By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – A Washington State University Tri-Cities history professor is part of a history film focusing on the Manhattan Project that was recently in the category of “Outstanding Daytime Non-Fiction Special.”

Robert Franklin, assistant director of the ���سԹ� Hanford History Project and teaching assistant professor of history, was one of a handful of talent that starred in “” produced by based out of New Orleans. The project focuses on the three major sites that were instrumental in the Manhattan Project, which developed the technology and produced the plutonium and uranium for the world’s first atomic bombs: Hanford, Washington; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The 70-minute film, which is also , has been shown to middle schools and high schools across the country throughout the last year, exploring the science, sites and stories of the creation of the atomic bomb.

Franklin, with his role and expertise on Hanford as part of the ���سԹ� Hanford History Project, was approached about participating in the project in 2019. That summer, crew from the National WWII Museum traveled to all three sites, using a local high school student as the host for each site and referencing local experts in the region on the history of each site as part of the film. Franklin had the opportunity to not only voice his expertise on the site as part of the film, but also provided input to the script.

Sara Cassin, a student from Delta High School, was selected as the local student host, who, with Franklin, led filmmakers through the B Reactor, the world’s first large-scale nuclear reactor, as well as other historical landmarks and buildings located at Hanford.

Franklin said even with the excellent production of the project, neither he, nor any of the members of the crew or other talent, anticipated they would be nominated for a Daytime Emmy for the project.

“I was kind of in shock when I found out,” he said. “Really, I was just a small part of the project – it was the folks at the museum who organized it, wrote the script and packaged the whole thing. But I am honored to have participated in it. I never thought I would say that I was in something that was nominated for an Emmy. It’s not a sentence I ever thought I would say.”

Franklin said to be part of a project that is now recognized with such a prestigious award is an incredible honor. He said working at ���سԹ� and bringing the knowledge he has gained and cultivated about the Manhattan Project, and specifically Hanford history, to students and the public is his dream job.

“Being able to teach in the classroom and bring what we’re doing with the Hanford History Project to students and further cement my role as a historian means the world to me,” he said. “The film was such a great project to be involved with. It’s such an incredible way to engage students and the public, and it’s just really well-done. It was such an honor to be a part of and apply even a small part of my work as a historian to the project.”

The will air at 8 p.m. Friday, June 25, on CBS. It will also be available on-demand and via streaming.

 

Media contacts:

Robert Franklin, assistant director of the ���سԹ� Hanford History Project and teaching assistant professor of history, robert.franklin@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� director of marketing and communication, 619-403-3617 (cell), maegan_murray@wsu.edu

RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities will host a series of events to celebrate advocacy efforts and to raise awareness about the African American experience in the Tri-Cities in honor of Black History Month.

Feb. 5: Black History Month Celebration

The month kicks off with a Black History Month celebration this week from 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5, in ���سԹ� Student Union Building 120N. The event will feature two guest speakers who will share about their experiences of being African American in the Tri-Cities, as well as their experiences generally around race and advocacy.

Guest speaker Wayne Jenkins is the pastor of New Hope, an African American church, and former member of the Black Panther Party. Guest speaker Chaune Fitzgerald is the 2020 recipient of Columbia Basin College’s Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award and is the owner of Salon Remedi.

Light refreshments will be served and the event is free and open to the public. The event is hosted by the ���سԹ� MOSAIC Center for Student Inclusion.

���سԹ� student Stephanie Warner, who is one of the coordinators of the event, said she is excited to bring further African American perspectives and experiences to campus.

“I’m excited to hear about the speakers’ experiences living in today’s age being African American and climbing the professional ladder, as well as the day-to-day experiences,” she said. “As one of the speakers is a former member of the Black Panther Party, it will be very interesting hearing his story.”

Feb. 20: Black History Month Film – Selma

The ���سԹ� history department will host a film showing of the movie “Selma” from 3:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, in the East Auditorium on campus. The film is based on the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights marches led by civil rights leaders James Bevel, Hosea Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis. The movie showing is open to students, faculty and staff. Attendees will receive free popcorn.

Feb. 21: Hanford History Project debuting oral histories regarding African American migration and experiences at Hanford

The ���سԹ� Hanford History Project will launch a series of oral histories “Documenting African American Migration, Segregation and Civil Rights History at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Hanford,” beginning Feb. 21 online at .

The oral histories include 42 interviews with former and current African American Hanford employees, their family members, as well as influential figures in the mid-Columbia region. The project was made possible by a grant and partnership with the National Park Service.

