August 23, 2025 Newsletter
This month the world recognized the 80th anniversary of the development and use of the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. People from around the globe gathered at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and floated lanterns with messages of peace. The three Manhattan Project National Historical Park sites also commemorated the anniversary with lanterns for peace and reflections on the legacy of the bombs.
News reporting by Al Jazeera on August 6 and the BBC TV New Channel on August 9 underscored the global interest in the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings. These and other recent programs including from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists are highlighted in this issue.
The public’s interest in the Manhattan Project was galvanized by the movie “Oppenheimer,” and Los Alamos capitalizes on that in August with its Oppenheimer Festival 2025. Opening night on August 16 honored Nancy Bartlit, beloved historian and civic leader.
In Oak Ridge, the new William J. Wilcox, Jr. K-25 Interpretive Center opens on August 23. A Manhattan Project veteran, Wilcox led efforts to preserve the history of the “Secret City” and the mammoth K-25 plant.
The Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MAPR) sites have welcomed visitors and organized events despite serious staff shortages. The National Park Service (NPS) made two excellent appointments recently but many positions are vacant while staff work multiple jobs.
This issue also highlights two noteworthy books: The Devil Reached Toward the Sky by Garrett M. Graff and Collisions by Alec Nevala-Lee. Finally, articles feature some forbidden photographs of Hiroshima and an artistic interpretation of 22 nuclear images.
PEACE AND REMEMBRANCE
The 80th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs was marked at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park sites with lights for peace and reflection on the legacy of the atomic bombings. Los Alamos lit luminarias along Ashley Pond (photo above, courtesy of NPS), and Hanford displayed them in a park near the Columbia River. At Oak Ridge, sunrise was marked by ringing of the Friendship Bell.
In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ceremonies honored the last remaining hibakusha [atomic bomb survivors] whose deepest hope is that “No one else shall ever again suffer as we have.” With an average age of 86, many worry that in 10 or 20 years there will be no one left to tell their stories.
The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organization that worked to make the world aware of the humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons. With the personal testimonies of the hibakusha, Nihon Hidankyo helped create “a powerful international norm stigmatizing the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable.”
On August 6, 2025 in the New York Times, Terumi Tanaka, chair of Nihon Hidankyo, called for more countries to join the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which went into effect in 2021. Tanaka worries that nations including Japan are increasing their reliance on nuclear deterrence as a military strategy.
“There is no such thing as protection by nuclear weapons….As President John F. Kennedy once said about the existential nature of the nuclear threat, “the weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.”
News reporting by Al Jazeera on August 6 (photo above) and the BBC TV New Channel on August 9 underscored the global interest in the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings.
To recognize the anniversary, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History had a special Inside the Vault program on August 7. The program focused on several documents from the Substitute Alloy Materials (SAM) Laboratory at Columbia University and the nearby Nash Garage building. Under Harold Urey, John Dunning and colleagues developed the complex process used in the K-25 plant in Oak Ridge to produce enriched uranium.
Irving Kaplan and Francis Bonner organized the Association of Manhattan Project Scientists in New York City. The scientists feared a nuclear arms race and lobbied for civilian control of the Atomic Energy Commission. In November 1945, several like-minded associations formed the Federation of Atomic Scientists, soon to be renamed the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). Eighty years later, FAS is an active advocacy and research organization “keeping the world save since 1945.”
Cindy Kelly was honored to contribute to these timely programs.
FORBIDDEN PHOTOS
David Wargowski is photographer and the author of “Atomic testament: Yoshito Matsushige and the first photos of Hiroshima’s nuclear toll” that was published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on August 6, 2025.
The five surviving photos taken by Yoshito Matushiga during the immediate aftermath of the atomic bomb are harrowing. Walking out of his home about 1.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, the photographer was “so overcome by the cruel sight that I couldn’t bring myself to press the shutter.”
During the American occupation that ended in 1952, photographs of the two stricken cities were not allowed to be made public. Most Japanese spent the early years after the war ignorant of the effects of the atomic bombs. Under the occupation, Japanese were not even allowed to openly discuss and debate about the atomic bomb.
When the photographs of Matsushige appeared in Japanese and American magazines, global audiences were horrified to see what actually happened under the mushroom cloud.
OPPENHEIMER FESTIVAL 2025
From August 16 to 31, the Oppenheimer Festival 2025 offers a lively selection of activities in Los Alamos. These include presentations on espionage, a documentary screening of First We Bombed New Mexico, and a stage adaption of Dr. Strangelove.
Opening night of the festival celebrated Nancy R. Bartlit who has served Los Alamos for over six decades as an historian, author and civic leader. Former President of the Los Alamos Historical Society and County Council member, Nancy was the spark plug behind commissioning the statutes of Oppenheimer and Groves now in front of Fuller Lodge and acquiring the Oppenheimer House for the Los Alamos Historical Society.
In her magnificent book with Everett M. Rogers, Silent Voices of World War II, she weaves together the stories of Manhattan Project scientists, New Mexican National Guard, Japanese American internees, and Navajo Code Talkers. Nancy continues to educate and inspire people about New Mexico’s rich history and its legacy for the world.
K-25 INTERPRETIVE CENTER OPENS
The William J. Wilcox, Jr. K-25 Interpretive Center’s grand opening is at noon on Saturday, August 23, 2025. Overlooking the footprint of the mile-long, U-shaped K-25 plant, the interpretive center is aptly named for William J. “Bill” Wilcox, Jr.
