The Day the World Went Nuclear: Dropping the Atom Bomb and the End of World War II in the Pacific

560 Pages·2017·112.94 MB·English

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About the Author
Copyright Page

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We recognize that the application of recent scientific discoveries to the methods
and practice of war has placed at the disposal of mankind means of destruction
hitherto unknown, against which there can be no adequate military defense, and
in the employment of which no single nation can in fact have a monopoly.
—From a statement issued by U.S. president HARRY TRUMAN, Canadian
prime minister MACKENZIE KING, and United Kingdom prime minister CLEMENT
ATTLEE on November 15, 1945
*
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people
cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture,
the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his
duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, “Now I am
become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” I suppose we all thought that, one way
or another.
—ROBERT OPPENHEIMER on the first successful test of a nuclear bomb, from
the 1965 television documentary The Decision to Drop the Bomb
A NOTE TO READERS
THE YOUNG ENSIGN FROM Brooklyn looks at his wife, who is holding their
newborn son. The baby is big, more than ten pounds. The ensign has been back
from the Pacific for more than two years and is starting a new life: as father and
provider.
William James O’Reilly hopes his new son will follow in the tradition of his
ancestors: hardworking Irish Catholics who value family and loyalty over money
and material things. He and his bride of just over a year, Angela, are thrilled with
their baby boy, whom they name Billy—William James O’Reilly Jr.
Bill and Angela married in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1948.
She already had a good job as a physical therapist at Columbia-Presbyterian
Hospital in Manhattan, and it is there baby Billy is born. Ensign O’Reilly, with a
college degree from St. Francis College and military training at the College of
the Holy Cross, is trying to decide on a career direction. Now, with the arrival of
the baby, the urgency of that decision is more pronounced.
The newlywed couple lives in a small apartment just over the George
Washington Bridge in northern New Jersey. Money is tight. Already the ensign
is regretting leaving the navy, where there was security and direction. Unlike
many of his peers, Bill O’Reilly Sr. loved his time in the service. He learned
much during the occupation of Japan, the experience bringing him a measure of
respect for the Japanese people, who, in his opinion, endured the occupation
with discipline.
Soon the ensign will move his wife and baby to the teeming New York City
suburb of Levittown on Long Island. Here, inexpensive housing is being built,
and mortgages for veterans are favorable. The price for a simple two-bedroom
home is eight thousand dollars. Both Bill and Angela will live there until they
die.
*
My father was always nostalgic for the navy and fascinated by World War II. He
firmly believed he would have been killed if MacArthur’s land invasion had
come to fruition; his ship, the Oneida, was set to ferry hundreds of marines close
to the beaches of Japan. Only later did my father find out that thousands of
Japanese kamikaze pilots were waiting to attack the U.S. fleet. The carnage
would have been devastating.
And so it is that Ensign O’Reilly, his wife, and their two children—my sister,
Janet, arriving two years later—built yet another traditional American family
over the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. My dad never prospered in the
marketplace, keeping his job as a low-level financial analyst for almost thirty
years. As a child of the Great Depression, he valued a steady paycheck more
than anything. Thus, he settled for a pedestrian job and allowed his vast talents
for communication to go undeveloped.
Not usually introspective, my father was convinced of one certainty, which he
shared with me on a few occasions: his very existence, and therefore my life as
well, was likely saved by a terrible bomb and a gut-wrenching presidential
decision that is still being debated to this day.
But for the young ensign and his present-day son, there really is no debate,
only a stark reality. Had the A-bombs not been used, you would very likely not
be reading this book.