Walker - Shockwave: the countdown to Hiroshima

T HIS BOOK WOULD not have been possible without the help, generosity, patience, and kindness of so many people across the world. They have stood behind me, and beside me, sometimes literally, every step of the way. I owe debts of gratitude I can never fully repay.

My first thanks must go to all the men and women who were witnesses to the events I have attempted to describe in the following pages. Any success I might have had in bringing those events to life is, I believe, due to them. To give a whiff of the atmosphere and flavor of a momentespecially such a great moment in historyis a very precious thing. There are so many names on this list, perhaps too many to mention here. I have included all of them in the bibliography at the end of the book. They are all very special, but among them are a few I would like specifically to acknowledge here: Dutch Van Kirk, Enola Gays navigator, who gave me such a spellbinding interview in his garden one summers afternoon; Morris Jeppson, Enola Gays weapons specialist, whose account of the mission has never left my mind; Kenneth Eidnes, a former tail gunner in the 509th, an indefatigable source of information, who also supplied wonderfully evocative images of Tinian island at the time of the atomic missions; Thomas J. Classen, the 509ths former deputy commander, a fount of illuminating detail; Leon Smith, also a weapons specialist on Tinian and another brilliant photographer, some of whose images illustrate this book; former Los Alamos scientists Professors Henry Linschitz, Don and Lilli Hornig, Norman Ramsey and Philip Morrison; and retired Vice Admiral Frederick L. Ashworth Sr., weaponeer on the Nagasaki mission (who allowed me to take many of his books and papers back to England). All of these people have been enormously helpful, not least with the hundreds of e-mails and inquiries I have made of them. Their courtesy has been as unfailing as their efforts, and I thank them all. Among the eyewitnesses in Japan, I am also forever indebted to Dr. Shuntaro Hida, Sunao Tsuboi, Taeko Nakamae, Toshiaki Tanaka, Suzuko Numata, and Yoshito Matsushige, the marvelous cameraman who shot five extraordinary photographs within hours of the explosion in Hiroshima. I was very sad to learn of his death shortly before this book was finished, one of several among the men and women I interviewed over the last fourteen months in the course of my research.

I have been fortunate to tap into vast reservoirs of goodwill from a number of historians and experts in this field, bombarding them with infinite numbers of requests to which they have always generously responded. This book would have been impossible without them: Roger Meade and Linda Sandoval at the Los Alamos National Laboratory Archives; Jim Petersen at Historic Wendover Airfield in Utah; Richard Campbell, Al Christman, Sparky Corradina, John Coster-Mullen, Anderson Giles, Ed Humphreys, Joseph Papalia; Rebecca Collinsworth at the Los Alamos Historical Museum; John Rhoades at the Bradbury Museum in Los Alamos; Kenneth Schlessinger and Dave Giordano at the National Archives in Washington. Their kindness knows no bounds. I also want to thank Don Farrell for resolving many of my questions over a wonderful evening at his home on Tinians beautiful island; Larry Meeks for giving me an unforgettable personal tour of the Trinity test site in New Mexico; and Barry Bayorek for giving me an equally unforgettable ride in his Piper Cub airplane over the runways and salt flats of Wendovers air base. The ghosts of the men who flew there lived once again in the air.

My thanks go as well to Dr. Jonathan Porter and Dr. Ferenc M. Szasz at the University of New Mexico, who willingly gave their time to read drafts of the manuscript. Their notes added new dimensions to this book, and their spirited encouragement spurred me on to the finish line.

Very special thanks go to my two extraordinary and wonderful researchers, Romaine Lancaster, in London, and Yukiko Shimahara, in Japan. They have performed miracles beyond any call of duty, responding to every request with grace, humor, and tremendous initiative. They have left their mark on every page of this book. I owe them both more than I can say in words.

I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my editors. In the United States Jill Schwartzman has handled the book, often under considerable pressure, with terrific skill and panache, lighting my way in the darkness with her infectious enthusiasm. In addition her colleague Dan Conaway, and Roland Philipps and Rowan Yapp in Great Britain, have all been astonishingly helpful at every stage of this journey. Their tireless encouragement, astuteness, common sense, patience, and valuable insights have been an inspiration to me. They have always responded to my concerns with consummate tact and sensitivity. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart. I must also thank my foreign-language editors, in particular Hiroyuki Chida in Japan and Harald Stadler in Germany, for their meticulous notes, which have helped so much to clarify and refine the narrative in these pages.

I owe an immeasurable debt to my agents. Rachel Calder in London and Henry Dunow in New York have both been veritable saints, holding my hand with infinite tenderness, sympathy, and luminous intelligence as I researched and wrote this book. Despite a battery of almost daily telephone calls, they have never once complained. They have been my rocks. My respect and affection for them both is perhaps higher than they will ever know.

Finally, it remains for me to thank all those people around me, friends and family, who have lived this book every inch of the way: my dear friend Donald Sturrock, who was there from the beginning; another dear friend, Richard Bradley, a true soulmate from my television days, who first lit the fire by encouraging me to make a film about Hiroshima; my sister-in-law Wendy George, who transcribed so many interviews with such marvelous goodwill; my parents, who showed such love as I never knew existed in the world; my beautiful and brilliant daughter Kitty, who inspired me more than she will ever realize; and above all my wife, Sally, the love of my life, without whom none of this would ever have happened at all.

Stephen Walker

LONDON, MAY 2005

The author gratefully wishes to thank Joan Hinterbichler for permission to use extracts from the personal diary of Abe Spitzer, 1945, and the Caron family for use of extracts from Bob Carons letters. The author gratefully acknowledges the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum for the text of the Tamiki Hara poem.

The following interviews were conducted between April 2004 and March 2005. Where applicable, the roles described are as they were in August 1945.

Harold Agnew, observer, The Great Artiste

Charles D. Albury, pilot, The Great Artiste

Frederick Ashworth, weaponeer, Bockscar

Benjamin Bederson, Project Alberta

Jack Bivans, assistant engineer, Straight Flush

Thomas Classen, deputy commander, 509th composite group

Mary Anne Ferebee, wife of Thomas Ferebee, bombardier, Enola Gay

Don Hornig, physicist, Los Alamos

Lilli Hornig, chemist, Los Alamos

Morris Jeppson, weapon test officer, Enola Gay

Lawrence Johnston, observer, The Great Artiste

Henry Linschitz, physicist, Los Alamos

Roger Meade, Los Alamos National Laboratory Archives

Philip Morrison, Project Alberta

Bob Parsons, private, U.S. Marines, Iwo Jima

Clara Parsons, daughter of Deak Parsons, weaponeer,