Message
Found this article on internet: http://idsa-india.org/an-feb9-2.html
There was no address or e-mail to write to for permission to post this, so if anyone knows the author, please contact me so I can contact him.

The Numbers indicate sources posted at the end of the article.

The United States conducted the first nuclear test series after World War II in July 1946. It was appropriately named "Operation Crossroads". Mankind was indeed at the crossroads one road leading to international control of atomic energy and the other to a frightening nuclear arms race. Operation Crossroads was the bright idea of Lewis Strauss, an aide to Secretary of Navy James Forrestal, and later Chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission. Perhaps more than any weapon in the past, the atomic bomb threatened instant obsolescence of the Navy itself. The American Navy's immediate reaction to Hiroshima had been to find out the impact of the new weapon on future naval forces. It bitterly resented the Air Force monopoly on the means of delivery of these weapons and desperately wanted a role for itself in their future use. Advocates for air power, however, challenged the view that ships could survive atomic bombing. Strauss, therefore, recommended that the American Navy should "test the ability of ships to withstand the forces generated by the atomic bomb" in order to scotch "loose talk to the effect that the fleet is obsolete in the face of this new weapon." Such talk, Strauss wrote, "would militate against appropriations to preserve a postwar Navy. "1

Faced with shrinking budgets, the American Navy and Army Air Force (the Air Force had not yet become a separate service) were jockeying for position to stake out a secure place in the nuclear sweepstakes. The Air Force was interested in testing the atomic bombing of enemy ships. Senator McMahon suggested on August 25, 1945, testing the bomb against the surviving Japanese naval vessels. General Arnold asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to arrange for a number of Japanese ships as targets for atomic weapons. The Joint Chiefs promptly instituted staff planning for the proposed "bombing" and on January 10, 1946, President Harry S. Truman approved the plan. 2 It would be Air Force General Curtis LeMay's second atomic-bombing command after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Manhattan Project wanted to test an advanced version of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in May 1946, but the test was postponed because of the impending negotiations at the United Nations. 3

The decision to conduct nuclear tests was announced in December 1945 and immediately became a subject of public debate. Many civilians, including Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace, pointed out the incongruity of the fact that the United States was proposing a plan at the United Nations for the abolition of atomic weapons while simultaneously proceeding with nuclear tests in preparation for a nuclear war. At the Cabinet meeting on March 22, 1946, there was a spirited debate about the proposed tests. Secretary of State James Byrnes and Henry Wallace worried about the international consequences of nuclear testing. Byrnes wondered why the tests were necessary in the first place and feared that the United States would be made to appear as "the atomic dictator." Truman, however, wanted the tests held; he stressed that $100 million dollars would be wasted if they were cancelled. 4

The Bikini Atoll, a semi-circular chain of some 30 land dots located in the Marshall Islands region of Micronesia, was chosen as the test site. As for the 167 local inhabitants, it was decided to relocate them else- where. Comparing these people to the children of Israel whom God had saved from their enemy and would lead to the Promised Land, American Military Governor Commodore Ben Wyatt asked: "Would you be willing to sacrifice your island for the welfare of all men?" Left with no choice, the local chief, Juda Kessibuki, whose vestments consisted of a somewhat tattered white shirt, innocently responded: "If the United States government and the scientists of the world want to use our island and atoll for furthering development, which with God's blessing will result in kindness and benefit to all mankind, my people will be pleased to go elsewhere." They left their ancestral homeland on March 7 with the promise of return after the completion of the nuclear tests. 5

Lore Kessibuki, one of the inhabitants of Bikini, composed a song, which has become their anthem to this day:

No longer can I stay; it's true. No longer can I live in peace and harmony And rest on my sleeping mat and pillow. No longer can I stay in my island; I must leave all the things there, The thought overwhelms me and leaves me helpless, My spirit has to travel, far away, lost Until it is caught in a great current. Only then can I find peace. 6

An armada of 200 ships and 150 aircraft traveled to the test site to participate in what the New York Times described as the largest and "most stupendous single set of experiments in history". New scientific instruments and special cameras were designed for the occasion. More than 10,000 instruments were placed on target and non-target ships, aircraft, and the islands around the Bikini Atoll. Some of the support vessels were transformed into floating laboratories. Carrying nearly half the world's supply of films, about 500 photographers converged on Bikini to take one million pictures in the first few seconds of the first explosion. The Air Force alone was to take 9 million pictures. These elaborate publicity arrangements contrasted with the secrecy surrounding the "Trinity" test of July 16, 1945.7 The Radiological Safety Section consisted of radiologists, physicists, doctors, and electronic experts. "Prepared for the worst, they even had psychiatrists." This was "an unparalleled opportunity to meet the Bomb at close quarters." 8

More than 42,000 military and scientific personnel gathered at the Bikini Atoll for the world's first nuclear explosions after Nagasaki. It was a massive undertaking an extravaganza more exhaustively photographed and reported than any previous event in history. About 175 reporters from around the world, US Congressmen and Senators, James Forrestal, as well as foreign observers, were present to witness the dropping of three atomic devices, code named "Able" and "Baker", and "Charlie", on a guinea-pig fleet of 95 old Japanese, German, and American ships.

