The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II

by Denise Kiernan

  CAPUTO: So Martin Whittaker decided, since there was such a little amount of plutonium [available at that time], what had priority—

  MORGAN:—In that period, it was very informal. We knew that we had to follow very stringent restrictions to prevent useful information from getting out. You have to keep in mind that during the first several months—this was in the early period [of the Manhattan Project]—health physicists, seniors [like me], were primarily physicists, and the doctors and surgeons were primarily doctors and surgeons, not people working with plutonium. So with all of us, we did the best we knew how, and I think we did a tremendously good job considering our background, and what we were trying to do, and what our major job was.

  I don’t think it would be any problem in getting the plutonium. Probably—my guess would be that Hymer Friedell or Stafford [Warren] were brought intimately into the earlier stages of [this study]. I say that without any great knowledge, but only because I knew both parties quite well at the time and knew what their interests were and what one of their main goals was: to get information on the risks of plutonium [and uranium]. Was it as hazardous as radium or more hazardous, [was] the essential question.

  Updated information on size and scope of Oak Ridge from Robinson, City Behind a Fence. Information regarding Spam and Edward R. Murrow at Christmas, 1944, from Hormel Foods Corporation. Flattop description and specs from Robinson, City Behind a Fence, and “Early Oak Ridge Housing” (ORHPA, no date given); American Museum of Science and Energy (Oak Ridge, TN) and “Original Flattop house on display at Oak Ridge museum,” by Amy McRary, Knoxville News Sentinel, March 22, 2009.

  Information regarding Sunday Punch from author interviews, also “Sunday Punch finds a new home,” Oak Ridger, August 10, 2010; “Weekend warrior: B-25J bomber connected East Tennesseans,” by Fred Brown, Knoxville News Sentinel, March 21, 2010.

  Tubealloy: Hope and the Haberdasher, April–May 1945

  Secretary of war’s visit to Oak Ridge, including quotes, from Nichols and Groves. Groves learning of Roosevelt’s death, and subsequent briefings, from Groves. Henry Stimson letter to Harry S. Truman, April 24, 1945, and “moon and stars” references from the document collection at the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum, including Henry Stimson to Harry S. Truman, April 24, 1945; CF; Truman Papers, Truman Library. Information regarding Truman Committee from Nichols.

  Russians march on Berlin from “The Battle for Berlin in World War Two,” by Tilman Remme, BBC, March 10, 2011. Information regarding Hitler’s death from “Official: KGB chief ordered Hitler’s remains destroyed,” by Maxim Tkachenko, CNN, December 11, 2009.

  Interim Committee Notes and Reports of Informal and Formal meetings from May 9, May 14, and May 31: Notes of Meeting of the Interim Committee, 1945 (May 9, May 14, and May 31), Miscellaneous Historical Document Collection, Truman Papers, Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. Attendees to the first informal meeting of the Interim Committee were Secretary Henry Stimson (chairman), Hon. Ralph A. Bard, Dr. Vannevar Bush, Hon. James F. Byrnes, Hon. William L. Clayton, Dr. Karl T. Compton, Mr. George L. Harrison, and, by “invitation,” Mr. Harvey H. Bundy.

  Farm Hall information from Farm Hall transcripts published in Operation Epsilon: The Farm Hall Transcripts, introduced by Sir Charles Frank, OBE, FRS (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993).

  Life continuing on at CEW after VE Day from author interviews. Post-VE Day billboards from photographs by Ed Westcott (previously cited). Attack and impact of Japan firebombing from “U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II: Combat Chronology, March 1945,” Air Force Historical Studies Office. B-29 Superfortress information, Tinian, from Groves. Groves opinion about whether to proceed with using the bomb, from Groves.

  12. Sand Jumps in the Desert, July 1945

  Description of the General’s trip back to Washington and office location from Groves. Westcott’s meeting with Groves from author interviews and Robinson. Joan Hinton information from “Joan Hinton, Physicist Who Chose China Over Atom Bomb, Is Dead at 88,” by William Grimes, New York Times, June 11, 2010; Silage Choppers and Snake Spirits: The Lives & Struggles of Two Americans in Modern China, by Dao-yuan Chou (Quezon City, Philippines: Ibon Books, 2009); Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project, by Ruth H. Howes and Carolina L. Herzenberg (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999).

