Nexus - 0304 - New Times Magazine-pages

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THE MUTINY DEVELOPMENT OF THE URANIUM BOMB After the explosion, many of the surviving black sailors were About 400 to 600 pages of reports and memoranda on Port transferred to nearby Camp Shoemaker where they remained until Chicago are held at the Los Alamos (Manhattan Project) 31st July; then the Fourth and Eighth Divisions were transferred to Laboratories. They were declassified in 1981. The most substan- naval barracks in Vallejo near Mare Island. During this period, tial record of the accident was prepared by US Navy Captain the men were assigned barracks dutics but no ship-loading was William J. Parsons and transmitted to US Rear Admiral W. R. assigned. Another group, the Second Division, which was also at Purnell, member of the Atomic Bomb Military Policy Committee Camp Shoemaker until 31st July, returned to Port Chicago to help _ and Parsons’ superior officer. with the cleaning up and rebuilding of the base. Parsons is credited with designing the ordnance for the first Many of the men were in a state of shock, troubled by the vivid atomic bomb and bringing it to battle-ready status. He was memory of the horrible explosion in which so many of their assigned to Los Alamos and named Deputy Director under J. friends had died. All were extremely nervous and jumpy. Robert Oppenheimer and Division Leader for the Ordnance "Everybody was scared,” one survivor recalled. "If somebody Engineering Division established in June 1943. They developed, dropped a box or slammed a door, people be jumping around like designed and constructed the uranium-235 gun-bomb used on crazy. Everybody was still nervous." Hiroshima. Immediately after the Port Chicago disaster, Captain There was no psychiatric counselling or medical screening of | Parsons was elevated to the rank of Commodore, USN. He was the men, except for those who were obviously physically injured. subsequently the bombing officer aboard the B-29, the Enola Gay, The men's anxiety was probably made worse by the fact that they which dropped the U-235 bomb on Hiroshima. After Hiroshima, did not know what caused the explosion. Rumour and speculation Parsons was elevated to the rank of Rear Admiral, US Navy. were rife. Some thought it was caused by an accident, some sus- Parsons was a member of the LeMay Subcommittee of the Joint pected sabotage, others did not know what to think. Apparently Chiefs of Staff which became the Joint Crossroads Committee in the men were not informed that the Navy was conducting an 1946. He was Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Special investigation. Certainly, none of Weapons prior to his appointment as those who would later be involved Chairperson of the Joint in the work stoppage was called to Crossroads Committee which testify at the Court of Inquiry. ht oe ee ee cs planned the Bikini Atoll tests. He The men talked among them- This single, stunning disaster was also Deputy Task Force selves. They had not yet been . : oe 4 fift f Commander for Technical ordered back to their regular duty accounted for almost one fifth of Direction of the Bikini tests. and no one knew what would hap- all black naval casualties during Parsons died in 1952. pen next, but many of them hoped Be ee Specifications for the U-235 they would be transferred to other the whole of World War Il. gun-bomb used at Hiroshima were stations or to ships. complete by February 1944, Many of the survivors expected according to Volume I of the to be granted survivors’ leaves to Manhattan District History. visit their families before being re- Hardware for at least three urani- assigned to regular duties. But such leaves were not granted, cre- | um-235 guns was ordered at the end of March 1944. According to ating a major grievance. Even men who had been hospitalised the US Department of Energy Oak Ridge records, 74 kilograms of with injuries were not granted leaves. U-235 was available by December 1943, 93 kg by December 1944 The survivors and new personnel expressed their opposition to and 289 kg by December 1945. The uranium-235 gun-bomb retuming to loading ammunition, citing the possibility of another weighed about 9,000 pounds when assembled. explosion. The first confrontation occurred on 9th August. A ship Effective Ist August 1944, Los Alamos Laboratories were reor- had come into Mare Island to be loaded with ammunition, and the _ganised, all work on the U-235 gun-bomb was curtailed, and Second, Fourth and Eighth Divisions, 328 men, were ordered out _ efforts were concentrated on the plutonium-239 Nagasaki bomb. to the loading pier. The great majority of the men baulked, and eventually 258 men were arrested and confined for three daysona THE GOVERNMENT'S STORY barge tied to the pier. Officers told the men they faced serious The US Government claimed that 1,780 tons of high-explosive charges, including mutiny for which they could be executed, They TNT-equivalent exploded spontaneously at Port Chicago. (This is were also being threatened by guards with being summarily shot. in contrast to the two previous ship explosions, Mont Blanc in In early September, 50 men were selected as the ring-leaders Halifax in 1917, and SS Fort Stikine in Bombay in 1944, which and charged with mutiny. On 24th October 1944, after only 80 followed shipboard fires.) The government claimed there was not minutes of deliberation by a specially-convened military court, all | enough uranium-235 available for a bomb. This is now known to 50 men were found guilty of mutiny. Ten were sentenced to 15 _ have been a lie, as noted above. According to the declassified Oak years in prison, 24 sentenced to 12 years, 11 sentenced to 10 Ridge documents, 15.5 kilograms of U-235 is needed for a gun- years, and five sentenced to eight years. All were to be dishon- bomb. The December 1943 inventory was 74 kg of U-235, and in ourably discharged from the Navy. December 1994, six months after Port Chicago, it was 93 kg. Ifa After a massive outcry over the next year, in January 1946, 47 nuclear weapon was detonated at Port Chicago, it is likely to have of the Port Chicago men were released from prison and ‘exiled’ for been one of the U-235 gun-bombs built after March 1944, one year overseas before returning to their families. Of the Navy personnel who died in the blast, most—some 200 THE EVIDENCE FOR AN ATOMIC EXPLOSION ammunition-loaders—were black. Indeed, every man handling The force of the blast was greater than the 1,780 tons of high ammunition at Port Chicago was black, and every commissioned explosives could have caused, when one considers the total disin- officer was white. This was the standard operating procedure in tegration of the ship, the size of the blast crater, the tidal wave, the the segregated Navy at that time. destruction of the Quinalt Victory, the 12-ton locomotive, etc. THE GOVERNMENT'S STORY The US Government claimed that 1,780 tons of high-explosive TNT-equivalent exploded spontaneously at Port Chicago. (This is in contrast to the two previous ship explosions, Mont Blanc in Halifax in 1917, and SS Fort Stikine in Bombay in 1944, which followed shipboard fires.) The government claimed there was not enough uranium-235 available fora bomb. This is now known to have been a lie, as noted above. According to the declassified Oak Ridge documents, 15.5 kilograms of U-235 is needed for a gun- bomb. The December 1943 inventory was 74 kg of U-235, and in December 1994, six months after Port Chicago, it was 93 kg. Ifa nuclear weapon was detonated at Port Chicago, it is likely to have been one of the U-235 gun-bombs built after March 1944. THE EVIDENCE FOR AN ATOMIC EXPLOSION The force of the blast was greater than the 1,780 tons of high explosives could have caused, when one considers the total disin- tegration of the ship, the size of the blast crater, the tidal wave, the destruction of the Quinalt Victory, the 12-ton locomotive, etc. JUNE-JULY 1996 NEXUS ¢ 13