vessel, the Lucky Dragon No. 5, and its cargo of tuna were irradiated by the American test of a hydrogen bomb at Bikini in 1954. It took three years even then for a relief all for the hibakusha to pass the Diet.

Though Nakamura-san could not know it, she thus had a bleak period ahead of her. In Hiroshima, the early postwar years were, besides, a time, especially painful for poor people like her, of disorder, hunger, greed, thievery, black markets. Non-hibakusha employers developed a prejudice against the survivors as word got around that they were prone to all sorts of ailments, and that even those, like Nakamura-san, who were not cruelly maimed and had not developed any serious overt symptoms were unreliable workers, since most of them seemed to suffer, as she did, from the mysterious but real malaise that come to be known as one kind of lasting A-bomb sickness: a nagging weakness and weariness, dizziness now and then, digestive troubles, all aggravated by a feeling of oppression, a sense of doom, for it was said that unspeakable diseases might at any time plant nasty flowers in the bodies of their victims, and even in those of their descendants.

As Nakamura-san struggled to get from day to day, she had no time for attitudinizing about the bomb or anything else. She was sustained, curiously, by a kind of passivity, summed up in a phrase she herself sometimes used—“Shikata ga-nai,” meaning, loosely, “It can’t be helped.” …[T]he hell she had witnessed and the terrible aftermath unfolding around her reached so far beyond human understanding that it was impossible to think of them as the work of resentable human beings, such as the pilot of the Enola Gay, or President Truman, or the scientists who had made the bomb—or even, nearer at hand, the Japanese militarists who had helped to bring on the war. The bombing almost seemed a natural disaster—one that it had simply been her bad luck, her fate (which must be accepted), to suffer.




Hersey, John. Hiroshima. New York: Vintage Books, 1989, pp. 6-9, 92-93.

The Atomic Bomb & Hiroshima: Post-Reading POV Letter

In early 2007, tensions escalate significantly between the United States and a hostile nation. Diplomatic ties are severed between the countries, and the U.S. imposes economic sanctions that keep U.S. products and aid from the citizens of the hostile nation. In May of 2007, this nation, known for harboring terrorists and condoning acts of terror against the United States and her allies, is reported to have working biological weapons poised for use. At this point, the President lobbies for the United Nations to have inspectors visit the hostile nation to assess the weapons first-hand. The President also asks the U.N. to pass a resolution demanding that the hostile nation turn over any biological weapons or other weapons of mass-destruction discovered. The U.N. agrees, but the hostile nation refuses to allow the inspectors into the country and adamantly refuses to turn over any weapons their experts have developed. In a public address to his people, the openly defiant leader of this nation said, “We have every intention of fighting the insidious imperialism of the United States until its people are brought to their knees!” By mid-July, all intelligence reports indicate that this hostile nation is plotting to use the weapons against the U.S.

On August 2, 2007, a patrolling U.S. aircraft carrier headed toward the coast of Australia is attacked by terrorists with a biological weapon. The weapon kills 50% of the service people on board within 36 hours; many of the survivors are left in critical condition and several of the rescue workers are also infected. In total, 2763 people die out of the over 3500 people affected. The terrorists, who killed themselves in using the weapon, are identified as citizens of the hostile nation. The terrorist act has triggered wide-spread celebration and popular support from the citizens of the hostile country. Intelligence reports suggest that most of the remaining weapons are being distributed to urban centers throughout the enemy country so that further terrorist plans can be realized; both military and non-military personnel are involved in enacting these plans.

From your group’s point of view, write a letter to the President of the United States and give your recommendation as to the course of action he should take next.

Options include: order the military to invade the enemy nation retaliate with weapons of equal destruction (mass-destruction) by targeting military bases of the

enemy retaliate with weapons of equal destruction (mass-destruction) by targeting major cities of the enemy impose a blockade that does not allow any goods to leave or enter the country, no matter with which

country the enemy nation is looking to trade use covert operations in subversive strikes in an attempt to breakdown the leadership of the enemy

and recover the remaining weapons demand turn-over of the remaining weapons under threat of changing U.S. policy in order to sanction

CIA assassinations of leaders in foreign power confiscate the financial assets of any organization including national governments that support the

enemy in order to deny funding to the terrorists and to destabilize enemy-friendly governments



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas other: ______________________________________________________________

Taking these activities into the classroom…

The particular activities on the bombing of Hiroshima can be used in the English classroom, the Social Studies classroom, or a team-taught English-Social Studies classroom. Possible objectives and a sample sequence of activities (including time frames) appears below; suggestions of where these activities might lead are also given.

Objectives: Students will understand an important historical event from multiple perspectives. Students will explore, understand, and apply key concepts such as responsibility in war

(national and individual), sacrifice, and ethics/morality.Median objectives—

1. Students will activate and apply prior knowledge.2. Students will actively read a variety of texts (non-fiction—primary and secondary

sources, fiction, poetry) and comprehend the key ideas and perspectives of those texts.3. Students will synthesize what they read into a cohesive, justifiable understanding of one

perspective on an important historical event. This will include understanding the key concepts from that perspective.

4. Students will share their new knowledge with their peers in a debate-like discussion; in turn, students will learn about additional perspectives.

5. Students will apply their synthesized knowledge to a modern-day scenario.6. Students will write a properly formatted letter that expresses their synthesized opinion on

the modern-day scenario. (Students may be instructed about the writing process, structuring an argument, tone, diction, and rhetoric here.)

