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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Reflections on the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Oral History
The Atomic Bombers
July 23, 2015
Interviewer: At two forty-five in the morning of August 6, 1945, the B-29 Enola Gay took off from North field on Tinian. Aboard the plane were thirteen men a thing called “the Gimmick.” Some fourteen hundred miles and six hours later, the Enola Gay reached her appointment with history. The time was fifteen minutes and seventeen […]
Oral History
Fred Hunt’s Interview
July 21, 2015
Hunt: I started working for DuPont in 1937 at Old Hickory [in Tennessee] in the power department. I was very anxious to do the best I could, so I made a special effort to learn everything. Where were you when you were told to return to Wilmington? Hunt: At that point I was a power […]
Oral History
Bob Caron’s Tape to Joe Papalia
July 20, 2015
Bob Caron: Oh, now for comments on Bob Lewis. I do not know what the hell to say about that, Joe. Bob calls me fairly frequently on his WATS [Wide Area Telephone Service] line, and I kind of feel like I am in the middle of something. He is very bitter, and very bitter towards [Paul] […]
Oral History
Charles Oppenheimer and Dorothy Vanderford’s Interview
July 17, 2015
Kai Bird: This is Kai Bird off camera, interviewing Charles Oppenheimer and Dorothy Vanderford. Just for the record, I will ask you to state your names and your date of birth and where you were born. Dorothy Vanderford: My name is Dorothy Vanderford. I was born as Dorothy Oppenheimer August 18th, 1973. I was born […]
Oral History
William Downey’s Interview – Part 2
July 13, 2015
William Downey: The depersonalization of the world, and what the Soviet Union does to their own people in mental hospitals in the process of destroying them, so all people would be destroyed everywhere. So, it is not the peace I want. It is not peace that I want. It is peace with justice. It is […]
Oral History
William Downey’s Interview – Part 1
William Downey: Now, as I remarked, one of the security officers told me a little time before, there was going to be a really fantastic new thing, only one of the greatest things that ever happened in the history of the world. This kind of hyperbole I never took too seriously anyway. The night of the […]
Oral History
Ray Gallagher and Fred Olivi’s Interview – Part 2
July 1, 2015
Announcer: You are listening to Extension 720. Here once again is your host, Milt Rosenberg. Milton Rosenberg: As we are tonight talking about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions, whose 43rd anniversary comes this weekend, we are talking with Robert Messer, Professor of History at the University of Illinois Chicago and with two participants in those […]
Oral History
Ray Gallagher and Fred Olivi’s Interview – Part 1
June 25, 2015
Announcer: Here is your host and moderator, Milton Rosenberg. Milton Rosenberg: Our guests tonight all know a great deal about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but from different vantage points, two of them from the vantage point of being up in the air and helping to drop the bombs. They are Fred Olivi, who […]
Oral History Interviewee
Paul Tibbets
Paul Tibbets, Jr. (1915 – 2007) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force who piloted the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare.
Oral History
Michele Gerber’s Interview
June 23, 2015
Michele Gerber: My name is Michele Gerber, M-I-C-H-E-L-E G-E-R-B-E-R. Why should people today care about the Manhattan Project? Gerber: I think there are three reasons why people today should care about the Manhattan Project today, even in the 21St century. One reason has to do with money. The events set in motion by the Manhattan […]