There was an intensive media build-up, which depicted the proposed tests as "benign, circumscribed, and well-meaning." 9 The official history of the Los Alamos laboratory candidly reports that Operation Crossroads "was not generally popular with the scientists". One of them described it as "twenty percent science and eighty percent drama." 10 Lee A. DuBridge, President of California Institute of Technology, asked in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, "Suppose only two or three ships are sunk do we then conclude that the Navy is still supreme as our first line of defense and we need not fear atomic warfare?" Many atomic scientists were also worried about the political implications of the tests. They believed that the destruction inflicted on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would not be repeated for the simple reason that ships are designed to withstand tremendous pressure of explosions. It was feared that the destruction of only a few target ships would disappoint the public, creating a false sense of security "along the lines of 'Oh, the atomic bomb is not so terrible it's just another big bomb'."

Prominent Manhattan Project scientists steered clear of the extravaganza. James Conant, President of Harvard University, found a "certain degree of incompatibility" between the proposed tests and international control of atomic energy proposed in the Baruch Plan of the United Nations. Robert Oppenheimer did not think "naval applications are the important ones to test." He questioned "the appropriateness of a purely military test of atomic weapons at a time when our plans for effectively eliminating them from national armaments are in their earliest beginnings." The Baruch Plan was presented on the morning of June 12, 1946. A few hours later, the Senate started debate on Operation Crossroads. Senator Huffman denounced it as a dangerous "Roman holiday in the Pacific" and added that the "only important impression these tests are going to give the world is that the United States is not done with war."

The animal kingdom was also represented at Bikini. An American ship brought 5,664 animals, (200 pigs, 200 mice, 60 guinea pigs, 204 goals, and 5,000 rats); they were to be placed on 22 target ships in positions similar to those of a human crew in battle. The hair of some goats was clipped to human length for proper exposure. Some of the pigs were dressed in standard Navy anti-flash suits and smeared with anti-flash lotion. The head of the Navy's medical mission reassuringly declared, "We want radiation-sick animals, but not radiation-dead animals." It was announced that the animals would be returned to Washington, "where studies will be made until they die a natural death."

James Byrnes and his colleague Dean Acheson thought that failure to invite members of the Security Council to send observers to the tests would be considered as a signal that the United States did not want to cooperate with the UN efforts to establish international control of atomic energy. The New York Times in its editorial said, "Making the test an open one would show that we consider this new weapon a matter of world responsibility, not just our own." The Washington Post observed that failure to invite foreign observers would "fortify the world's fear that we think of the atom as our peculiar property and mean to brandish it as a weapon for our peculiar interests". It was, therefore, decided to invite two observers from each member of the UN Atomic Energy Commission Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, and the Soviet Union. They were asked to sign a waiver stating that they would not make any claims against the host country for any injury from the tests. 11

The 22 observers sailed to Bikini in a ship described by one of them as a "strange Noah's Ark to which each country had sent pairs of different species, but always of the same sex: military men, naval, ordnance, and intelligence experts; parliamentarians; academics; and scientists." 12 The Soviet Union sent two scientists, a nuclear physicist and an expert in mineral processing who was actually a KGB agent. Chung-Yao Chao, a physicist who later played an important role in China's nuclear weapons development, represented China in chaos. 13

The Navy-Air Force rivalry permeated the whole project. Syndicated columnists Joseph Aslop and Stewart Aslop charged that "the ancient demon of inter-service rivalry has reared its head" and that the tests represented "another grim struggle between the Navy and Air Force." Angry letters by the thousands poured into the White House. Veterans and active servicemen protested the proposed destruction of the target ships. Protesters marched in Washington with placards saying "Wrong Road to Peace" and "Bikini: Rehearsal for World War 3." Animal lovers in America and from abroad also lodged strong protests. Members of the Southern Dairy Goat Owners and Breeders Association declared," Good goats are scarcer than good Congressmen" who should substitute for animals. A Conservative member was loudly cheered when he asked in the British House of Commons," Why choose innocent animals when there are so many guilty men available?" Protests from dog lovers were so vociferous that they were excluded from the tests. 14

Journalists had led the general public to expect something between Doomsday and the Fourth of July celebration. In Paris, the mood was, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we atomise." 15 A respected American journalist commented: "This is a war game, the first of the atomic era war games. But in a situation in which we alone have the bomb, and are continuing to make it...It is a notice served on the world that we have the power and intend to be heeded." 16