 

Media contacts:

Kristine Cody, ���سԹ� MOSAIC Center for Student Inclusion coordinator, 509- 372-7600, kristine.cody@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� public relations/communication coordinator, 509-372-7333, maegan_murray@wsu.edu

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – In celebration of the 75^th anniversary of the Hanford Site, Washington State University Tri-Cities’ Hanford History Project will host and partner to offer several activities throughout the month of September that provide a glimpse into the unique history of Hanford and impact that it has had on the region, state and world.

“Hanford is a unique place with unique history,” said Robert Franklin, assistant director of the ���سԹ� Hanford History Project. “It is also a really complicated place with a complicated history, but that is what makes it interesting. It had a huge impact on the development of the city of Richland, and it had an impact on the rest of the world.”

Hanford is the location of the world’s first large-scale nuclear reactor, the B Reactor, which also made the plutonium for the “Fat Man” nuclear bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II. It led to the creation of a variety of scientific and engineering discoveries and development of technology. It is now the site of the one of the world’s largest nuclear cleanup efforts.

“This is a great opportunity to learn more about Hanford and its impact, especially on the regional Tri-Cities community,” Franklin said. “We want to make people more aware of just how accessible historical resources for Hanford are in our local community, and we want to bring that history to our community.”

“People of the Manhattan Project: Building an Atomic City” exhibition��

Gallery Opening: 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Sept. 5 in ���سԹ� CIC Art Gallery

Gallery Exhibition: Regular campus hours through beginning of October 2019 in ���سԹ� CIC Art Gallery

Festivities will open the month with a “People of Manhattan Project: Building an Atomic City” exhibition at ���سԹ� that will feature a range of artifacts from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Collection and the Hanford History Project’s extensive collections.

A grand opening will be held 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. on Sept. 5 in the Consolidated Information Center Art Gallery at ���سԹ�, which is open to the public.

The gallery will be open during regular campus hours through the beginning of October 2019.

Day’s Pay Bomber presentation

3 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Sept. 12 in the ���سԹ� East Auditorium

Individuals will be treated to a rare occasion when descendants of the crew who worked on the Day’s Pay Bomber will discuss the role of their parents in the war and the impact that Hanford employees made on the war effort.

The presentation will take place from 3 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 in the ���سԹ� East Auditorium.

The Day’s Pay is a large part of local history related to Hanford and the war effort, Franklin said. On July 23, 1944, Hanford Engineer Works employees each gave a day’s worth of their pay to purchase the B-17 bomber for the war effort, which is where it gets its name. It flew more than 60 missions in Europe.

Artifacts will be on display as part of the presentation, and individuals will get to view a rare clip of the plane being christened at the Hanford Construction Camp back in July 1944.

“Something Extraordinary – A Short History of the Manhattan Project, Hanford and the B Reactor” book launch

4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Sept. 13 at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Hanford Unit Visitors Center

Local Tri-Cities independent historian C. Mark Smith and former Hanford physicist Bob Ferguson will discuss their new book “Something Extraordinary – A Short History of the Manhattan Project, Hanford and the B Reactor” during a launch from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 13 at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Hanford Unit Visitors Center, 2000 Logston Blvd. in Richland.

The book provides a concise, but comprehensive narrative of the geopolitics and atomic research that led to the creation of the Manhattan Project.

Ferguson began a career in the nuclear field when he joined General Electric at the Hanford Site in 1957 where he trained and worked as a reactor physicist and reactor operations supervisor at the B Reactor. His career spans 60 years in the nuclear energy field, where he was also appointed the first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Programs for the U.S. Department of Energy from 1978 – 1980 during President Jimmy Carter’s administration.

Smith spent 40 years managing economic development organizations at the local, state, and federal level. He is a Fellow Member and Honorary Life Member of the International Economic Development Council and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from former Washington Gov. Gary Locke in 2004. Smith retired in 2005 and began a new career as the author of a series of books that combine history, biography, and politics in 2008.

Atomic Frontier Day

11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Sept. 14 at Howard Amon Park in Richland

The City of Richland and other community partners, including the Hanford History Project, are hosting “Atomic Frontier Day,” a family-friendly event that honors a community event popular in the early days of Hanford.

Festivities will take place from 11 a.m – 8 p.m. Sept. 14 at Howard Amon Park in Richland.

The day will bring back to life the 1940s era with music, games, a mess hall dinner, storytelling and Hanford-related exhibits. A parade will also begin the day at 11 a.m. along George Washington Way. For the full schedule, visit .