  Elizabeth Graves information from Day of Trinity, by Lansing Lamont (New York: Athenum, 1985); Women (previously cited); “Draft Final Report of the Los Alamos Historical Document Retrieval and Assessment (LAHDRA) Project, Chap. 10: Trinity,” prepared for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects Radiation Studies Branch, June 2009; “Proving Ground,” by Sid Moody, Associated Press (An Albuquerque Journal Special Reprint, July 1995).

  Choosing test site and description of Trinity test from Groves, Lansing, LAHDRA. “Batter my heart, three-person’d God,” anecdote from American Prometheus. “Now I am become Death . . . ,” and “Now we are all sons of bitches . . . ,” from Lansing, also Day After Trinity, directed by Jon Else (United States: 1980).

  Additional Trinity information from “Proving Ground,” by Sid Moody, Associated Press (An Albuquerque Journal Special Reprint, July 1995; LAHDRA report, previously cited). There are numerous statistics and personal reactions from the day of the Trinity test, many of which are mentioned in Day After Trinity.

  Potsdam meeting and diary notes from Harry S. Truman on the Potsdam Conference, July 16, 1945. President’s Secretary’s File, Truman Papers, Harry S. Truman Library & Museum; also Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005); Truman, by David McCullough (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992).

  Groves’s relaying of Trinity report and timeline from Groves and Nichols.

  Scientist petitions and counter petitions of July 3, 1945, and July 17, 1945, from NARA, RG 77; “Behind the Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, October 1958, p. 304, and Petition to the President of the United States, July 17, 1945; MHDC, Truman Papers, Truman Library. July 23, 1945, meeting between Compton and Nichols from Nichols (previously cited) and from Atomic Quest: A Personal Narrative, by Arthur Holly Compton (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956). Description of Graves photosession from author interviews and Robinson.

  Calutron numbers and statistics from Smith and Wilcox, also “Public glimpses machines that fueled bomb,” by Duncan Mansfield, Associated Press, seen in USA Today, June 14, 2005.

  Groves’s orders for bombing, from Groves. Regarding target choices, plans to bomb: “No communiqués on the subject or releases of information will be issued by Commanders in the field without specific prior authority,” he wrote. “Any news stories will be sent to the War Department for special clearance.” Nick Del Genio and courier information from AMSE (previously cited), Groves, Nichols, and author interviews.

  Route and dates of travel of couriers, Truman order, and Spaatz orders from Groves. Information and quotes regarding Truman-Stimson meeting in Germany from Atomic Tragedy: Henry L. Stimson and the Decision to Use the Bomb Against Japan, by Sean Langdon Malloy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008) and Mandate for Change, 1953–1956: The White House Years, A Personal Account by Dwight D. Eisenhower (New York: Doubleday, 1963). Information regarding delivery of petitions to Groves and Truman from Nichols. Farm Hall transcript from Operation Epsilon.

  Information regarding Westcotts’s photos and the press packets of July 27, 1945, from The Oak Ridge Story, Robinson (previously cited). Ebb Cade information from previously cited materials (Chap. 11).

  All information on women from author interviews.

  13. The Gadget Revealed

  All women’s anecdotes and reaction to bombing news from author interviews.

  Timing of release of statement regarding bombing of Hiroshima from By the Bomb’s Early Light: American Thought and Cu
lture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age, by Paul Boyer (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1985).

  Truman address from “Press release by the White House,” August 6, 1945. Subject File, Ayers Papers, Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. Truman location, selection of targets, journey of remaining parts of bomb, and U-235 from Groves, Nichols, and Lansing. Description of attack and mission from Groves.

  Information about Miriam White Campbell from the Los Alamos Historical Society podcasts: http://www.losalamoshistory.org/podcasts/campbell.mp3. Estimates of Hiroshima injuries from Rhodes (previously cited); Hiroshima, by John Hersey (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, [1946] 1985). Estimated numbers of immediately killed range widely depending on the source, from 66,000 initially killed to more than 70,000. Estimated deaths by the end of 1945 are often cited as 140,000, but real loss and death as a result of the bombings are still virtually impossible to estimate when taking into account the amount of time it took for some individuals to die as a result of their injuries or exposure to radiation.

  Text of leaflets dropped on Japanese cities from Truman Papers, Miscellaneous Historical Document File, no. 258, Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. Text of Stimson address from “Press release by Henry Stimson, August 6, 1945.” Subject File, Ayers Papers. Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.