The bomb now had a name, "Gilda", after Rita Hayworth's latest movie. Her picture in a low-cut gown was painted on the bomb's casing. Rita Hayworth's name still graces the Marshall Islands. The eastern end of Majuro Atoll is called Rita. 17 The "Able" test was surely the most extensively covered of all the world's nuclear explosions. The test was carried alive on radio. "Around the world", reported Time magazine, "ordinary men and women who would be the casualties in an atomic war, bent their heads and cupped their ears to their radio sets to catch this preview." 18 A correspondent reported that Vice Admiral Blandy, commander of the Bikini Task Force, was pacing the deck "like an expectant mother." "Of all the lousy metaphors!," exclaimed a listener in New York. "This is a death watch, not a maternity ward!" 19

The "Able" Day arrived on July 1, 1946. At 14 seconds before 9:00 a.m., a voice came over the radio, "Listen world, this is Crossroads!" Then it happened. The bomb, adorned with a picture of Rita Hayworth, exploded 518 feet above the lagoon's surface. It was an air burst over an array of old ships and had a yield of 23 kilotons. "For minutes the cloud stood solid and impressive, like some gigantic monument, over Bikini. Then finally the shearing of the winds at different altitudes began to tear it up into a weird zigzag pattern." 20 For a few seconds there was no sound at all on the radio. Representative Edouard Izac complained, "You could see very little, you could hear practically nothing and you could feel absolutely nothing." The Russian delegate to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, Professor Simon Alexandrov, shrugged his shoulders and, pointing to the mushroom cloud, muttered. "Not so much." 21 "The only visible results from the air were two ships sunk and one on its side, plus four more ships burning....Everyone had the feeling that something had gone wrong." 22

The bomb fell about two miles off target. This prompted some naval officers to suspect sabotage by the Air Force. A Harvard geologist said the explosion was "just a sneeze in a windstorm." The Economist observed: "Dressed in all the trappings of an exaggerated and somewhat frivolous publicity, the first Bikini atom bomb experiment has left rather the impression of a fireworks display which slightly misfired." 23 It was noted that "even the Bikini palm trees stood unscathed." 24 There was much pooh-poohing of the bomb and a pilot growled." Well, it looks to me like the atom bomb is just about like the Army Air Force highly overrated." 25 The "Able" shot soothed the fears of the American people as much as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings had aroused them. Time magazine reassuringly observed that "the Thing had grown a little less awful as a result of Bikini. Its apparently infinite power was finite after all." 26

The Navy was accused of having rigged the test in its favor. Forrestal described the test as "tremendous", adding, "the American Navy will continue to be the most efficient, the most modern and the most powerful in the world". While the Navy declared that only five ships sank, the Air Force pointed out that sixteen ships were completely eliminated from combat and twenty-five to thirty more were damaged. 27 Only about 10 percent of the test animals died instantly from the impact of the blast. Photographs showed one of the goats munching hay without interruption as the shock wave struck and the debris fell all around. The heroine of the test was a female rat, which gave birth to three baby rats; they were promptly named Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. By July 23, a quarter of the animals were dead, including the three baby rats. 28 Before July 1, the world stood in awe of the bomb; after the "Able" test, however, "The bomb was a terrible but a finite weapon." 29

"Baker" Day was July 25, 1946. Two days before the test, Chief Juda flew to Bikini to witness it. Unlike the air burst of the "Able" shot, "Baker" was an underwater shot to test its effects on the hulls of 87 battleships and submerged submarines. 30 It also had a yield of 23 kilotons. Two hundred white rats and twenty pigs were placed in four ships near the bomb, which was called "Helen of Bikini". The countdown, again broadcast on the radio, was described as the "Voice of Abraham". It was actually the voice of British physicist Ernest W. Titterton who had participated in the Manhattan Project and was requested by the Americans to join Operation Crossroads.

What followed was a spectacle beyond imagination. The New York Times correspondent William Laurence wrote: "For a time it looked as though a giant mountain had risen from the sea, as though we were watching the formation of a continent...and then it took the shape of a giant chain of mountains, covered with snow, glistening in the sun". Another journalist described the explosion as "so fantastic, so mighty and so beyond belief that men's emotions burst from their throats in wild shouts". The "Baker" explosion unleashed "the greatest waves ever known to humanity, greater than any natural waves with the possible exception of those produced by the 1883 explosion of the island of Krakatao." 31 According to Major General Nichols, "Niagara Falls in reverse shot up over an area fully 2,200 feet in diameter, millions of tons of water rose about 5,000 feet and finally vapor and steam came out on top. As the tons of water came tumbling back into the lagoon, what appeared like a tremendous breaking wave broke out of the mass of water and advanced towards the next circle of target ships. Momentarily I thought, 'My God we have miscalculated the height of the wave, the alarmist may be right'." It was not solid water, merely steam and spray. 32