William L. Laurence
Nov. 17th, 2004 01:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ziasudraAtom Bomb on Nagasaki
The New York Times, September 9, 1945
Setting: Nagasaki, Japan. August 9, 1945.
Event: Bombing of Nagasaki, U.S. atom bomb II
Notable Quotes:
"It is a thing of beauty to behold, this 'gadget.' Into its design went millions of man-hours of what is without doubt the most concentrated intellectual effort in history."
~ Description of a deadly weapon in terms of beauty. This passage also shows Laurence's scientific background: he had "followed the developments in nuclear physics with keen interest."
"There comes a point where space also swallows time and one lives through eternal moments filled with an oppressive loneliness, as though all life had suddenly vanished from the earth and you are the only one left, a lone survivor traveling endlessly through interplanetary space."
~ This passage strikes me as a foreshadow of what was to come at Nagasaki, and for the "lucky" few who were to survive the bombing.
"In about four hours from now one of its cities, making weapons of war for use against us, will be wiped off the map by the greatest weapon ever made by man: In one tenth of a millionth of a second, a fraction of time immeasurable by any clock, a whirlwind from the skies will pulverize thousands of its buildings and tens of thousands of its inhabitants."
~ Laurence acknowledges the death that will take place.
"None of its inhabitants will ever know that the wind of a benevolent destiny had passed over their heads. But that same wind will doom another city."
"The winds of destiny seemed to favor certain Japanese cities that must remain nameless. We circled about them again and again and found no opening in the thick umbrella of clouds that covered them. Destiny chose Nagasaki as the ultimate target."
~ Divine will and intervention (or simply, "the weather") incorporated into the final selection of where to drop Atom Bomb II.
"Does one feel any pity or compassion for the poor devils about to die? Not when one thinks of Pearl Harbor and of the Death March on Bataan."
~ Laurence's introspection. His logic exemplifies the "American thought" of his time. It is worth noting that hardly any post-WWII literature (revisionist history articles and books aside) have been focused on the Japanese internment camps in America.
"'There she goes!' someone said.
"Out of the belly of The Great Artiste what looked like a black object went downward."
~ The actual moment when soldiers dropped the bomb. The last reported time was 12:01 p.m.
"Observers in the tail of our ship saw a giant ball of fire rise as though from the bowels of the earth, belching forth enormous white smoke rings. Next they saw a giant pillar of purple fire, ten thousand feet high, shooting skyward with enormous speed."
"...the entity assumed the form of a giant square totem pole...But it was a living totem pole, carved with many grotesque masks grimacing at the earth."
"...there came shooting out of the top a giant mushroom that increased the height of the pillar to a total of forty-five thousand feet."
"...a thousand Old Faithful geysers rolled into one."
"...it changed its shape into a flowerlike form, its giant petals curving downward, creamy white outside, rose-colored inside."
~ These are all Laurence's descriptions of what he saw post-bomb. The shape of the explosion went through several stages of transformation. Most strikingly may be his comparison of the explosion to a flower.
"The boiling pillar of many colors could also be seen at that distance, a giant mountain of jumbled rainbows, in travail. Much living substance had gone into those rainbows."
~ This is Laurence's acknoledgement and tribute to people who would die as a result of the bombing.
I cannot help but be reminded of what's been happening with Iraq. The U.S. bombing over Japan had one single purpose: bomb the Japs into surrendering. It obviously worked. Fast forward 60 years. I find United States' recent military aggression in the Middle East to have a similar goal: to force surrender, using all possible means, from the very people and land it raided and destroyed. Is it going to work this time?
I know I'm oversimplifying the issue. But I just can't be supportive of U.S.'s foreign policy, which crowns itself Superior over other nations. Especially not since I'm in over my head with theories and articles and discussions and papers in my Problems & Methods of Middle Eastern Studies class '_'
Even if it works. Even if there isn't a better way... Does the ends really justify the means?
The New York Times, September 9, 1945
Setting: Nagasaki, Japan. August 9, 1945.
Event: Bombing of Nagasaki, U.S. atom bomb II
Notable Quotes:
"It is a thing of beauty to behold, this 'gadget.' Into its design went millions of man-hours of what is without doubt the most concentrated intellectual effort in history."
~ Description of a deadly weapon in terms of beauty. This passage also shows Laurence's scientific background: he had "followed the developments in nuclear physics with keen interest."
"There comes a point where space also swallows time and one lives through eternal moments filled with an oppressive loneliness, as though all life had suddenly vanished from the earth and you are the only one left, a lone survivor traveling endlessly through interplanetary space."
~ This passage strikes me as a foreshadow of what was to come at Nagasaki, and for the "lucky" few who were to survive the bombing.
"In about four hours from now one of its cities, making weapons of war for use against us, will be wiped off the map by the greatest weapon ever made by man: In one tenth of a millionth of a second, a fraction of time immeasurable by any clock, a whirlwind from the skies will pulverize thousands of its buildings and tens of thousands of its inhabitants."
~ Laurence acknowledges the death that will take place.
"None of its inhabitants will ever know that the wind of a benevolent destiny had passed over their heads. But that same wind will doom another city."
"The winds of destiny seemed to favor certain Japanese cities that must remain nameless. We circled about them again and again and found no opening in the thick umbrella of clouds that covered them. Destiny chose Nagasaki as the ultimate target."
~ Divine will and intervention (or simply, "the weather") incorporated into the final selection of where to drop Atom Bomb II.
"Does one feel any pity or compassion for the poor devils about to die? Not when one thinks of Pearl Harbor and of the Death March on Bataan."
~ Laurence's introspection. His logic exemplifies the "American thought" of his time. It is worth noting that hardly any post-WWII literature (revisionist history articles and books aside) have been focused on the Japanese internment camps in America.
"'There she goes!' someone said.
"Out of the belly of The Great Artiste what looked like a black object went downward."
~ The actual moment when soldiers dropped the bomb. The last reported time was 12:01 p.m.
"Observers in the tail of our ship saw a giant ball of fire rise as though from the bowels of the earth, belching forth enormous white smoke rings. Next they saw a giant pillar of purple fire, ten thousand feet high, shooting skyward with enormous speed."
"...the entity assumed the form of a giant square totem pole...But it was a living totem pole, carved with many grotesque masks grimacing at the earth."
"...there came shooting out of the top a giant mushroom that increased the height of the pillar to a total of forty-five thousand feet."
"...a thousand Old Faithful geysers rolled into one."
"...it changed its shape into a flowerlike form, its giant petals curving downward, creamy white outside, rose-colored inside."
~ These are all Laurence's descriptions of what he saw post-bomb. The shape of the explosion went through several stages of transformation. Most strikingly may be his comparison of the explosion to a flower.
"The boiling pillar of many colors could also be seen at that distance, a giant mountain of jumbled rainbows, in travail. Much living substance had gone into those rainbows."
~ This is Laurence's acknoledgement and tribute to people who would die as a result of the bombing.
I cannot help but be reminded of what's been happening with Iraq. The U.S. bombing over Japan had one single purpose: bomb the Japs into surrendering. It obviously worked. Fast forward 60 years. I find United States' recent military aggression in the Middle East to have a similar goal: to force surrender, using all possible means, from the very people and land it raided and destroyed. Is it going to work this time?
I know I'm oversimplifying the issue. But I just can't be supportive of U.S.'s foreign policy, which crowns itself Superior over other nations. Especially not since I'm in over my head with theories and articles and discussions and papers in my Problems & Methods of Middle Eastern Studies class '_'
Even if it works. Even if there isn't a better way... Does the ends really justify the means?
