Chapter 9 - The "Clean" Bomb
And THIS from the Lumberjack News of Eureka, California.
In the last days of that bitter struggle
Called World War II
With the Axis Powers reeling in defeat,
A new and deadly weapon came into use.
The American General staff convenes.
History is being made!
"Gentlemen, as you know, we have the ultimate weapon".
"Yes. We now have the capability to destroy a Japanese
City"
Voices: "Hiroshima, a military target" Military?
Conscience says, "but what of the babes in arms, the lame, the
halt, and the blind?"
"What of the civilian worker, driven to his daily task, yes
driven, by the Japanese military?"
"Be still conscience, an example must be made."
Headlines: "Better a million Japanese lives be lostthan one
American boy."
Bulletin: The Siberian Red army in pursuit of the utterly
defeated Japanese Kwantung Army!
Bulletin: American forces close in for final assault on Japanese
home Islands. War's end expected momentarily!
A sudden hush. Expectancy? Angels holding their breaths?
And then, the man made Holocaust! the A. BOMB!
Bulletin: Hiroshima destroyed!
A call on the Japanese to surrender. A tense short wait, TOO
short. Thenthe second bombNagasaki destroyed!
AGAIN conscience says: "But gentlemenyou COULD have bombed an
uninhabited area!"
And now the aftermath! The revulsion of the whole world!
Against Hitler? Against the Japanese Military?
NO!! Against the AMERICAN STATE for sponsoring mass murder!
Yes! The just revulsion at American atrocities!
And now? Future mutations? Three legged, two headed
infants?
But no: 1957. Now, wonder of wonders.
American science comes up with the CLEAN BOMB![1]
All nations will share in the secret of the CLEAN BOMB.
Naturally, in the event of war, we don't want a dirty bomb
dropped on us!
Ah! The wonders of science!
A science devoted to destruction?
But no! Now we have the clean bomb!
And so: The "Descendents" of the millions of dead?
In a future war? The US and the Soviet Union?
Will have the assurance
That they will not be bornmutated!
[1] The Neutron Bomb has the power to kill living, organic material, but its weak blast would destroy only a small target area, less than the size of a standard middle-class family house, hence the name clean bomb.
