Comments on: “We all aged ten years until the plane cleared the island.”

By: Wayne Baumunk

Wayne Baumunk — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:12:47 +0000

We have chart of Tinian Saipan channel where we believe as many as 50 B-29′s are located. Crashed on Take Off. Don Farrell on Tinian is working with Congress to get a portion of Tinian annexed into a National Park. The Marines just cleared almost 70 years of jungle off North Field. The BOMB PITS are now encased in Stainless Steel and Glass. We are trying to preserve Tinian’s World War Two significance. Wayne Baumunk, Coral Reef Marine Center, Tamuning, Guam 96913 crmcsrvc@teleguam.net

By: Going Back to Tinian | Restricted Data

Going Back to Tinian | Restricted Data — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:29:49 +0000

[...] In my last post, I talked about what the island of Ticnian was like in World War II, when it served as the launching point for strategic bombing raids on Japan — including the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. [...]

By: Alex Wellerstein

Alex Wellerstein — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:24:50 +0000

I have a vague feeling that I’ve seen some discussion of this before, but I can’t remember where. Los Alamos was obviously recognized as quite out of the way, so it wasn’t a given that it would stay in rural New Mexico after the initial need for absolute secrecy had passed (which is to say, the point at which the purpose of the lab was itself a secret). Pasadena was considered as a highly possible original site for Y when they were siting it in 1942, and as you note had the Inyokern site in proximity, so it isn’t too surprising that it would have been floated as a possible postwar site for bomb development.

It would be interesting to look into the debates over moving Los Alamos. I wonder what kept it there? (Probably just sunk costs.)

By: Will Thomas

Will Thomas — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 10:41:03 +0000

Hi Alex, just got around to glancing at the actual letter. There’s a reference there to “Y” possibly moving to Pasadena. Was moving the Los Alamos lab to Pasadena ever a serious proposal? It’s an intrinsically intriguing possibility, but I also ask because I know that the Naval Ordnance Test Station in Inyokern had a satellite branch in Pasadena just after the war, and Ramsey mentions a possible link to a new atomic bomb wing in Palm Springs, so I was sort of wondering if there was a strong link between the LA region and the California desert inside the military at that time. Now that I think about it, there would have been a JPL-Muroc (Edwards) connection, too…

By: Mike Lehman

Mike Lehman — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 21:09:04 +0000

Alex,
I’ll hazard a guess or two at the reason why Ramsey was having trouble communicating with Los Alamos and Oppenheimer.

Possibly, this was Groves at work, keeping his compartments tidy, but it could have been someone further up the food chain politically, if that was possible. At the same time that Ramsey and crew were on Tinian is when things with the Met Lab folks and others started rattling their chains about alternatives to using the bomb ASAP. All in all, that alone was reason enough to keep people who were charged with making the bomb usable from being influenced by things going on back in the Zone of the Interior. Can’t be having your scientists go on strike at the crucial juncture because of some lark. There may have been anxiety about possible collusion between the concerned scientists and those on Tinian?

And who knows what kind of codes these really smart folks might be capable of embedding in an innocent looking letter? The military authorities on Tinian, who controlled things and generally seemed to have extended every courtesy possible to the team, still controlled the mail. Between ordinary secrecy at such a place and the special status of the 509th, a letter could take some lengthy detours before delivery…

Makes me wonder if Ramsey was ever able to resolve what happened with the missing letters? I presume he took whatever precautions normally taken in using the mail securely, so that might raise a worry if they really didn’t show up at the other end eventually? Or maybe they were all sent regular mail and that raised curiosity on the part of the censors and mail handlers, given Ramsey’s position?

By: Alex Boxer

Alex Boxer — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 01:52:16 +0000

In that fantastic first photo (which is from the North looking South) you can really see why the engineers decided the place looked like Manhattan. The main North-South road was (and still is) called Broadway; the North-South road on the right (West) is called 8th Avenue, and many of the cross streets are given names like 86th Street, etc.

By: Alex Wellerstein

Alex Wellerstein — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:01:51 +0000

Ah, you may in fact be correct! That would change that meaning quite a bit.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:40:43 +0000

Actually, I believe it says "the orders requiring us to stay on after 20 August", which changes the meaning. I think they just wanted to go home.