Twice a year the Trinity Site in New Mexico opens to visitors. On Saturday, April 2, 2022, throngs of people poured into White Sands Missile Range to remember the dawn of the nuclear age. July 16, 1945, the United States tested the world’s first nuclear bomb at Trinity.
This year after two years of the pandemic, hundreds visited the site. I was one of them. People arrived from all over the United States and possibly the world. There were scientists, families on outings, average Americans, history buffs and good old boys proud of America’s nuclear legacy.
My mood was subdued. I knew only too well after reading my father’s journal from Operation Crossroads and studying the nuclear legacy of the Marshall Islands that I could not celebrate the occasion. The atomic bomb test at the Trinity Site was a harbinger of tragedy.
The United States Drops Atomic Bombs on Japaan
On August 6, 1945, less than three weeks after the successful Trinity test, the United States detonated the atomic bomb, Little Boy, on Hiroshima. Three days later it dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. It is estimated that 140,000 people died at Hiroshima and 74,000 died at Nagasaki. Thousands more died from radiation sickness and the long term effects of radiation exposure in the days, weeks and years following the explosions.
I believe the atomic bombing of Japan and the deaths of more than 200,000 people, 95 per cent of whom were civilians, was a horrific crime the United States committed against humanity.
Strolling through the site, I pause at the point zero obelisk and view the archival photographs attached to the chain link fence. I see a father lift his cellphone to photograph his smiling children in front of a bomb casing. The casing is identical to the one that housed the bomb that decimated Nagasaki and killed children just like his beautiful little girl and boy. “Have you forgotten?”, I wanted to ask this father.
Downwinders Protest the Effects of Radiation
The “Downwinders” have not forgotten. They continue to grieve the loss of their relatives who suffered and died from the effects of radiation. They remember the contamination of their rivers, soil, and plant life. They protest, the Tularosa Basin was not isolated and abandoned as stated. People lived as close as 12 miles to the test site.
A Message for the Future
Today, the threat of a nuclear disaster, from intent or accident is on the minds of many people. A visit to the Trinity Site in New Mexico twice a year, is not an occasion to celebrate America’s greatness. It is an opportunity to reflect upon the grave consequences of using nuclear weapons and to ponder avenues to a more peaceful and loving world.
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Click here to view the website: The Bikini Project