X-DAY AT BIKINI

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 367, 5 July 1946, Page 6

X-DAY AT BIKINI

ONE day early this month (the date will depend on the weather, though as we go to press July I is named), United States airmen will drop two atom bombs on the anchorage at Bikini atoll, in the Marshall Islands, as the first act of an experiment which has been significantly named "Operation Crossroads." The primary object of the tests is to determine whether future battleships will be large or small, surface craft or submersibles — or, indeed, whether it will be worth while building battleships at all -but a number of other questions no less important will be on the agenda, One of critical importance is: what is the effect of an atom-blast upon living things? LREADY, weeks before the release of a single neutronstream or gamma fay, human life upon Bikini has felt the disruptive impact of the atom. The native population of 167 have found their lease of this nondescript little atoll determined by the course of history, and in a clearance more thorough than ever emptied highland glen or Hebridean islet, have been shipped to Rongerik, 109 miles away. The natives agreed to give up their home, states Life, because they were told that the United States wanted the atom bomb’s destructive power to be used for the "good of mankind,’ but none of them appears to understand the utter destruction which awaits the island, and they talk of returning to Bikini some other day. It is thought that the United States Navy will have to run excursions to the island after the explosion to convince the people that they can never live there again. ‘ Before Bikini reached the crossroads, the natives had lived more or less un- _ eventfully, ruled in turn by Germans, Japanese and Americans. In religion, the natives are Congregationalists, converted by New England missionaries but led by their own native preacher. The ubiquitous coconut palm was their main source of income, securing for them cotton, rice and tobacco, and their diet was largely... fruit and fish: But wholesale transportation has changed more than their dwelling-place. Before the islanders, shipped overnight to Rongerik by LST, had _ properly settled down in their new home, Chief. Juda and the elders of the community found their young people already suffer-. ing from the brief contact with civilisa- — tion. In a few weeks they had become: content to depend upon the U.S. Navy. for food, clothing, and shelter. Temporary Navy tentage at first housed them at Rongerik, while permanent huts were _ built by Seabees and the more energetic’ of the natives. But fishing, said Chief. Juda, was being neglected. At Bikini preparations for the tests have been in hand since May. The lagoon on which the target fleet is being

assembled is a considerable body of water -- 2142 miles long and about a dozen miles wide-enclosed by a necklet of more than 20 islands, of which Bikini is the largest. Its suitability lies in the fact that it is well out in the Pacific-190 miles east of Eniwetok, 170 north of Kwajalein-and that it is an excellent anchorage for heavy vessels. Eight channels of varying width on the southern side of the atoll give passage to the lagoon and there are 11 fathoms of water at the anchorage. Guinea-pig Fleet The target fleet which will anchor in this secluded roadstead will itself be a formidable force df over a hundred vessels, comprising samples of every major type of warcraft used during the last six years. Capital ships will be represented by the old U.S. battleships Arkansas, Nevada, New York, and Pennsylvania, and the half-gutted Japanese Nagato; the U.S.S. Saratoga and Independence will represent the heavy and light carrier types; heavy cruisers present will include the Pensacola and Salt Lake .City, and the German Prince Eugen (which escaped bombing so long: ago in the docks at Brest, and in the dramatic dash upChannel with the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau); the Japanese Sakawa will record the effect of blast on light cruisers, and there will be 16 destroyers and.eigh* submarines dispersed among the heavier vessels. At "reaction stations" aboard this armada there will be 200 goats, 200 pigs, and 4,000 white rats, in whose bodies will be measured the effects of blast and radiation. These animals will be dispersed over all battle-stations — on bridges, in turrets, and in engine-rooms. From the pigs, scientists hope to gain the most valuable information, since their skin most closely resembles that of human beings. They will be dressed

