[CALIBK12] Richie's Picks: THE ULTIMATE WEAPON

[BudNotBuddy at aol.com]

Richie's Picks: THE ULTIMATE WEAPON: THE RACE  TO DEVELOP THE ATOMIC BOMB by 
Edward T. Sullivan, Holiday House, June 2007,  ISBN: 08234-1855-3
 
"We love to laugh and play and  run
And we would never start a  war 
We're all afraid of bombs and  guns 
We know that one fight leads to  more. 
Our country says we must be  ready 
For a fight, no matter  where 
Even though that might be  right, 
It makes the other countries  scared" 
--Peter Alsop, "Kid's Peace  Song" 
"By 2006, six nuclear weapons had been  lost and never recovered." 
I'm frightened.  In fact, a piece  of me has been frightened ever since my 
childhood days  when  I followed my teachers' instructions by watching and  
reading the daily news and then employed scissors and glue to complete  those 
weekly current events assignments.   
Sadly, the more I've learned over the  years, the more frightened I've 
become. 
"Using the atomic bomb against Japan  unleashed a Pandora's box of 
consequences that haunt the world to this  day.  When the Soviet Union announced in 1949 
 that  they, too, had the atomic bomb, it sparked a nuclear arms race that  
lasted over three decades.  It consumed billions of dollars, instilled  in 
Americans and Russians a constant fear of mutual nuclear annihilation,  and in 
1962 brought the Soviet Union and the United States to the brink of  nuclear war 
during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  At the peak of the  nuclear arms race, the 
Soviet Union and the United States combined had  enough weapons to destroy the 
Earth hundreds of times  over. 
"When the Soviet Union collapsed  and fragmented in the late 1980s, it 
appeared that the menacing cloud of global  nuclear destruction that had hung over 
the world for so long had finally  lifted.  The reality is that nuclear war is 
more of a probability now than  it ever was.  India and Pakistan, who have 
been fighting for decades over a  disputed region called Kashmir, both possess a 
nuclear arsenal and have  threatened to use them against each other if 
violence between the two countries  escalates to full-scale war. 
"Nations formerly part of the Soviet  Union still possess nuclear weapons 
from the cold war era.  Some of those  countries are so ravaged by corruption and 
poverty that there is the very  reasonable fear that they could sell the 
weapons to terrorist organizations or  nations hostile to the United States.  
North Korea, a nation ruled by a  ruthless and unpredictably dangerous dictator, 
has claimed to have detonated a  nuclear weapon.  Iran, a nation that has a 
long history of hostility toward  Israel, the United States, and other countries, 
is believed to be in the process  of developing nuclear weapons.  The five 
acknowledged nuclear powers -- the  United States, Russia, China, France, and 
the United Kingdom -- together possess  thirty-one thousand nuclear weapons.  
Israel, surrounded by hostile nations  in the Middle East, also possesses a 
nuclear arsenal.  The threat of  nuclear war is still a very real, frightening  
possibility." 
What happened during World War II, back  when my own parents were teenagers, 
to put the United States in the forefront  of what is still an out-of-control 
nuclear arms race?  Why  did the U.S. develop The Bomb?  What was the 
rationale  for dropping the pair of nuclear bombs that annihilated Japanese  cities 
full of everyday people, despite the already-completed victory over  Nazi 
Germany and the fact that Japan was clearly on the brink  of defeat?  What were 
Albert Einstein's regrets about his role in this  awful business?   
 
These are some of the multitude of  questions that are answered in Edward 
Sullivan's THE ULTIMATE WEAPON: THE RACE  TO DEVELOP THE ATOMIC BOMB.  Some of 
the information that I've  learned about the Manhattan Project -- the process of 
building the bombs  that were used to vaporize the citizens and 
infrastructure of Hiroshima and  Nagasaki -- includes a clear, basic  explanation of how 
the  bombs actually "worked," what work  was being performed in the Oak Ridge, 
Tennessee and Hanford,  Washington facilities that supported the Project, how 
the work at  Oak Ridge (producing uranium-235) was responsible at the  time for 
consuming one-seventh of the total electrical output of the  United States, 
and how -- even while desperately marshalling all possible  national  resources 
to meet the very real threat  of Hitler taking over the world -- the armed 
forces of  the United States still had to make sure that African Americans 
working and  living at the Oak Ridge facility were "kept in their place" through  
discriminatory and inhumane employment and housing  practices.
"It’s time to try a diff’rent way  
Where fighting isn’t in the  plan 
We can be strong without our  bombs 
It’s time that all the bombs were  banned 
Kids like us live  everywhere 
Around the world, in every  land 
The words we speak are not the  same 
But Peace on Earth we  understand." 
I am very appreciative for Sullivan's  having devoted significant space and 
research to chronicling the debate --  beforehand and afterward -- concerning 
the U.S.' decision to use the bombs on  Japan.  This has always been of 
interest to me, especially having  grown up during the Vietnam War working on 
construction jobs alongside  a bunch of oft-outspoken WWII vets. 
"This is the world we live in, and  these are the hands we're given." -- 
Genesis   
One thing that has not changed since  1945 is that the President of the 
United States -- whomever he or she is  -- wields the power to order the use of 
another nuclear weapon  somewhere in the world at any given moment.  Many of us 
got a kick out of  the 1986 music video that was created for the Genesis song 
"Land of  Confusion," in which a befuddled Ronald Reagan pushes the button  
marked "Nuke" instead of the one marked "Nurse."  But the message is an  
all-too-serious one as we become immersed in the 2008  presidential campaign season.  
On which fallible human being will  we next bestow such enormous power?       
With schools opening back up this week  and next, I've got a suitcase chock 
full of great, new 2007 titles all set  for my fall booktalks.  But I am sure 
hard-pressed to name a book  in the suitcase whose contents are more 
consequential to  tomorrow's voters and problem solvers than this well-researched,  
profound look at how the whole nuclear business began, where it has  currently 
brought us to in the 21st Century, and what it is that I have to be  frightened 
of.    
Richie  Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator,  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
BudNotBuddy at aol.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks
 (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks) 




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