There are many books about atomic bomb downwinders. These books tell the stories of people directly affected by fallout from atmospheric bombs. Some report on the Navajo people who mined for uranium in New Mexico and Arizona. I’ve expanded the resources about atom bomb testing to include the British bomb tests in Australia.
Here are a few that I consider essential to understanding how people were affected by atomic bomb tests. Beginning in 1945, more than 2,000 nuclear bombs were tested, including the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Millions of people were put in harm’s way without any warning. More than 30 million tons of uranium ore were extracted from Navajo lands. Most of the miners were Navajo people. Nothing was done to warn them about the dangers of mining uranium ore. Uranium-bearing ore had been mined for centuries in Schneeberg (Germany) and Jachimov (Czechoslovakia). By 1932, Germany and Czechoslovakia had designated cancer in these miners as a compensable occupational disease. This information was ignored by mining in the western United States.
Books on Fallout from Nuclear Bomb Testing
Beyond Belief: The British Bomb Tests: Australia’s Veterans Speak Out, Roger Cross and Avon Hudson. This historical work provides a voice for the forgotten victims of the British atomic bomb tests in Australia. during the 1950s. Raising disturbing questions about the authorities who conducted the tests, this investigative work reveals how successive British and Australian governments have denied their understanding of the dangers of ionizing radiation in the 1950s. Uncovering scenarios in which government scientists employed to monitor the tests were given protective clothing. At the same time, military personnel and workers were left unprotected and exposed to a simulated theatre of atomic war; this work places Australia’s forgotten atomic tragedy into a global context.
Fallout: Hedley Marston and the British Bomb Tests, Roger Cross. Fallout’ is the strange but true story of a celebrated Australian scientist’s involvement in the 1956 British atomic bomb tests. Hedley Marston, an idol with his own feet of clay, was determined to reveal official lies and deception and expose the Australian scientists appointed as charlatans to protect the nation from any possible harm. Contrary to official pronouncements, radioactive fallout was blowing across the country, contaminating many towns and communities, including Marston’s beloved Adelaide. The dispute that ensued was the most cruel in the history of Australian science. ‘Fallout’ tells us much about the nature of science and our society. It is about science in service of the bomb and in favor of self. Roger Cross tells a story that must make us ask the alarming question: could we be fooled again?
Downwind: A People’s History of the Nuclear West, Sarah Alisabeth Fox. Downwind is an unflinching tale of the atomic West that reveals the intentional disregard for the inhabitants and the environment in nuclear testing by the federal government and in uranium extraction by mining corporations during and after the Cold War. Sarah Alisabeth Fox interviews residents of the Great Basin region affected by environmental contamination from the uranium industry and nuclear testing fallout. Those residents tell tales of communities ravaged by cancer epidemics, farmers and ranchers economically ruined by massive crop and animal deaths, and Native miners working in dangerous conditions without proper safety equipment so that the government could surreptitiously study the effects of radiation on humans.
American Ground Zero: The Secret Nuclear War, Carole Gallagher. A poignant collection of photographs that records the effects of the United States government’s mendacious and reckless nuclear testing program. Men, women, children, animals, and the landscape of the American continent were affected.
Operation Crossroads – Lest We Forget!: An Eyewitness Account, Bikini Atomic Bomb Tests 1946, 2016 by William L. McGee (Author), Sandra V. McGee (Author), F. Lincoln Grahlfs, Ph.D. (Foreword). In the summer of 1946, William L. McGee, USN, was one of the 42,000 military, scientists and civilian personnel assembled at the Bikini Atoll. They were there for the first postwar tests of the atomic bomb, code-named Operation Crossroads. The author witnessed Crossroads from the deck of a cruiser responsible for positioning 95 target vessels in the Bikini Lagoon. This is his story of what took place at Operation Crossroads in 1946.
Voices From Ground Zero: Recollections and Feelings of Nuclear Test Veterans,1996 by Lincoln F. Grahlfs. From 1945, there were 235 acknowledged atmospheric detonations of nuclear devices. A quarter million American military personnel constitute a unique population that witnessed these weapons.
Many of these men have experienced illnesses that they attribute to radiation exposure. Most seem to recognize that military service is a hazardous occupation withs risks. Still, the feeling prevails that safety measures were inadequate and many identify themselves as ‘human guinea pigs’. Their resentment, however, is not directed toward the military. They tend to blame their problems on the policymakers, the Congress and, in particular, on the Veterans Administration. This book examines and analyzes the recollections of the American military personnel involved in these tests.
Bomb: The Race to Build–And Steal–The World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, by Steve Sheinkin. Perfect for middle-grade readers and history enthusiasts. Steve Sheinkin presents the true story Cold War in Bomb.
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