The Latest Generation

A look at some movies released in the summer of 1986 - ones I was able to see

About Last Night...

Ruthless People

Manhunter

Top Gun

Aliens

Ferris Beuller's Day Off

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_in_film

Down and Out in Berverly Hills

Some other incidentals

Mediterranean Climate

Iraklion Air Station, Crete

Formerly the softball field there: Cretaquarium

Joe Jackson, musician

A few final thoughts on the Summer of Trinity, again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Okinawa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_B._McVay_III

Walter Griffith, the commander of USS Bullhead, who had departed the ship just before its final voyage that summer, also committed suicide, two years before McVay - and with more definite connection to the loss of his men.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_T._Griffith

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall - the plan to invade Japan in November 1945.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_World_Series

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_World_Series

As recorded, my reason for why Little Boy and Fat Man were dropped sounds like I agree with that - at least, it sounds like that more than I intended. Really, though, my view is more of an acknowledgement of the inevitability of the war machine which built those weapons. The decision to use them, in my view, was less about particular reasons and more about why they were made: To win the war. Whether they were needed to win the war was irrelevant by the end, and trying to assess the "need" to drop them is missing that important point.

Re-running Summer of Trinity, this time with episodes released at the start of their respective weeks rather than the end.

Just for a different perspective.

August 26 to September 2

This is Summer of Trinity - a daily description of events in the summer of 1945, This episode has daily events for the week ending Sunday, September 2, 1945.

Sunday, August 26,1945 - 41 Days After Trinity

Huaiyin–Huai'an Campaign

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlord_Era

Monday, August 27,1945 - 42 Days After Trinity

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2006/february/destroyers-tokyo-bay

Tuesday, August 28,1945 - 43 Days After Trinity

U.S. occupation of Japan begins.

https://www.kirtland.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2000119766/

Wednesday, August 29,1945 - 44 Days After Trinity

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/photograph-records/64-57-01

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/photograph-records/64-57-02

https://thenewswheel.com/the-west-wing-wheels-harry-s-truman/

Thursday, August 30,1945 - 45 Days After Trinity

https://spectator.org/macarthur-lands-at-atsugi-airfield-august-30-1945/

https://www.johnjgobbell.com/2020/11/03/surrender-at-tokyo-bay-by-john-gobbell/

Friday, August 31,1945 - 46 Days After Trinity

Supreme Allied Command

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/uss-west-virginia-japan-surrender

September 1945

Saturday, September 1,1945 - 47 Days After Trinity

United Nations charter

Sunday, September 2,1945 - 48 Days After Trinity

""We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored…It is my earnest hope, indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage from the past, a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance and justice."

General Douglas MacArthur

Re-running Summer of Trinity, this time with episodes released at the start of their respective weeks rather than the end.

Just for a different perspective.

August 19 to August 25

This is Summer of Trinity - a daily description of events in the summer of 1945, This episode has daily events for the week ending Saturday August 25, 1945.

My initial thought was that "it wasn't a very interesting week" but quickly realized how interesting it really was. The Daghlian criticality incident, happening so soon after all three of the first atomic detonations, so often is treated as simply an industrial accident, but it's right in the middle of this very busy month. Ho Chi Minh is consolidating his authority over Vietnam, in direct response to the power vacuum caused by Japan's surrender, and at breakneck speed. The Chinese Civil War has resumed, the Soviet Union continues to pursue a war that is barely two weeks old, colonial powers are returning to their former areas of power - yet before this, I'd hardly realized how much was happening in there.

I daresay one could put together an intensive college-level semester course on "The End of World War II, August 15-September 2," and spend a week on each day, looking at all of the machinery of war, diplomacy, science, and politics being upended in that time, and how it affected the next century. That may be the reason that it's rarely covered: So much is happening that a manageable storyline can't be concocted that ties it all together. And because of that, every single day of it needs intensive research to discuss intelligently. Which is the real answer to how it ended up short.

In any case, here is the next episode. Since the surrender ceremony is on Sunday, I'm currently planning on including that in the next episode (so 8 days instead of 7, ending on Sunday instead of Saturday).

