America's Story (part 19) - Trinity and "The Long Peace"

Wikipedia/Trinity

70 years ago .... July 16, 1945

It was a lifetime ago, 70 years. It was then the world's first atom bomb exploded. It was a test in the desert of New Mexico, near the end of World War II. And the silent film below shows what happened :

(reference:  https://youtu.be/7dfK9G7UDok )

Ground Zero ... Trinity

A few years ago, I visited the Trinity site and stood at Ground Zero. I wrote about it here: The Trinity Site: Where the first atomic bomb was exploded

Less than a month after this atomic test, Japan was bombed with this new weapon: Hiroshima on August 6th, and Nagasaki on August 9th. And Japan's Emperor Hirohito unconditionally surrendered on August 14/15, citing this "new and most cruel bomb." This date became known as V-J Day (Victory over Japan) and was followed by the formal surrender was on the US battleship Missouri off the coast of Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, officially ending World War II.  [reference: Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - World War II - HISTORY.com ]

The Casualties:

Some calculate the causalities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as much as 200,000. And of course, there was more after the literal fallout.  [reference: Total Casualties | The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | Historical Documents | atomicarchive.com ]

What history overlooks is the B-29 firebombings of Japan the previous months of March - August 1945) under command of General Curtis LeMay. Those bombing killed far more combatants and civilians than the two atomic bombs.  [reference: Curtis LeMay | World War II Database ] Yet, because of the shock of this "new and most cruel bomb" those deaths seemed eclipsed.

Yet, the bombing ended the war, most likely the most terrible war in recorded human history. Some put the total deaths of World War II over 70 million, with virtually no part of the planet untouched by this global conflict. [reference: World War 2 statistics ]

The Enormity of that War:

The one nation that really took a hit was the former Soviet Union at 25 million deaths, followed by China at 15 million, and Germany at 8 million.

The video shows the perspective of World War II death counts. It compares to other wars and ongoing conflicts since World War II:

(reference: https://youtu.be/cWUaDMuMATM )

Also, here is a reference the interactive of this presentation:  https://vimeo.com/128373915

The Long Peace?

Since then, in the United States we had conflicts and wars:  Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I and II, as well as the Cold War and other conflicts throughout the world.  All these are tragic, especially to those who lost loved ones. But the video shows these were minor in comparison to World War Two.  Same case can be made for the other countries of the world.

Professor John Gaddis referred to this period of lack of major conflict among the world's great powers as "The Long Peace." [reference: An assessment of Gaddis’ suggestion that MAD secured a ‘long peace’ ]

The Long Peace is debated, but it asks the question: Are we living in a modern Pax Romana?

Perhaps.

Giving Peace a Chance

Peace is hard to quantify as it has a qualitative meaning as well as lack of immense global conflict. But during the 1960s and 1970s this theme of peace was echoed in the Baby Boomer generation. There was no World War III, at least on the scale of World War II, but it seemed we all seemed to live under a specter of an imminent nuclear holocaust during the Cold War.

John Lennon's music, Give Peace a Chance (1969), reflects some of this angst:

(reference: https://youtu.be/rhyiqGIJQus )

Anyone who watches the news - if it bleeds, it leads - sees we still are fighting each other. But the scale is nothing like it was over 70 years ago.

May the Long Peace continue as we Give Peace a Chance ...


------------------------
------------------------

Other posts in this series:

America's Story (part 1) - The Speech that redefined us, November 19, 1863 (2011)

America's Story (part 2) - Savages! (2011)

America's Story (part 3) - Over There - 1917, 1941 (2011)

America's Story (part 4) - Christmas 1944, when we said NUTS to the enemy (2011)

America's Story (part 5) - Amazing Grace (2012)

America's Story (part 6) - GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen (2012)

America's Story (part 7) - When Reagan was shot (2012)

America's Story (part 8) - Memorial Day, Gettysburg, and Amos Humiston (2012)

