A pleasant way to die

 

JEFFREY ST CLAIR

A trove of newly disclosed documents show how Robert Oppenheimer’s boss, the imperious Gen. Lesley Groves, repeatedly downplayed the risk of radiation exposure from atomic testing and the blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki themselves. Groves claimed those hit with lethal doses of radiation would die “without undue suffering. In fact, they say it is a very pleasant way to die.” It turns out that Oppenheimer himself was intimately aware of Groves’ deceptions about the dangers of radioactive fallout. But even after leaving the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer kept quiet about the grotesque consequences of Groves’ lies.

+ Hideko Tamura Friedman, recalling the day her city was bombed, when she was 10: “On that day, August 6 in Hiroshima, the sun and the earth melted together. On that day, many of my relatives and classmates simply disappeared. I would never again see my young cousin Hideyuki, who had been like a brother to me, or Miyoshi, my best friend. And on that day of two suns, my Mama would not come home for lunch.”

+ Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki, both of whose parents were survivors of nuclear bombings, calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons on the 78th anniversary of the atomic destruction of Nagasaki: “Now is the time to show courage and make the decision to break free from dependence on nuclear deterrence.”