7. Students will reflect on their initial opinions and understanding of the historical event and key concepts in comparison to what they have learned.

Sequence of Activities:1. Pre-reading: Anticipation Guide (2-3 classes of 45-50 minutes)

This is a good item to give to students for homework the night before; I use anticipation guides as a “ticket to my class” (entrance slip) the next day. (—S. Spachman)

In class, organize students into a discussion format that you find comfortable. I have found that asking students to move to one side of the room or the other (one side is designated as “agree;” the other as “disagree”) is a good way to wake them up and to get a better understanding of the opinions already present in the classroom. As we discuss, I tell students that if their opinion changes, they should change sides; I prompt students to develop more and more compelling arguments to convince others so that they can “win” the argument by persuading students to move to their side. (—S. Spachman)

2. During Reading: Small Group Differentiated Reading and Reader Response Logs (1-2 classes of 45-50 minutes)



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, TexasDepending on the needs and abilities of your students, obviously some of this work can be done outside of class. What really needs to be done IN class, though, is sharing of

what the students read, particularly their logs. This is important as a reading comprehension check on the ideas students are culling from the documents; it also allows for small groups of students to begin synthesizing their assigned perspective (scientists, U.S. government officials, Japanese government officials, survivors, etc.).

3. Post-Reading, part 1: “Hot Seat” Discussion/Revisiting the Anticipation Guide* (1-2 classes of 45-50 minutes) A true “hot seat” discussion involves putting one student from each perspective up in front of the class as the “experts.” Other students can be asked to have questions ready for these experts, but for this activity, the main focus of discussion will be the anticipation guide statements again. This time, however, students will be responding to the statements from their assigned perspectives. Ideally, students should be given 30 minutes or more of class time to meet with their small group and determine a consensus on each of the anticipation guide statements. Then one elected “expert” can be put on the “hot seat” for their group. I would probably structure the discussion in a way so that other members of each small group could rotate into the hot seat. (—S. Spachman)

*Activities 3 and 4 could be switched around depending on what your classes need. Putting the “hot seat” discussion first will, theoretically, help students synthesize more before tackling the writing.

4. Post-Reading, part 2: “Hot Seat” Discussion/Revisiting the Anticipation Guide (2+ classes of 45-50 minutes) Again, the needs and abilities of your students (and your own curricular requirements) come heavily into play here. Writing instruction may be needed for this activity which would clearly require a longer commitment of class time.

Overall, it is recommended that students have at least one day to work again in their small groups to discuss the scenario and ask questions about it, and then decided what people from their assigned perspective would have to say about it. Creating an outline of at least the group’s thesis and reasons for it is a good idea here. Then students may be prepared to write a first draft.

Where do I go from here?Suggestions for the English classroom: If you’re approaching this topic from a period angle, then moving into reading all of Black

Rain by Masuji Ibuse or the non-fiction Hiroshima by John Hersey might happen next. If you’re approaching this topic from a thematic angle, then using Tim O’Brien’s The Things

They Carried or a novel touching on similar issues might be a place to go.Suggestion for the Social Studies classroom:In U.S. History, these activities would fit well in a thematic unit on the definition of a “just war.” In such a unit, the class could come up with their own criteria by which they judge the



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texasjustification for going to war, and the ethical limits of war time. Focus on the atomic bomb could be followed by allegations of war crimes in Viet Nam or Abu Ghraib in Iraq.



IRA Convention 2005, San Antonio, Texas[Hibakusha/Survivors]

“The Garden Shukkei-en”by Carolyn Forché

By way of a vanished bridge we cross this riveras a cloud of lifted snow would ascend a mountain.

She has always been afraid to come here.

It is the river she mostremembers, the livingand the dead both crying for help.

A world that allowed neither tears nor lamentation.

The matsu trees brush her hair as she passesbeneath them, as do the shining strands of barbed wire.

Where this lake is, there was a lake,where these black pine grow, there grew black pine.

Where there is no teahouse I see a wooden teahouseand the corpses of those who slept in it.

On the opposite bank of the Ota, a weeping willowetches its memory of their faces into the water.

Where light touches the face, the character for heart is written.

She strokes a burnt trunk wrapped in straw:I was weak and my skin hung from my fingertips like cloth

Do you think for a moment we were human beings to them?

She comes to the stone angel holding paper cranes.Not an angel, but a woman where she once had been,

who walks through the garden Shukkei-encalling the carp to the surface by clapping her hands.

Do Americans think of us?

So she began as we squatted over the toilets:If you want, I’ll tell you, but nothing I say will be enough.

We tried to dress our burns with vegetable oil.

Her hair is the white froth of rice rising up kettlesides, her mind also.In the postwar years she thought deeply about how to live.

The common greeting dozo-yiroshku is please take care of me.All hibakusha1 still alive were children then.

A cemetery seen from the air is a child’s city.

I don’t like this particular red flower becauseit reminds me of a woman’s brain crushed under a roof.

Perhaps my language is too precise, and therefore difficult to understand?

We have not, all these years, felt what you call happiness.But at times, with good fortune, we experience something close.As our life resembles life, and this garden the garden.And in the silence surrounding what happened to us

it is the bell to awaken God that we’ve heard ringing.

1 hibakusha: explosion-affected person; a survivor of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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