Graduating from Washington & Lee University in 1943, Wilcox went to work as a chemist for the Tennessee Eastman Company on “a secret project in an unknown location.” (See AHF oral history here). Wilcox nicknamed it “Dogpatch” but ended up living in Oak Ridge for 70 years.
Wilcox worked at the Y-12 plant for five years and the K-25 plant for 20 more, retiring as Technical Director for Union Carbide Nuclear Division. For several years he championed preserving the North End of the K-25 plant. However, DOE deemed that option “too dangerous and expensive.” Eventually agreement was reached on a new K-25 History Center and viewing platform overlooking the K-25 plant site.
Bill’s ability to explain technical details and add entertaining anecdotes made him a favorite of the media, students, and the public. With his signature bow tie and endless enthusiasm, he was a much loved scientist, historian, and citizen of Oak Ridge.
The new interpretive center (see photos below, courtesy of DOE) highlights the K-25 plant’s role after World War II and its contributions to global peace, science, and diplomacy. The Center will be operated by the AMSE Foundation as part of the K-25 Museum Campus, which includes the adjacent K-25 History Center. Bill would be delighted!
THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky draws on the Atomic Heritage Foundation’s oral histories as well as hundreds of other archives, books, reports, letters, and diaries. Written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff, the book is a riveting account of the making of the atomic bombs, the missions to drop the bombs, and their impact on Japan.
The story is told by famous figures such as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Secretary of War Henry Stimson, as well as people caught up in the top-secret Manhattan Project and civilians at ground zero on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Graff makes masterful use of first-hand accounts to engage readers in his riveting account.
In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, Graff wrote that the Manhattan Project was an astonishing achievement that left a culture of science and innovation that propelled American prosperity for 80 years. Yet, Graff goes on to note, the Trump administration is undoing all this by gutting agencies such as the National Science Foundation, making war on universities, slashing federal support for science and health research, and dismissing government employees with valuable expertise.
As Graff observes, “At no other time in modern history has a country so thoroughly turned its back on its core national strengths.,,,What America may find is that we have squandered the greatest gift of the Manhattan Project — which, in the end, wasn’t the bomb but a new way of looking at how science and government can work together.”
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
The Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MAPR) observed the 80th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombings of Japan with Lights for Peace and commemorative programs at all three sites.
The National Park Service recently selected two top-notch managers for the Manhattan Project (MAPR). Amy Cole is now the permanent Superintendent. In addition to her new role, Cole will continue to serve as the NPS Intermountain Region (IMRO) Cultural Resources Division Manager.
Cole spent her 36-year career in historic preservation including as attorney at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She is working in the Denver Federal Center and looking forward to traveling to the Manhattan Project sites in the coming weeks.
After a successful 120-day detail, Nicholas Murray is now the permanent Los Alamos Site Manager. Nick’s appointment gives the Los Alamos unit an energetic and enthusiastic leader and some welcome stability.
These are very challenging times for the National Park Service. President Trump’s hiring freeze on January 20 has left many vacancies unfilled. Neither Hanford nor Los Alamos has a park ranger and Becky Burghart, Hanford Site Manager, is currently the only NPS employee at Hanford. The Oak Ridge Site Manager juggles two other NPS positions.
This summer, Becky Burghart welcomed the assistance of the “rock-star volunteers” from the B Reactor Museum Association (BRMA) for the new “Atomic Explorations” program. Because the B Reactor is closed for repairs until 2027, the NPS is trying to create other experiences for visitors. With few resources to draw upon, the NPS is more dependent on volunteers and collaboration with other organizations to tell the Manhattan Project story.
SCIENCE, POWER, AND CONSEQUENCES
Collisions by Alec Nevala-Lee is compelling biography of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez. An innovative and ambitious young scientist, during World War II Alvarez worked on radar at MIT and then the plutonium bomb design at Los Alamos. Alvarez also flew on the instrument plane to Hiroshima.
After World War II, he revolutionized particle physics with his hydrogen bubble chamber and used X-rays to explore the inside of Egyptian pyramids. With his son Walter, Alvarez demonstrated that an asteroid caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
An ally of Ernest O. Lawrence and promoter of the hydrogen bomb, Alvarez was critical of Oppenheimer for not supporting the development of the hydrogen bomb. At the Atomic Energy Commission’s security hearings, Alvarez testified that Oppenheimer “showed exceedingly poor judgment.”
Inspired by Collisiions, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists hosted a webinar, “Science, Power, and Consequence: Luis Alvarez and the Atomic Age,” on August 21, 2025. Alexandra Bell, President and CEO of the Bulletin, facilitated the session with Alec Nevala-Lee, Dr. Yuki Miyamoto, Professor at DePaul University, and Cindy Kelly. The webinar is now on YouTube here.
IMAGES OF THE ATOMIC BOMB
David Wargowski commemorated the 80th Anniversary with “Atomic Bombing of Japan,” a haunting production of 22 nuclear images set to music on YouTube here. A retired scientist, Wargowski is a talented artist, exploring the intersection of science, memory, and visual culture.
Since June 2019, the Atomic Heritage Foundation has been pleased to partner with the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. The Museum and its first-class team are the stewards of AHF’s websites, documentary photographs, and artifacts. We look forward to continuing a very productive relationship.