My Uncle Killed My Mother With an A Bomb!

I was reading the interesting article on Sovereignty and Nuclear Weapons, and my thoughts are a bit much for a simple comment. My uncle, you see, dropped The Bomb, and my mother was killed by The Bomb. Let me explain.

Uncle Bill joined the navy for World WarII. Being a rather brilliant fellow, he became involved in the delivery of the first nuclear weapon to be exploded on this planet. While the family would eventually find out what he had been working on, at the time what he was doing was classified, and to this day it is difficult to find out certain things about his military career.

After the war Uncle Bill spent some time assigned to the Nautilus, which was the world’s first nuclear submarine. After that he was assigned to the USS Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear aircraft carrier. Finally, Uncle Bill was assigned to Treasure Island, where he took the most advanced classes the navy offered on the subject of nuclear physics. 

A few years later Uncle Bill was reassigned to Japan and, thrill of my mother’s life, my father bought her a ticket so she could visit her brother. In spring of 1963 she boarded an airplane and took off for the adventure of a lifetime.

For six weeks she toured Japan, visiting cities and temples and getting acquainted with one of the most exotic and spiritual places on earth. She was accompanied by Uncle Bill and his wife, Noriko, and she found the heart of the Japanese people. This wasn’t a simple tour, this was a visit to people and families and the Japan that the Japanese people themselves know.

Among the spots she visited was Hiroshima. She stood where the bomb was detonated. She studied the nuclear shadows on the rocks. She felt sorrow in her heart for a hundred thousand people. Six weeks later she was dead.

When an atomic bomb goes off, radiation is released. This radiation becomes trapped in the land. Over the years, it is slowly released. My mother had visited Japan at the exact time when the most lethal doses of radiation were being released.

She returned home happy and, to appearances, healthy. She had had a full physical the week before she had left. There was no reason to think that anything was wrong.

A couple of weeks after she returned she began to turn yellow and she visited a doctor. Cancer. But not just cancer...cancer everywhere. While it manifested first in the liver, it rapidly spread throughout her body. Every organ went under attack, and her health failed at the speed of light.

A couple of weeks later she was in a hospital. Nothing to be done. Family came and went, the house was filled with relatives come to say good by. My grandmother came to live with us, to take care of the children about to be left behind.

A couple of weeks later she was gone and, thankfully, Uncle Bill never understood the causal effects he had helped set in motion.

Mary Margaret Case. Age 49. A husband, two sons, and a daughter.

No link.