“We are recognizing Richland’s history and its connection to atomic history,” Franklin said. “We are not celebrating the bomb, but rather having a community celebration that remembers the burst of activity that created the City of Richland.”

 

Media Contacts:

Robert Franklin, ���سԹ� Hanford History Project assistant director, 509-372-7678, Robert.franklin@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� public relations specialist, 509-372-7333, maegan_murray@wsu.edu

RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities launched its first book for a new series known as the Hanford Histories during a launch event at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Interim Visitors’ Center, located at 2000 Logston Blvd in Richland.

During the launch, ���سԹ� history professor Bob Bauman and Robert Franklin, ���سԹ� Hanford History Project archivist and oral historian, talked about their book, “Nowhere to Remember: Hanford, White Bluffs and Richland to 1943.” The event also featured representatives of the Hanford History Project and Hanford Histories series partner and publisher WSU Press.

“The first volume in the Hanford Histories series uses oral history interviews conducted as part of the Hanford Oral History Project to tell the story of the towns of Hanford, White Bluffs and Richland in the years before World War II,” Bauman said. “Many people in the region know about the Hanford Site, but not many know about the towns and people that were removed to make way for Hanford. In many ways, those people and towns have been erased from history. This volume hopes to remedy that.”

Copies of the book are now available for purchase for $24.95 on the WSU Press website at .

Detailing the early days of pre- and post-Hanford

Franklin said the purpose of the book, as well as the series in general, is to examine different subjects and themes surrounding Hanford history through the voices of those who have lived it.

“Little could the residents of these communities imagine …. how radically their fates would diverge from their fellow frontiersmen with the arrival of government troops in 1943,” said Michael Mays, director of the Hanford History Project, in the preface for the book. “’Nowhere to Remember’ leans heavily on the oral histories that Hanford History Project and others have recovered over the years to recount a history that would otherwise very likely have vanished along with those displaced communities.”

Bauman said people represented in the first book tell fascinating stories of hardship, perseverance, community and displacement.

Hanford Histories as a book series

While the book is the first in the Hanford Histories series, other books will follow on Hanford, featuring subjects including science and the environment, race and diversity, constructing Hanford, the Manhattan Project and its legacies and an illustrated history of Hanford.

“Combining archival research and the narratives the Hanford Oral History Project has gathered since 2013, the books in the series balance the regional, national and international impacts of the Hanford Site,” Franklin said.

He said Hanford is often examined from the point of its environmental legacy, or as part of the much larger Manhattan Project or Cold War defense complex.

“These narratives often sacrifice detail and first-hand accounts for a wide scope,” he said. “It is our hope that by examining the history of Hanford through the words of former workers, residents of Richland and those affected by Hanford, that we can introduce the reader in a thoughtful and approachable way to this complex history.”

RICHLAND, Wash. – The son of Day’s Pay bomber pilot Arlys Wineinger gave a presentation on the history of the was part of a ceremony to turn over the artifacts from the airplane to the Washington State University Tri-Cities Hanford Collection as part of two special historical events at ���سԹ� in September.

The Day’s Pay was a B-17 Bomber purchased during a fundraising drive at Hanford where workers were asked to “give a day’s pay and send a bomber on its way” to the European theater in World War II. The plane was purchased with these donations and flew in more than 60 missions in Europe.

Specifically during his presentation, Wyatt Wineinger, son of the pilot of the Day’s Pay, spoke on his father’s entry into World War II, how he became a pilot of the plane and how the Day’s Pay was donated to the U.S. Army Air Corps by Hanford Engineer Works employees. His presentation followed with a question and answer period. Artifacts and archival material from the airplane were on display for the public to view.

Following the turnover of the artifacts, Wineinger was provided a tour of the Hanford collection.

“This is a unique opportunity for the public to hear personal stories and accounts from the son of a figure who had a large impact on the workers of Hanford and residents of the Tri-Cities during World War II,” said Robert Franklin, archivist and oral historian with ���سԹ�’ Hanford History Project. “We are also excited to receive the artifacts so that we can continue to tell a more complete story of what occurred at Hanford and its impacts on the Tri-Cities and the United States.”

For more information on the Day’s Pay B-17 Bomber, visit .

For questions and more information on the ���سԹ� Day’s Pay events, contact Franklin at 509-372-7678 or robert.franklin@wsu.edu.

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – The design and construction of the world’s first large-scale nuclear reactor at Hanford is often regarded as one of the largest technological accomplishments in recent years.

It led led to a multitude of scientific advancements, from the invention of nuclear energy to power cities, to nuclear medicine, to the creation of a whole new field of study known as health physics. But despite the many positives of the nuclear industry whose beginnings have origins at Hanford, there is a darker side to the story, as well.