Sunday, August 19,1945 - 34 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yongjiazhen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhui

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_assault_on_Maoka

Monday, August 20,1945 - 35 Days After Trinity

When I was younger, I remember references to "quisling" as a traitor. It stopped being used, though, and it now takes some research to remember who he was and why he, so quickly, became that noun of choice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling

U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Harriman informs Truman of the gift of "A framed photograph of a portrait of Stalin" presumably a response to the picture received three weeks earlier.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/node/349075

Tuesday, August 21,1945 - 36 Days After Trinity

Daghlian Criticality accident (Demon Core) - he would die 25 days later, in mid September

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Daghlian

https://members.tripod.com/~Arnold_Dion/Daghlian/accident.html

An estimate of radiation doses for Hiroshima survivors. Reading through other stories, though - specifically the New Yorker's Hiroshima - it's clear that many people received lethal doses without being signficantly injured otherwise.

https://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?p=146517

This notes that the 100% lethal doses is 400 rem - one-tenth or even one percent of what Daghlian received.

https://www.cdc.gov/radiation-emergencies/causes/radiation-thermometer.html

Wednesday, August 22,1945 - 37 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_Soviet_invasion_of_Hokkaido

Thursday, August 23,1945 - 38 Days After Trinity

Battle of Shumshu ends - Soviet victory over Japan, but Soviets had more casualties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shumshu

Friday, August 24,1945 - 39 Days After Trinity

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/b/bullhead-i.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/alphabetical-listing/b/uss-bullhead--ss-332-0.html

The Matsue incident - a group of young Japanese riot in opposition to the end of the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsue_incident

Saturday, August 25,1945 - 40 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdication_of_Bảo_Đại

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_South_Sakhalin

https://www.nytimes.com/1945/08/25/archives/submarine-bullhead-lost-java-sea-patrol-her-last.html

Summer of Trinity is a part of Mapping History here on The Latest Generation.

Re-running Summer of Trinity, this time with episodes released at the start of their respective weeks rather than the end.

Just for a different perspective.

August 12 to August 18

Sunday, August 12,1945 - 27 Days After Trinity

3 days after Nagasaki, 6 days after Hiroshima

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smyth_Report

Dr. Bine notes the unexpected arrival of the ending of the war.

https://www.dearfolksies.com/august-12-1945-75-years-ago-in-a-ww2-m-a-s-h-unit/

Monday, August 13,1945 - 28 Days After Trinity, 1 week after Hiroshima

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/loss-of-uss-indianapolis-ca-35/investigation-and-court-martial/court-of-inquiry.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/loss-of-uss-indianapolis-ca-35/investigation-and-court-martial/court-of-inquiry-findings.html

https://www.ussindianapolis.com/captain-mcvay

Tuesday, August 14,1945 - 29 Days After Trinity

Final pumpkin bomb sortie: 6 aircraft.

Kyūjō incident

The east coast of the United States is about 14 hours behind Japan, so while the surrender occurred in Japan on the 15th, the victory celebrations began in the US on the 14th.

V-J Day in Times Square

Wednesday, August 15,1945 - 30 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan

Thursday, August 16,1945 - 31 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Revolution

Friday, August 17,1945 - 32 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puyi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuation_of_Manchukuo

Saturday, August 18,1945 - 33 Days After Trinity

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30966890/anthony-james-marchione

Re-running Summer of Trinity, this time with episodes released at the start of their respective weeks rather than the end.

Just for a different perspective.

August 5 to August 11

This is Summer of Trinity - a daily description of events in the summer of 1945, touching points around the world but centered (as that summer was) on the Trinity nuclear test. This episode has daily events for the week ending Saturday August 11, 1945.

Sunday, August 5,1945 - 20 Days After Trinity

Pictures of the survivors of the USS Indianapolis

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/loss-of-uss-indianapolis-ca-35/album-of-survivors.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/99227503/robert-lee-shipman

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148385896/frederick-elliott-harrison

Monday, August 6,1945 - 21 Days After Trinity

Pacific Theater

Tinian

2:45AM - The squadron of bombers departs for a six-hour flight to Japan.

