Lantern float event remembers first A-bomb drop
by John Lee
As printed in the Lincoln Journal Star’s Neighborhood Extra on Saturday August 17, 2024.
Carrying on a 41-year-old tradition in Lincoln, Nebraskans for Peace and the Unitarian Church created lanterns and floated them on Holmes Lake on August 6 to commemorate the lives lost 79 years ago in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on August 6th and 9th in 1945.
Two speakers presented reasons to remember that long-ago event, and pledge to never allow it to happen again.
Bob Ruyle described the damaging and lasting effects of nuclear warfare on those who deploy the weapons as well as those against whom they are used. A long-time member of the National Association of Atomic Veterans and editor of the organization’s newsletter, Ruyle served as a teletype operator on a U.S. Navy ship in service to Operation Redwing, a test of atomic and hydrogen bombs in the Pacific in the 1950s.
To remain safe from the force and heat of the blast, he said, his ship, the “Navasota,” was posted 250 miles away. However, a change in the weather pattern allowed a radioactive cloud to drift over and drop a light layer of fine radioactive dust on the decks, to which the crew became exposed as they swept and hosed the dust off into the ocean.
“At that time no one knew much about the effects of radioactivity,” said Ruyle. Some got sick and were treated on board. One crewman became so seriously ill that he was taken by helicopter to a nearby aircraft carrier with better medical facilities, and later air flighted to Hawaii.
But for most of the crew, the effects of radiation exposure would appear much later, causing various types of cancer and other ailments that led to early deaths, and also resulted in birth defects in the generations that followed.
“I was lucky,” said Ruyle. “I was enclosed in the radio room and pretty well protected from exposure. I only lost all my teeth a few years later. I just turned 90, and I am one of only two members of the crew of 368 who is still alive.”
Both navy and army groups were assigned to evacuate some of the Pacific islands where the atomic tests were conducted. The islanders were never able to return to their homes, and hundreds were relocated to the United States.
Though use of nuclear weapons has been avoided, more powerful bombs and missiles cause thousands of deaths and widespread destruction in today’s warfare, the second speaker related. Karima Al-Absy, a member of the Palestinian Rights Task Force of Nebraskans for Peace, said during the first two months of its war on Gaza, the Israeli military dropped the equivalent of two nuclear bombs on the Gaza Strip.”
At the rate of killing since that conflict started in October, she said, “during the hour that we are here this evening, 15 Palestinians would have been killed, and six of them would be children.”
“We have the power, and we have the responsibility to use that power to influence government to stop support of the war in Gaza,” Al-Absy concluded.
Assembled members of the group painted peace and anti-war messages on paper lanterns which were lighted with small candles and set afloat on Holmes Lake. The annual observance is held in sympathy and coordination with similar lantern float events in Japan.
John Lee is an NFP member.
As printed in the Lincoln Journal Star’s Neighborhood Extra on Saturday August 17, 2024.
Carrying on a 41-year-old tradition in Lincoln, Nebraskans for Peace and the Unitarian Church created lanterns and floated them on Holmes Lake on August 6 to commemorate the lives lost 79 years ago in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on August 6th and 9th in 1945.
Two speakers presented reasons to remember that long-ago event, and pledge to never allow it to happen again.
Bob Ruyle described the damaging and lasting effects of nuclear warfare on those who deploy the weapons as well as those against whom they are used. A long-time member of the National Association of Atomic Veterans and editor of the organization’s newsletter, Ruyle served as a teletype operator on a U.S. Navy ship in service to Operation Redwing, a test of atomic and hydrogen bombs in the Pacific in the 1950s.
To remain safe from the force and heat of the blast, he said, his ship, the “Navasota,” was posted 250 miles away. However, a change in the weather pattern allowed a radioactive cloud to drift over and drop a light layer of fine radioactive dust on the decks, to which the crew became exposed as they swept and hosed the dust off into the ocean.
“At that time no one knew much about the effects of radioactivity,” said Ruyle. Some got sick and were treated on board. One crewman became so seriously ill that he was taken by helicopter to a nearby aircraft carrier with better medical facilities, and later air flighted to Hawaii.
But for most of the crew, the effects of radiation exposure would appear much later, causing various types of cancer and other ailments that led to early deaths, and also resulted in birth defects in the generations that followed.
“I was lucky,” said Ruyle. “I was enclosed in the radio room and pretty well protected from exposure. I only lost all my teeth a few years later. I just turned 90, and I am one of only two members of the crew of 368 who is still alive.”
Both navy and army groups were assigned to evacuate some of the Pacific islands where the atomic tests were conducted. The islanders were never able to return to their homes, and hundreds were relocated to the United States.
Though use of nuclear weapons has been avoided, more powerful bombs and missiles cause thousands of deaths and widespread destruction in today’s warfare, the second speaker related. Karima Al-Absy, a member of the Palestinian Rights Task Force of Nebraskans for Peace, said during the first two months of its war on Gaza, the Israeli military dropped the equivalent of two nuclear bombs on the Gaza Strip.”
At the rate of killing since that conflict started in October, she said, “during the hour that we are here this evening, 15 Palestinians would have been killed, and six of them would be children.”
“We have the power, and we have the responsibility to use that power to influence government to stop support of the war in Gaza,” Al-Absy concluded.
Assembled members of the group painted peace and anti-war messages on paper lanterns which were lighted with small candles and set afloat on Holmes Lake. The annual observance is held in sympathy and coordination with similar lantern float events in Japan.
John Lee is an NFP member.