The plutonium created at the B Reactor on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation was used in the atomic bomb that was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, 1945. Nicknamed “Fat Man” for its rotund shape, it was one of the two large-scale atomic bombs dropped on Japan – the other city being Hiroshima. Although the bombings are often regarded as aiding in the end of World War II, the blasts would impact Japanese citizens for generations – emotionally, physically and through the radioactive contamination that would linger for years.

Last month, area residents in the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla heard first-hand from a survivor of the Nagasaki bombing during several presentations over the course of a four-day visit. Mitsugi Moriguchi spoke about his experiences in war-time Japan at Washington State University Tri-Cities and Whitman College, toured B Reactor with a group of colleagues and visited Richland High School. His visit was funded and organized by Consequences of Radiation Exposure (CORE), the city of Nagasaki and Whitman University.

During his presentation at ���سԹ�, Moriguchi talked through a translator about his perspective as an 8-year-old child when the bomb dropped, as well as the lingering radiation that took the lives of many of his siblings and thousands of others.

“Of the seven of us siblings, today only myself and my younger brother are alive,” he said.

Realities from a personal perspective

In the days leading up to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, the city was the scene of incendiary bombings that occurred close to Moriguchi’s neighborhood. As a result, his mother sought shelter for her family kilometers away from their neighborhood.

“During those two days, my family and I crouched in our small area shelter, but don’t think of anything grand and secure like concrete. It was more of a hut close to the ground,” he said.

They had to leave two of Moriguchi’s older siblings back at their neighborhood as they were required to continue their work in factories at that time. His family anguished about leaving them behind, but fortunately they were reunited when Moriguchi’s mother returned to the scene shortly after the bombing. She found her son with injuries after almost being crushed under a collapse of machinery, as well as her daughter, who had crawled out of a collapsed structure.

Though the family survived the initial blast, their troubles were not over. His immediate family would be plagued by cancer due to the radioactive contamination that occurred in the aftermath of the bombing.

“We managed to survive the immediate impact of the bomb, itself … (but) little by little, the impacts of the radiation got to us and I certainly saw it in cancer,” he said.

Through a collection of photographs, Moriguchi took audience members through what Nagasaki looked like that day. A two-kilometer radius holding a population of thousands was decimated to nothing. Remnants of human remains lay charred in the streets. Thousands of individuals suffered from burns and other extensive injuries who had been near the radius of the bombing.

Moriguchi said he had formerly been criticized for showing graphic images that depicted the realities of that time. He said his intentions, however, were to provide a personal perspective. “I wonder what you think of these images?” he asked of the ���سԹ� audience.

Importance of telling the whole story

���سԹ�’ Hanford History Project promotes research on and supports community-wide efforts to preserve and interpret the history of the Mid-Columbia. It has a particular interest in the region’s Manhattan Project and Cold War era history specifically because the period was both transformative and complicated, said Michael Mays, director of the Hanford History Project.

“The complex issues surrounding the site and its multidimensional impact on world history are part and parcel of the Manhattan Project and Cold War story,” he said.

Mays said what was built at Hanford, and the speed at which it was built, is a testament to human beings’ nearly limitless capacity for imagination. Its developments, however, are also a record of another kind, which detail unintended consequences of human folly oft-repeated, he said.

“So many remarkable things were accomplished at Hanford, seemingly on the fly, but we have to acknowledge the unbecoming realities as well,” he said. “As so often throughout history, the architects of the Manhattan Project were left to ponder the haunting question after the fact: Were we in control of the new technology or was it in control of us?”

When it was established in 2014, the Hanford History Project’s mission was to support community efforts at historical preservation and to collect oral histories from pre-1943 Hanford residents and early Manhattan Project and Cold War workers. Since that time, the project has expanded its oral history program, undertaken management of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Collection, initiated a book series with WSU Press and hosted conferences, seminars and symposia on the subjects.

The Hanford History Project is currently partnering with the National Park Service and the African American Community Cultural and Educational Society to broaden the story of the Manhattan Project by collecting oral histories from African Americans with ties to Hanford and by conducting original research on African American’s experiences of migration, segregation and civil rights at Hanford.

The ultimate goal, Mays said, is to help support the National Park Service in its mission to offer the most comprehensive interpretation of the Manhattan Project possible. Bringing together these varied perspectives, they hope, will help bring about the kind of productive conversations that can further our understanding of this complex historical time, he said.

