Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

John Coster-Mullen is a nuclear archaeologist and author of Atom Bombs: The Top Secret, Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man. He worked as a corporate and advertising photographer for over 30 years and now drives trucks around the country. In his spare time, Coster-Mullen researches the creation of the atomic bomb.

Coster-Mullen became interested in the creation and history of the bombs as early as the seventh-grade, when the first photographs of Little Boy and Fat Man were released. He has spent over 25 years uncovering how these machines functioned by interviewing Manhattan Project scientists, mechanics, and engineers, requesting government documents, and doing his own calculations. In 2004, he completed a full-scale, exact replica of the Little Boy bomb, which is on display at the Historic Wendover Airfield Museum in Utah and is signed by dozens of the surviving veterans of the 509th Composite Air Group that dropped these bombs on Japan. In 2001, the members of the 509th voted to make him a Permanent Honorary Member of their group.

John Coster-Mullen has played a crucial role in establishing a public, permanent record of the creation of the bomb. In an article about him in The New Yorker, he is quoted saying, “The secret of the atomic bomb is how easy they are to make.”

Coster-Mullen continued to search for nuclear artifacts and speak publicly about his research until his passing on April 24, 2021.

Related Profiles

Kenji Shiga

Japan

Kenji Shiga was the director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum from 2013-2019. As director, Shiga greets foreign dignitaries visiting Hiroshima, including then-United States President Barack Obama in 2016.

Denise Kiernan

Oak Ridge, TN

Denise Kiernan has worked as a journalist and producer. She is best known for The Girls of Atomic City, which came out in March 2013 and immediately shot to the top of the New York Times bestsellers list – and stayed there.

Jackie Peterson

Hanford, WA

Jackie Peterson is an independent curator and exhibit developer in Seattle, Washington.  Peterson earned her bachelor degrees in English and History from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in Museum Studies from New York University.

James Hershberg

Washington, DC

Dr. Hershberg is a professor of History and International Affairs at The George Washington University.