  Elizabeth Edwards story from author interviews and Waldo Cohn information from Voices (previously cited); Bill Wilcox anecdote from author interview and personal papers of William J. Wilcox Jr. Meitner information from Sime (previously cited). Farm Hall transcripts from Operation Epsilon. Jacqueline Nichols anecdote from Nichols.

  14. Dawn of a Thousand Suns

  All women’s anecdotes from author interviews.

  Information about job loss fear from author interviews. Letter from under secretary of war, as seen in the Oak Ridge Journal and personal papers of Jane Puckett. Letter from Jane Greer’s sister from personal documents of Jane Greer.

  Additional Nagasaki information: The mission endured more challenges than the flight of the Enola Gay that dropped Little Boy only three days earlier. Bock’s Car, which carried the bomb nicknamed Fat Man, faced fuel transfer valve problems and bad weather. Fuel levels endangered the mission, cloud cover made it difficult to see the target that, according to orders, had to be attacked by “visual means.” Once the bomb was away, the crew felt three aftershocks rather than the expected two (one from the initial blast and one reflected from the ground). The plane’s commander, Major Charles Sweeney, thought perhaps the third, unexpected shock had been reflected off a hill banking the Urakami Valley, and worried that they had missed their target completely. But they had not. One trip around the mushroom cloud and Bock’s Car landed in Okinawa on fumes. Anecdote of young woman crying in her dorm room from Atomic Heritage Foundation, http://www.atomicheritage.org/index.php/ahf-updates-mainmenu-153.html, last accessed 8-28-2012.

  Information regarding VJ Day in Oak Ridge, from author interviews and photographs by Ed Westcott (previously cited). Bill Wilcox letter and anecdote from author interviews and personal documents of William J. Wilcox Jr. Oak Ridge Journal selections from the paper as cited in text.

  15. Life in the New Age

  All women’s anecdotes from author interviews.

  Oak Ridge Journal from paper as cited.

  Vi Warren comments from “Mission to Japan,” by Jane Warren Larson, from Voices (previously cited). Stafford Warren account of Japan from Stafford Warren oral history (previously cited) and from “Mission to Japan,” by Jane Warren Larson, from Voices (previously cited).

  Nancy Farley Wood information from Stafford Warren oral history (previously cited) and from “Nancy Farley Wood, 99,” by Ana Beatriz Cholo, Chicago Tribune, May 17, 2003.

  Information regarding Masao Tsuzuki from Stafford Warren oral history and from Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima, by M. Susan Lindee (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).

  Information regarding Nakamura and Asahi Shimbun from “The media: nuclear secrecy vs. Democracy,” by Robert Karl Manoff, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 1984.

  Bernard Hoffman photos from Life magazine, October 15, 1945. Information regarding Truman wanting to keep the bomb a secret, from “In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” PBS’s American Experience, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript; shoppenheimer-transcript/.

  Details regarding Wilfred Burchett from “Hiroshima Coverup: How the War Department’s Timesman Won a Pulitzer,” by Amy Goodman and David Goodman, CommonDreams, August 10, 2004, http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0810-01.htm, last accessed 8-28-2012, and “66 Years Ago: Wilfred Burchett Arrives in Hiroshima—as a New Era of Nuclear Censorship Begins,” by Greg Mitchell, The Nation, September 2, 2011, http://www.thenation.com/blog/163115/66-years-ago-wilfred-burchett-arrives-hiroshima—new-era-nuclear-censorship-begins#, last accessed 8-28-2012, “1945: A Rain of Ruin from the Air,” BBC: On this Day, 1950–2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/august/6/newsid_4715000/4715303.stm, last accessed 8-28-2012, and “Atomic Truths Plague Prize Coverup,” by Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News, August 9, 2005.

  Regarding the Smyth Report: author interviews, and announcement of the Smyth report for sale in Oak Ridge Journal.

  Regarding Truman and Oppenheimer’s meeting: Prometheus (previously cited); Truman, by David McCullough (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992).

  Ebb Cade information from previously cited materials and also the memorandum to Mr. Wright Langham, Santa Fe, New Mexico, from David Goldbring, for the District Engineer, regarding E.C.’s medical history and shipment of 15 teeth. Dated September 19, 1945, Formerly Declassified Correspondence, 1942–1947; Records of the Atomic Energy Commission, Record Group 326; National Archives at Atlanta; National Archives and Records Administration and ACHRE report (previously cited).

  Information regarding Lise Meitner from Sime (previously cited). Emilio Segrè quote about Ida Noddack from “The Discovery of Nuclear Fission,” by Emilio G. Segrè, Physics Today, July 1989.

