Birth of the Bomb, by R.W. Clark

[p020] The Birth of the Bomb. By R. W. Clark. Phoenix House, 16s. ‘ Clark traces the evolution of the atomic bomb from the discovery by Dr. Otto Hahn of nuclear fission in 1938, to the bomb’s manufacture and explosion in August 1945. Writing in easily understood terms. Clark demonstrates that the British government had already agreed to research on a new weapon before the 1939 war broke out, and that scientists were in the first instance prodding Government figures as to the practic- ability of a completely new type of weapon—1,000-fold greater in explo- sive power than all existing weapons. Some of these scientists were refugees from Nazi Germany or Italy, who feared that the Nazi Government

[p021] ment! subordinate British imperialism had BOOK REVIEWS “would get such a weapon and use it. The book traces the main theore- tical and technical problems that the ‘scientists overcame in Britain from 1939 to the end of 1941 before they were able to show conclusively that ‘this new bomb could be manufactured, provided the industrial plant was there to produce enough of the isotope Uranium 235—a_ certain “critical mass’ being jecessary to produce the rapid ‘ chain-reaction ’, that is, a nuclear explosion. But here the industrial strain and ‘the difficulties of supplies made it impossible for the Churchill govern- ment to continue—at least with any hope of turning out a weapon by the -end of the war. The British Government turned to ‘the American imperialists, who were not yet at war. They agreed to provide all the industrial and further technical equipment. Within a few months, with their entry into the war, all further atomic information was shut off from the British govern- Such was the price that to pay, in spite of Churchill’s later protests. Clark concludes his book by des- cribing the apprehension many of the scientists felt as the day drew nigh. Many must have pictured themselves as atomic Frankensteins, unable to check the monster. Too late— American imperialism was determined to show its might both to Japan and to Russia—by the cold experiment in mass murder that has never been forgotten. Clark, in his introduction, repeats the myth that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, was ‘an instrument for circumventing the agony of an allied invasion of Japan .. . in spite of repeated proofs that the Japanese were suing with America for peace terms before August 1945. But even Clark, war correspondent and supporter of the last imperialist war, cannot explain away the second atomic bomb, for he says: ‘Even to the most devoted experimenter, the death throes of Nagasaki seem a high price to pay for proving that plutonium, which here formed the explosive, as it had in the test weapon, did its task as adequtely as Uranium 235 which formed the heart of the first bomb. .. - Diplomats at Work