Dr. Jerry Sanson
Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum
Above: Japanese Flag from Hiroshima
Even though Americans celebrated the end of World War II and the imminent return home of their loved ones when Japan surrendered, some raised questions about the unconventional weapons that led to the speedy conclusion of the war. Louisiana newspaper editorial writers shared the opinion of many colleagues across the country when they raised the questions of what the country should do with the secrets discovered through atomic research and how this new technology should be used now that it had served its military purpose.
Regarding the astonishing power in atomic energy demonstrated in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, the Town Talk in Alexandria remarked as early as 7 August 1945, that “Lest it become the monster by which man with his own hands and mind destroys himself, it behooves us to examine carefully, even prayerfully, the use to which this Frankenstein is put, and the hands in which its secrets lie.”
The Shreveport Times observed that the further civilization progressed, the more it acquired the ability to destroy “vast chunks of the world.” The Item in New Orleans added that “One common reaction to [the atomic bomb] seems to be that it is very unfortunate for humanity that so terrible a weapon had to be invented. For at least a dozen of our acquaintances have expressed in varying terms the feelings that atom-cracking will destroy us all, if not the world along with us.”
The New Orleans States suggested that the safest course might be to outlaw the new weapon because of “fears that another war will end civilization,” but that attempts to outlaw it “are doomed to failure unless they can be approached through strong international controls of the very process involved in the manufacture of atomic power.” The Morning Advocate in Baton Rouge asked, “How can any logical person argue that any effort no matter how great on behalf of lasting peace, is not entirely justified?”
The threat of atomic proliferation appeared quickly to some observers after the wartime explosions. However, some of them thought that the threat posed by the terrible new weapon might force nations into agreeing on a framework designed to provide a lasting peace. An editorial in the Morning Advocate warned, “by this frightful invention, the strongest fortifications known to man can be crumpled like tinfoil, the deepest shelters can be blown open, and the very mountains toppled. We are now trying to establish machinery to keep a lasting peace. We had better make it work. This may be our last chance to avoid the [a]pocalyptic destruction with which the science of war so long has threatened us.”
The tattered Japanese battle flag that was a witness to the first atomic bombing in Hiroshima now exhibited at the Louisiana Maneuvers and Military Museum is a stark reminder of the power that the Little Boy bomb unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Even though world powers have developed increasingly powerful and deadly weapons, the basic questions raised by Louisiana opinion writers and their colleagues in other states at the end of World War II still remain. What proper uses does atomic power have, and who should have that power?