Hiroshima

Lombok Strait, near Bali

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Navy_losses_in_World_War_II

European Theater

https://www.dearfolksies.com/august-6-1945-75-years-ago-in-a-ww2-m-a-s-h-unit/

Coincidentally (I presume) this letter includes a "So it goes" He uses that idiom a few times in his letters, but this is the first time since 1943, and this is the only time he uses it just as is - other times he has a conjunction at the start (e.g. "But so it goes.")

https://www.dearfolksies.com/?s=%22so+it+goes%22&id=11367

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five

(The bombing of Dresden that inspires parts of the novel was mid-February 1945.)

Aboard the USS Augusta, Atlantic Ocean)

Washington, District of Columbia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Johnson

https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/archives/la-me-hiram-johnson-19450807-story.html

Los Angeles 2:30PM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bong

He was 24 years old.

Tuesday, August 7,1945 - 22 Days After Trinity

Next day, Hiroshima,

Alone, seeking parents, finds

A broken jizo

https://www.scalar.oberlincollegelibrary.org/shikoku/shikoku-gors-angry-jizo-illustrations?path=the-angry-jizo

A creative commons picture of a Jizo statue:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jizo_statue_at_Zōjō-ji.jpg

https://mythopedia.com/topics/jizo

Flower Robotics Inc. (robot: Posy) - the robot that shows up for a minute in the film Lost in Translation - comes up because it looks a bit like a Jizo. The description I found indicates it's supposed to be a young child - like a 3-year-old at a wedding who carries a bouquet for the bride - but nothing about the Jizo similarity, so probably just an impression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio

Wednesday, August 8,1945 - 23 Days After Trinity

It is three months since the surrender of Germany.

Thursday, August 9,1945 - 24 Days After Trinity, 3 days after Hiroshima

https://atomicphotographers.com/photographers/charles-levy/

Los Alamos

Washington, District of Columbia

San Francisco, California

Pacific Theater

https://twitter.com/wellerstein/status/1159799358650499072

Friday, August 10,1945 - 25 Days After Trinity

Moscow, USSR

August 10 heated discussion on surrender terms.

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/68.pdf

Washington DC

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6874336

Saturday, August 11,1945 - 26 Days After Trinity

Motoko Sakama sees a newspaper headline saying that her father, the Mayor of Hiroshima, is one of those who had been killed by the atomic bombing on Monday. She realizes that other members of her family, including her daughter, may have died as well.

https://www.nytimes.com/1945/08/12/archives/eisenhower-flies-to-moscow-fete-lead-soviet-forces-against-japanese.html

It's not QUITE the 40th anniversary of The Lost Boys (39 years today), and just past the 40th anniversary of Highlander, but it's close enough.

And there are other reasons to redo this one today - with its thoughts on immortality, legacy, good times and fellowship - so, doing that.

"Never let a night like tonight go to waste."

====================================================

Considering whether Gen X views of life, death, and immortality were shaped by two mid-80s films: Highlander (1986) and The Lost Boys (1987)

Yes yes yes, I said Steward Copeland at about 9:12 and realized just moments ago that I completely meant Douglas Coupland, who wrote Generation X: Tales For an Accelerated Culture in 1991

https://www.coupland.com/books/generation-x-tales-for-an-accelerated-culture

And my point there is that in 1987 the Lost Boys was certainly depicting Gen X characters with Gen X actors, but nobody called them Gen X at the time.

Interview with the Vampire was published in 1976 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interview_with_the_Vampire

Its sequel, The Vampire Lestat, was 1985

The Mystery of Dracula's Castle - a scooby doo mystery in all but name, with inspiration from Christopher Lee's Dracula over and over.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068985/

The Hunger

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085701/

The Lost Boys - straight to the tagline

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093437/taglines

Highlander

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091203/

Cocoon

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088933/

Siskel and Ebert - Lost Boys starts at 9:44 -

https://siskelebert.org/?p=2948

Highlander is the first one here, about 1:30 - they both disliked it rather a lot

https://siskelebert.org/?p=1496

First chapter of The Golden Bough - Frazer calls the King a "murderer" rather than a "killer" so I'll randomly note that A) in the 1536 battler in Highlander, the Macleods are fighting the Frasers and B) "Matador" is literally "killer" in Spanish