  Oak Ridge statistics following war from A City is Born (previously cited); Y-12 National Security Complex, US Department of Energy; Wilcox-K-25 (previously cited); “Oak Ridge National Laboratory: The First Fifty Years,” Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review, produced by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the US Department of Energy.

  Regarding isotope production from “Oak Ridge National Laboratory Research and Radioisotope Production,” by W. E. Thompson (Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, January 1952). Atomic Energy Act of 1946, excerpted from “Legislative History of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946” (Public Law 585, 79th Congress) US Atomic Energy Commission (Washington, DC: 1965). Further amended in 1954: “Drawing Back the Curtain of Secrecy: Restricted Data Declassification Policy. 1946 to the Present,” Office of Scientific and Technical Information, US Department of Energy, June 1, 1994. Atomic Energy Community Act of 1955, 42 U.S.C. 2301, et seq., which provides for termination of government ownership and management of communities owned by the Atomic Energy Commission. Other information regarding history of the Atomic Energy Commission from A City Is Born, City Behind a Fence, ORNL: The First 50 Years, and “A History of the Atomic Energy Commission,” by Alice L. Buck (Washington, DC: US Department of Energy, July 1983).

  Elza Gate opening in March 1949 from History of AEC, A City Is Born, and City Behind a Fence (previously cited). Nichols’s comments on Oak Ridge from “My Work in Oak Ridge,” by K. D. Nichols, from Voices (previously cited).

  Building of new housing, including those for black families, from City Behind a Fence. Information regarding education options for black students after the war from “Before Clinton of Little Rock, Oak Ridge integration made history,” by Bob Fowler, Knoxville News Sentinel, February 16, 2009; “Education in Oak Ridge—Pre-Oak Ridge and Early Oak Ridge Schools, Part 2,” by D. Ray Smith, Oak Ridger, November 21, 2006; “A 1950s’ letter & the integration of area schools,” by D. Ray Smith, Oak Ridger, January
21, 2011; “A New Hope,” by Steele, from Voices (previously cited).

  Information regarding integration of Clinton High School from Green McAdoo Cultural Center, Clinton, TN, and “See it Now: Clinton and the Law,” narrated and produced by Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly, CBS Television, 1957.

  Vote on Oak Ridge incorporation and transfer of power from Robinson’s “Oak Ridge Story” and “The Atom Town Wants to Be Free,” by John Bird, Saturday Evening Post, vol. 231, March 21, 1959.

  Serial magazine quotes from personal papers of Jane Puckett.

  Uranium mining information from “Abandoned Uranium Mines: An ‘Overwhelming Problem’ in the Navajo Nation,” by Francie Diep, Scientific American, December 30, 2010; “Moab,” by Margaret S. Bearnson, from Utah History Encyclopedia (University of Utah Press, 1994).

  Information regarding David Greenglass and the Rosenbergs from “The Atom Spy Case” and Roberts (previously cited). Information regarding George Koval: “George Koval: Atomic Spy Unmasked,” by Michael Walsh, Smithsonian Magazine, May 2009.

  Atomic Cocktail information from Boyer (previously cited). “Duck and Cover,” in public domain, by Archer Productions, 1950. “Our Friend the Atom,” Walt Disney Productions, 1957. November 1953 address by Eisenhower to the United Nations from Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.

  Information regarding Soviet detonation at Novaya Zemlya from “1961: World Condemns Russia’s Nuclear Test,” BBC: On This Day 1950–2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/30/newsid_3666000/3666785.stm, last accessed 8-28-2012. Regarding President Kennedy and the test ban, from John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

  ORACLE as the most advanced computer in the world from Voices, p. 361 (previously cited). Kennedy assassination research from ORNL: The First 50 Years (previously cited). Kisetsu Yamada information from author interviews and correspondence with Colleen Black. Information on the International Friendship Bell from author visits to site, interviews, and “2008 Historically Speaking International Friendship Bell,” by Ray Smith; Robert Brooks’s lawsuit for peace bell from United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit 222 F.3d 259: Robert Brooks, Plaintiff-appellant, v. City of Oak Ridge, Defendant-appellee, Argued: March 16, 2000, Decided and Filed: July 21, 2000. Also “Oak Ridge International Friendship Bell—Part 1 of casting ceremony,” by D. Ray Smith, Oak Ridger, July 8, 2008.