By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – The authors of a new book focusing on the beginnings of the Hanford Site will hold a public presentation from 5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4, in the East Auditorium at Washington State University Tri-Cities.

Authors Robert Bauman, Robert Franklin, David W. Harvey and Laura Arata recently released the book, “Nowhere to Remember: Hanford, White Bluffs and Richland to 1943,” which chronicles the early days of pre- and post-Hanford towns and the people that were removed to make way for the Hanford Site.

“The Hanford Site has a very interesting and sometimes even unsettling history, but it is important to tell all aspects of that story,” Franklin said. “This book focuses on the origin of that story and the people who were involved in those early towns. It’s a fascinating look into an early story that many people may not know.”

The Hanford Site is home to the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor, which was built over the span of a one-year period during World War II in secret. Plutonium produced at the site was used in the first nuclear bomb, which was tested at the Trinity Site in New Mexico, as well as in the Fat Man bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. During the Cold War, the site expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing facilities, which produced plutonium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The facility is now being decommissioned and resides as one of the largest nuclear clean-up projects in the world. It is also the home of a commercial nuclear power plant known as the Columbia Generating Station.

In the early stages of the Hanford Site, families were relocated or were required to leave their place of residence in the Hanford area.

“All residents of the towns of White Bluffs and Hanford, and many of the residents of Richland, were required to move,” Bauman said.

The book is the first in a series known as the Hanford Histories that will be published by WSU Press, in association with ���سԹ�’ Hanford History Project. Other volumes are currently in the works, of which some of the topics will focus on science and the environment, race and diversity, constructing Hanford, the Manhattan Project and its legacies and an illustrated history of Hanford.

Copies of “Nowhere to Remember: Hanford, White Bluffs and Richland to 1943” may be purchased at the event with cash or check for $25. Or, they may be purchased online at the website. Authors will also be available both before and after the presentation to sign copies.

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/.