The Secret City

I love me some Oak Ridge. Motel.com is noting it's a hot place to visit. Pun intended.

When next you go east, get your atom on.

Pictured: The K-25 Plant, once the largest space under roof in the world, covered 44 acres and contained 2 million square feet. Scientists needed the space for sciency stuff (separating isotopes to enrich uranium). Bomb-building, baby.

I am no warmonger. Dropping the bombs on Japan were unspeakable acts. But I believe:

• A U.S. invasion of the Japanese homeland would have killed countless Japanese citizens and U.S. military members. 

• On the European front, Hitler was busting his ass to get the bomb before we did. The Germans surrendered in 1945 partly because they knew we were close to securing the ultimate weapon. Else their own killing machines--the death camps--would have ground on and on.

Finally, the co-opting of atomic-bomb imagery and analogy during the Cold War is so hideous that I cannot look away. It speeds right past atrocious and arrives at absurd. Sort of like my celebrating the Secret City, I reckon.

Examples:

"Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb," a song by the Soul Stirrers

"Fujiyama Mama," by Wanda Jackson