America's Story (part 9) - A Tale of Two Revolutions (2012)

America's Story (part 10) - Sergeant York (2012)

America's Story (part 11) - Sacajawea  (2012)

America's Story (part 12) - Death and Taxes (2013)

America's Story (part 13) - The Enola Gay (2013)

America's Story (part 14) - I Was a Male War Bride - the real story (2014)
     

America's Story (part 15) - World War 2: memories of North Africa (2014)

America's Story (part 16) - Our First 9/11  (2014)
  

America's Story (part 17) - The Last of the Doolittle Raiders (2015)
   

America's Story (part 18) - VE Day - 70 years ago (2015)

------------------------
------------------------

Photo from: Wikipedia/Trinity

America's Story (part 13) - The Enola Gay

Wikipedia/Co Tibbets - the Enola Gay

What's in a name?

Ships so often are named after women.  And even airships ... we call them airplanes. ;)  And the Enola Gay was one of them.

This Boeing B-29 bomber was named after her commander's mother - Enola Gay Haggard Tibbets.   The commander's name back then in 1945 was  Colonel Paul Tibbets.   And the mission of this bomber hastened the end of the most deadly war in the 20th century, if not in human history  - World War Two.  

(For an interesting set of statistics of causalities of war by death toll:  - Wikipedia - List of wars by death toll.  World War Two tops the list.)

Worst of all previous recorded wars ...

World War Two (1939 - 1945) was very intense.  Its precursor was Kristallnacht: The November 1938 Pogroms.   But the Blitzkrieg of September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, was the tipping point.  Great Britain and France sent an ultimatum to Hitler to withdraw or they would go to war.  And Hitler ignored them, going deeper into Poland; and hence Britain and France declared war on Germany.  

World War Two ... it was on!   (reference:  World War II Starts)

Meanwhile, the allies of Germany, like Japan, fueled their entrance into the war in the Pacific with their aggressive military expansion.  (reference:  Causes of World War II in the Pacific )

The US was reluctant to get involved, but  Pearl Harbor changed all that.  After the United States declared war on Japan, Germany declared war on the United States - interesting enough, America was the only country in which Hitler declared war.  (reference:  Germany World War II -- declaration of war on America)

But with the United States, World War Two began and ended in the Pacific ...

Below is a timeline of the war in the Pacific theater:

from:  http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/world-war-ii-interactive-timeline-the-pacific-theater

On the road to nukes ...

As nuclear fission was discovered in 1938, (reference:  Discovery of Nuclear Fission) and atomic power seemed possible, Leo Szilard feared that Nazi Germany may be the first to create the atomic bomb.  Frustrated with America's lack of action in pursuing atomic energy, Szilard recruited Albert Einstein to write a letter to President Roosevelt.  It became known as the Einstein letter.  And it spurred the formation of the Manhattan Project.

The culmination was the development of the Atomic Bomb, first tested - July 16, 1945 - in New Mexico at the Trinity Site.   I had written an article about that place:  THE TRINITY SITE: WHERE THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMB WAS EXPLODED

Victory in Europe (VE Day) ...

A few months before the Trinity test, Germany surrendered to the Allies on May 7, 1945 - days after Hitler committed suicide in the his bunker on April 30.    But the war was still raging on in Pacific.  (Reference:  World War II Battles - Pacific Theater 1941-1945 - Google Maps.)

The Enola Gay and August 6, 1945 ...

August 6, 1945 was the day that the Enola Gay flew her secret mission - the culmination of the Manhattan project.  And here an eyewitness account of one of the crew members, who was part of that mission to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima:

from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZnRD3-Sg2I#at=11

A personal story and eye witness ...

One of my friends, who passed away a few years ago, was a navy veteran and had served during World War Two.  He told me he was aboard a ship off the coast of Japan and saw the atomic blast of Hiroshima from a few hundred miles away.  Amazing.  But it is still was not over.

