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On Hiroshima anniversary, ensure nuclear weapons never again are used
Thursday marks the 70th anniversary of dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, forcing the Japanese to agree to an unconditional surrender. As a nation, we continue to debate, as we well should, whether the use of such overwhelming force was warranted. We consider the innocent children who perished on those days. We also realize that many more American soldiers would have died if World War II had not been brought to a speedy end.
Some of us would not be here today if these bombs had not been used. That was part of President Harry Truman's reason for their use.
As a nuclear engineer, I am fascinated by the Manhattan project, which developed the atomic bomb. As a graduate of Iowa State, I point with pride to that institution's part in the Manhattan project. While studying there, I interviewed a professor who had been involved in the project. He was very sensitive, almost angrily stating that the atomic bomb was not manufactured at ISU, and that ISU's involvement was limited to the production of materials which would ultimately be used in the bomb's development. He had no patience for students who took unwarranted and misguided pride in thinking the bombs were produced there.
I also talked with my father, a World War II, veteran about the use of these bombs. I stated, somewhat smugly, that the bombs brought World War II to an end. He replied, 'They also ended a lot of lives”.
In the years since 1945, nuclear weapons have not been deployed against another nation. Some argue that the closest the world has come to using these weapons again was the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
Going forward, we need to work to ensure such weapons of mass destruction are not used again. Americans generally claim war should be undertaken only as a last resort. Nuclear war is so terrifying that it should not be considered at all. Let this be one of the issues on which the worthiness of a candidate for office is judged.
' Matt Brandt works at the Duane Arnold Energy Center and has always enjoyed studying science and World War II history. Comments: matthew.lc.brandt@gmail.com
Ames, city of. Iowa State University (ISU) Historical. A process developed at Iowa State College in 1942 is still used today to produce purified uranium. Here, a researcher at 'Little Ankeny' lowers a 'charge,' a mixture of ground-up uranium tetrafluoride and magnesium oxide, from a mixer into a 'bomb,' the cyclinder where the purification process takes place. One of these 'bombs' once exploded at the facility, pushing out one of its walls. The process was part of the Manhattan Project, the United States effort to develop the atomic bomb. Upon detonation of the first atomic weapon over Hiroshima, Japan, on (8-6-45), Secretary of War Henry Stimson declared that Iowa State College laboratories were among those contributing materially in carrying out research and developing special equipment, materials and processes for the project. The major production facility for the enrichment of uranium was located at Oak Ridge, about 20 miles west of Knoxville, Tennessee (Tenn.). Photo circa 1943.
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