Stories like Moriguchi’s are important to the overall narrative of the site and its comprehensive interpretation, said Robert Franklin, assistant director of the Hanford History Project.

“These are messy, morally and emotionally fraught discussions and incredibly necessary ones to grow and educate our understanding of the past, our actions and ourselves,” he said. “Mr. Moriguchi’s experience enriches our discussion and helps us understand the Japanese experience and viewpoint through a lens of personal connection.”

Presenting these difficult viewpoints honestly, but also delicately and with grace, Franklin said, will be crucial in the telling and documentation of the whole Hanford story.

“There are different perspectives and we need to hear and acknowledge them to enrich our understanding of the past, and to learn from that past to make better decisions in the present,” he said.

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities’ Hanford History Project will celebrate Black History Month on Saturday, Feb. 3, through a kick-off event for a project that will document African American History at the Hanford Site.

The event, which runs 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the , will feature a 45-minute presentation by speakers from the National Park Service, the African American Community Cultural and Education Society, the Hanford History Project and more.

Speakers will discuss the goals of the WSU and National Parks Service civil rights oral history project, the work being done in the community regarding the documentation of African American history in the area, as well as make an announcement of a new survey project taking place in East Pasco regarding African American History. Individuals will also be invited to participate in the oral history project documenting African American life at the Hanford Site.

Individuals will then be invited to mingle, enjoy refreshments and learn more about the civil rights oral history project, as well as set up interviews for the project. Posters displaying life for African American workers at the Hanford Site will also be on display.

The Hanford History Project received a grant from the National Park Service recently to analyze the experience of African Americans at Hanford, as well as research and document African American migration, immigration and settlement before and after coming to Hanford. Hanford History Project staff are looking to interview African American individuals who had some experience of the Hanford Site at the time of the Manhattan Project or in the years after.

“We hope to talk to anyone who worked at Hanford or resided in the Tri-Cities from 1943 up through the late 1960s,” said Michael Mays, director of the Hanford History Project. “We want to understand, in better detail and scope, what the experiences were of these individuals from a personal angle.”

Appointment times will be available for those who wish to schedule oral history interviews and information will be provided regarding scheduling interviews with friends or families not able to attend.

For more information on the event, and to participate in the oral history project, contact Jillian Gardner-Andrews at j.gardner-andrews@wsu.edu, or visit /hanfordhistory/.

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities was recently awarded a $73,000 grant in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service to research and document the African American migration, segregation and overall civil rights history at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Hanford.

Michael Mays, ���سԹ� director of the Hanford History Project, said the African American story and perspective remains largely undocumented and untold at the Hanford nuclear site, which is one of three locations of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The other locations of the national park include Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Mays said Hanford in the 1940s, like much of the rest of the country, was an extremely segregated place.“The history of the science of the Manhattan Project is well known, but the social history, especially with regard to questions of race, class and gender, is much less clearly understood,” he said. “We want to look at and document the settlement and demographic patterns of African Americans who were recruited to work at Hanford, and then track when and where they migrated to once their employment ended.”

“This is an important story to tell and an important part of our history that needs to be made known,” he said.

The plan for the project, Mays said, is to examine existing documentation, conduct new research and interview African American community members throughout the Pacific Northwest in order to better understand the African American experience at Hanford.

“The Hanford area went from a handful of small farming communities comprising a few hundred residents in the early 1940s to a peak population of nearly 50,000 at Camp Hanford in the course of 15 months,” he said. “There are many stories of the African American experience at the Manhattan Project, and we want to be able to share those stories from these individuals’ perspectives.”

The completed interviews will be included with the ���سԹ� oral history collection of the Hanford Site, as well as displayed and made available through the National Park Service and at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Hanford.

Mays said they are looking for African American individuals or their family members who had a role in the Manhattan Project at Hanford and with the site before, during and after the Cold War, or who were related to the site in any way during those times. Those who are interested should contact Jillian Gardner-Andrews at 509-372-7447 or��j.gardner-andrews@wsu.edu.

“We are actively trying to identify people who experienced this remarkable history, either first- or second-hand,” he said. “We would love to hear from these individuals and document their stories.”

Mays said the project will be completed over the course of two years. Interviewees will be identified and scheduled by the end of the year, with interviews wrapped up by the end of spring. He and his team will then perform a review of documents and literature available on the subject and write up and publish their findings by the end of their second year.

 

Media Contacts:

• Michael Mays, ���سԹ� director of Hanford History Project, 509-372-7380,��michael.mays@tricity.wsu.edu
• Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� public relations specialist, 509-372-7333,��Maegan.murray@tricity.wsu.edu