Victory in Japan (VJ Day)  ...

After the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan surrendered, unconditionally, and officially on September 2, 1945.  

Much has been said and written about about the horror of nuclear weapons - and rightly so.   And it's still intensely debated - Was it necessary to drop the atom bomb on Japan?  

But many believed this hastened the end of the war and saved many lives.  Among them may have been my father-in-law.  He fought in World War Two in both the North African and European theaters.  He was there on D-Day + 4.  And, if the war had not ended a few months later, he would have been slated to be deployed to fight against Japan.  Perhaps, he would have become another grim statistic, one of the millions of causalities of that war.

The mission of the Enola Gay hastened the end of World War Two - the worst in the 20th century - and up to that point, perhaps the worst of all recorded history.

And America's part of ending World War Two is part of America's Story,
which will be continued ....

--------------------

--------------------

Posts on World War Two:

Pearl Harbor Day, 1941 - World War Two Soldiers Remembered  (2009)

Remembering D-Day - June 6, 1944  (2010)

A kiss immortalized in August 14, 1945  (2010)

Pray4America (part 2) - FDR's prayer on D-Day  (2012)

Pray4America (part 3) - FDR's Flag Day prayer - June 14, 1942  (2012)

--------------------

--------------------

Other posts in this series:

America's Story (part 1) - The Speech that redefined us, November 19, 1863 (2011)

America's Story (part 2) - Savages! (2011)

America's Story (part 3) - Over There - 1917, 1941 (2011)

America's Story (part 4) - Christmas 1944, when we said NUTS to the enemy (2011)

America's Story (part 5) - Amazing Grace (2012)

America's Story (part 6) - GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen (2012)

America's Story (part 7) - When Reagan was shot (2012)

America's Story (part 8) - Memorial Day, Gettysburg, and Amos Humiston (2012)

America's Story (part 9) - A Tale of Two Revolutions (2012)

America's Story (part 10) - Sergeant York (2012)

America's Story (part 11) - Sacajawea  (2012)

America's Story (part 12) - Death and Taxes (2013)

--------------------

--------------------

Photo from:

Wikipedia - Colonel Tibbets and the Enola Gay

The Trinity Site - 65 years ago

The first Saturday in October 2008, I had visited one of the two days in the year that the Trinity Site was opened up to the public. I wrote about the experience and had it published in the article below:

The Trinity Site: Where the First Atomic Bomb was Exploded - click here

This July 16, 2010 is the 65th anniversary of the explosion of the first atomic bomb. The video clip below shows that event.




Throughout the years, the splitting of the atom has sparked a firestorm of controversy and soul searching as this powerful genie was unleashed upon humanity. One thing it did do. It ended World War Two - the most deadly war to date - whose death toll was mounting up between 62 to 78 million.

Who saw this coming? Perhaps 1900 years ago, St. Peter saw an awesome day of destruction when he penned these words:

"You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat."
2 Peter 3:11-12 (New International Version)

That day has not come yet - we are still here. But in an obscure place in the desert of New Mexico, a small piece of the elements melted away with heat 65 years ago.

Photo at entrance to Ground Zero: S. K. Smith

The Trinity Site: Where the First Atomic Bomb was exploded

Twice a year, the Trinity Site in New Mexico is open to the public, the first Saturdays of October and April. October 2008, I visited Ground Zero where the first atomic bomb was exploded on July 16, 1945.

My memoirs and some pictures of that visit are published in the online magazine TRAVEL THRU HISTORY.

Please feel free to check out my article: The Trinity Site: Where the First Atomic Bomb was exploded.

Walking about Ground Zero and the McDonald ranch house, where the first bomb was partially assembled, was a somber experience.

---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------

Photo: by S. K. Smith (that's me)

Note: As you see in my picture, "where the toilets are" is very important to us vistors.

For another travel article that I have written from BeatenPaths:
A pilgrimage to the Big Horn Medicine Wheel