Home and Atomic History

Last year, I put up (in several parts) a piece I wrote for my graduate studies about one perspective on my hometown of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Recently, a TV crew was let into a bomb site in Nevada where over 900 nuclear bombs were tested, which led me to vce.com or atomcentral. This website details the history of atomic weaponry, which was central to the creation of Los Alamos. Sure enough, Los Alamos is prominently featured on the site.

I have a very strange relationship and mixed feelings about my hometown. These emotions led to my research and writing about Los Alamos during my grad studies. I guess something feels unresolved. I feel both pride and shame in my association with Los Alamos. While partly a place of great scientific accomplishment (and the origin of many of my memories), the city is also responsible for the deadliest weapon yet created that was used with horrifying results. While it could be argued that the atomic bombs prevented the loss of many lives by ending the war with Japan sooner than expected, there was still tremendous loss of life in Hiroshima and Nagasaki plus the terrible effects of fallout that were felt in Japan and in the United States because of some nuclear tests. While I believe the city added to my development in many ways, it has always been a place that creates hard questions.

The VCE website is terrific. It has a great deal of well organized info plus some rarely seen photos. I wish I could have used it in my paper, but luckily, I had many other sources. Los Alamos will remain a place of conflicting emotions, but it is an integral part of my childhood and the subject of my first "play," although if you take the time to read what I put up here, you'll see that it's hardly a "play." It's not so easily defined, like the city itself. One thing I can say for sure is that I do not glow green at night. Yet.