in standard naval protective clothing, and will be treated with anti-flash lotion. Some will be rigged out in newlydeveloped protective suits designed to cope with atomic radiation. Ten Miles to Ringside Seats Scientists, who are more interested in radiation-sick than radiation-dead animals, believe that a large proportion of the goats, pigs and rats will survive the experiment, and the more optimistic among naval architects believe that most of the warships will also withstand at least the air-explosion, if not that at water-level. Care is being taken, however, to keep all but the guinea-pig fleet out of the zone of the blast. The most intrepid of the human observers (volunteers for the target-fleet itself having been declined) will protect themselves in shelters 16 miles from the detonationpoint, and will give a first-hand account of the explosion. Viewing it from 20 miles eway will be the high-ranking officers, scientists, and observers of the U.N. atomic energy committee, and possibly more than 100 members of the U.S. Congress, all equipped with polaroid goggles to prevent blindness. Opinions which have been advanced that chainreaction may be started, causing oceans to evaporate and earthquakes to rock. far-off countries are discounted by sober scientists, who deny that there is any such danger, and assert that the earthshock will not even approximate the recent underwater ‘quake off. the Aleutians. But all that swims, or flies, or creeps, or grows unprotected within ,the aura of the explosion will die instantly. The bombing planes which are to be used to drop the fourth atom bomb and carry out aerial observations will probably take off from air-strips on Eniwetok (continued on next page)

"OPERATION CROSSROADS" (continued from previous page)

or Kwajalein. This bomb, which is repotted to be more powerful than any yet exploded, will detonate in the air above the assembled fleet. If all proceeds according to plan, a fifth bomb will later be exploded at water-level, or slightly below the surface; and next year the trial of an atomic depth-charge is provided for. When the first of these three bombs is dropped, however, a vast bubble of steam will mushroom upwards and the pale pink of burning hydrogen will flare briefly around it. And in the same instant one or more of the target ships may disintegrate into dust, along with its cargo of goats, pigs, rats, jeeps, tanks and equipment. The crew of the bomber dropping the charge will wear welders’ goggles, and they won’t wait around to watch the results. They will be followed by eight robot controlled Flying Fortresses ("flying drones") carrying cameras and other sensitive recording instruments. These planes will fly through the atomic cloud at varying altitudes, and unless radio-activity disrupts their radio-control systems they will yield valuable information on their return. Photographic recording at ground-level is also being arranged on a grand scale. Batteries of, radio-operated cameras will be mounted on 100ft. steel towers on the other islands of the atoll group at ranges of five to ten miles from the target-area. All cameras will be housed in leadwalled rooms, as protection against radioactive matter, and the photographs will be taken through portholes which close automatically after the exposures have been made. More than 400 sound recordings will also be made, and measurements taken of the frequency of garmmarays, X-rays, and ultra-violet Tays generated by the explosion. Lloyds is Ready But though Bikini is global in its implications, there has so far been no suggestion that observations will be carried out other than at the point of the explosion. Physicists working in New Zealand have not been asked to make any observations at the time of the explosion, though routine seismographic recordings may show the effects of the disturbance. Officers of the NBS who maintain the 24-hour listening watch at Makara, however, will be on the lookout for any variations in radio reception, and the engineering section, though not anticipating eny effects, will note and log these if they occur. As might be expected, Lloyds is ready to serve either the pessirnistic or the long-headed by way of insurance cover against damage resulting to life or property from the experiment. A representative of The Listener made enquiries at their Wellington office and found the manager ready to talk business, though no rate had yet been fixed by the London office. No business was. offering either, for that matter, though there appeared to be a mumber of double-dyed

le | pessimists on the firm’s books here, Several, who took out insurance against war damage when the Japanese scare was at its height, still persist in paying their premiums. Anyone who wanted to get as far from Bikini as possible would find it difficult to get out from under the penumbra of power-politics, since the antipodes of Bikini lie somewhere between. St. Helena and Ascension Islands, in the South Atlantic, with latitude and longitude slightly in favour of Ascension. Ascension, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, is already the home of the "wideawake" birds. But even Bikini’s antipodes may not altogether be unaffected by atmospheric disturbances. When Krakatoa blew up in’ 1883, the explosion caused an aif=wave, or atmospheric oscillation, which passed and, re-passed seven times across the surface of the earth between the Sunda Strait and its antipodes in Venezuela. This phenomenon was recorded barographically in New Zéaland, both at Dunedin and Wellington. With the possibility of rapidly-alternating periods of high and low pressure, Ascension may have rather mixed weather this month,