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Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford. - book reviews

Journal of Social History, Winter, 1997 by Daniel J. Walkowitz

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Through the prosaic details of life in this primitive camp, interviewees capture the excitement and achievement of the "adventure": the "shutdown crisis" when the plutonium core in Reactor B "went critical" (p. 152); "the persistent and ever-present fear" scientists such as Leona Libby had that "the Germans were ahead of us" (p. 162); fears of gas releases and Japanese balloon bombs; actual problems with xenon poisoning. Others remind us of the pioneering engineering work done at Hanford in using remote devices to manipulate the plutonium and the development of standard cell design. Ultimately, as Lombard Squires, the chief supervisor of plutonium separation, noted, the facility "has been the basis for all major chemical reprocessing plants in this country ever since, and for the processing of radioactive materials." (p. 178)

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Sanger's interviewees relate this "romance" of Hanford well, but in ways which Sanger's presentation obscures. For instance, two issues inform every interview: secrecy and the use of the bomb. Moreover, while Sanger presents accounts as seamless narratives, virtually every remembrance concludes with a discussion of attitudes toward the use of the bomb. Virtually every interview reflects on what the person knew of the project and the intense veil of secrecy under which they operated. Simple mention of the word "radioactivity," for instance, could lead to expulsion. Similarly, virtually every remembrance ends with a defense (usually) or apology (rarely) for the use of the bomb. Coincidence? I think not.

Sanger's wonderful collection concludes with an author's note: "I would let those who had been there tell the story." (p. 256) Were that it were so simple. They have "stories" to tell, but such tales have an uneasy relationship to history which reverberates through intervening years and present debates. Such oral "histories" need to be interrogated. Indeed, the sound of Sanger's own voice echoes lightly through their tales, and it is my only regret that he does not raise it to engage his interviewees more openly. We never, for example, learn of Sanger's questions, of how his presence and concerns shaped the discussion.

Many of the remembrances in this collection provide conflicting accounts of, for instance, exposure to radiation, of the "selflessness" of the Du Pont Corporation, or of what was actually known of their work. An Epilogue and an Afterward (by University of Washington historian Bruce Hevly), which take the Hanford story from the use of the bomb in Nagasaki through the present ecological crises of the area, do begin to provide an analytic edge and contemporary context for these conflicting views. Working on the Bomb, then, is less formally "a history" of Hanford than a lively and wide-ranging documentary collection of remembrances in which are embedded several conflicting "histories" or memories. Such disagreement does not diminish Sanger's collection; his work constitutes a set of building blocks on which historians (and students) may begin to construct a more complete history of Hanford, one which engages the multiplicity and complexity of the different experiences, the politics of remembering and forgetting, and the question of which memories are authorized in public accounts.

Working on the Bomb: An Oral History of WWII Hanford. - book reviews

Journal of Social History, Winter, 1997 by Daniel J. Walkowitz

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