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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
100 Suns, 2 Feb 2004
Within the covers of this book Michael Light has collected official photographs from 100 of the 215 nuclear explosions set off in the atmosphere by the United States Government between 1945 and 1962: the point where they began carrying out tests underground. Shot entirely for scientific and archival purposes, perhaps the first thing to say about these photographs is that they have an absolutely staggering beauty. The notion of a fascinated child playing with fire springs to mind, along with the revulsion of what a thing of such beauty can do to a child's delicate skin. But even confined between the carefully designed pages of this book, regarded with a cognisance of the fact that the most recent was made more than forty years ago, their sheer force quickly gives reason to Oppenheimer’s famous quote from Hindu scripture: “I am become death, shatterer of worlds”. Oppenheimer, the polymath who alongside his scientific education found time to study Greek, Latin, French, German, Classics and Eastern philosophy, was apparently not quite the man for melodrama that those unfamiliar with direct sight of a nuclear blast might assume. Less than a month after he witnessed the detonation of the world’s first nuclear bomb in the New Mexico desert on 16th July 1945, as demonstrations of how the world had changed, two Japanese cities ceased to exist, and on 10th August 1945 the Japanese absolute surrender brought about the end of the World War that had accelerated the development of nuclear weaponry. But the nuclear genie could never be put back in the bottle.Atom bombs it transpires all had names. Little Boy, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, is described in the book as “ a crude gun-type uranium device”, which caused 201,468 casualties while only actually harnessing 1.3% of the atomic energy in its core. By 1952, seven years later and still twelve months prior to the death of Stalin, technology had marched significantly forward with the testing of a bomb cosily called Mike at Enewetak Atoll, bombs having now become too big to test on the American mainland. Mike, a 10.4 megaton, experimental liquid deuterium bomb, had an explosive force greater than the entire combined ordinance used in both the World Wars. Looking back now the word insanity creeps to mind. History continues to debate the point we came nearest to blowing ourselves from the planet; but the statistics remain terrifying. In some ways 100 Suns might be said to stand before the world as evidence of the arrogance of the human race. Robert Oppenheimer would have approved of this. He opposed the development of the thermo-nuclear Hydrogen bomb, but at the instruction of President Truman continued working on the project. In assembling 100 Suns, Michael Light shows a considerable self discipline. The Bomb after all, in all it’s immensity, horror and beauty, encourages the utterance of rhetoric. In avoiding such opportunities as introductory essays Light, and editor Mark Holborn, have produced a very much more powerful message.
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