The Spirit of Christmas, which spawned South Park, references Highlander's repeated line "There Can Be Only One"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122264/

When talking about Reactives and the Awakening, probably worth looking at this previous entry on my blog

https://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/01/reactiveness.html

Unrelated but it's a photo series called Lost Boys - millennials back at home after college or high school or whatever they decided they could do.

https://www.businessinsider.com/liz-calvi-lost-boys-photo-project-2014-9#calvi-started-with-her-good-group-of-guy-friends-but-eventually-branched-out-to-look-for-more-subjects-in-town-nolan-pictured-here-is-currently-studying-graphics-in-college-and-he-lives-with-his-parents-for-the-summer-2

Here's the archive she set up

https://seulementdanslereve.tumblr.com/archive

And her home page

https://www.lizcalvi.com/commissions

"Vampire of the Mists" (1991) was a few years later, so probably influenced by Anne Rice and The Lost Boys and everything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_of_the_Mists

Wikipedia sayeth that Peter Pan first appeared in a novel in 1902, while the play first appeared in 1904. He's very much of the Nomad archetype.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan

Completely unrelated, except insofar as Aiken Drum (the character) is much like Peter Pan and has other Nomad / Reactive archetype indicators

https://manycolored.fandom.com/wiki/Many-Colored_Wiki

Pogonip club house

http://deepbluemoon.com/misc/pogonip/

Other locations - the interiors were on a set at Warner Brothers

https://www.visitcalifornia.com/attraction/lost-boys-santa-cruz-tour

Gregory Widen, screenwriter for Highlander. Born in 1958, he's a late Boomer. He also wrote Backdraft.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0927074/

Russel Mulcahy - his director credits here include the music videos - which included Video Killed the Radio Star by Buggles, which unfortunately I can't find, so here are some others.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0611683

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uxc9eFcZyM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyv905Q2omU

Max has mission style outdoor lamps - not too common at the time. (Although it was becoming popular again)

https://casetext.com/case/l-jg-stickley-inc-v-canal-dover-furn

Grandpas house is here (interiors were a set at Warner Bros.) - a very 1900s house

http://www.mobileranger.com/santacruz/pogonip-the-cowell-family-polo-and-a-poltergeist/

CSUN Queen show, 1989 - there will be another episode one day about why this matters….but I didn't even have a chance to get into, here, how I and Angela and 150 of our closest friends did a field show with two songs from Highlander, plus Bohemian Rhapsody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjkHl0paHbM

Re-running Summer of Trinity, this time with episodes released at the start of their respective weeks rather than the end.

Just for a different perspective.

July 29 to August 4

This is Summer of Trinity - a daily description of events in the summer of 1945.This episode has daily events for the week ending Saturday August 4, 1945.

Sunday, July 29,1945 - 13 Days After Trinity

https://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/Recent/Article-View/Article/2686164/navy-lessons-learned-from-sinking-of-indianapolis/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Mayfield - final MoH for actions before August 15 cessation of hostilities

Pumpkin bomb sorties - 9 aircraft

Monday, July 30,1945 - 14 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochitsura_Hashimoto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Idaho_(BB-42)

Indianapolis was sunk from an attack at just after midnight local time. (It's still the 29th in Zulu / GMT/UTC time, which might be where some of the confusion comes from.)

The moon was waning gibbous and rose at 10:28pm. It would have been well above the eastern horizon at midnight. (Again, Indianapolis was heading west, Hashimoto attacked the Starboard side, so he was facing south. That would've put the moon to his own starboard side, and about 20 degrees up from the horizon. )

https://phasesmoon.com/moonday29July1945.html

Hashimoto notes that the moon was up when he found Indianapolis - and that therefore he dove quickly.

Action report says 450 miles EAST of Leyte gulf, heading 262 so just short of due West (270).

https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/loss-of-uss-indianapolis-ca-35/investigation-and-court-martial/after-action-report-of-mcvay.html

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/loss-of-uss-indianapolis-ca-35/investigation-and-court-martial/court-martial.html

Tuesday, July 31,1945 - 15 Days After Trinity

The submarine USS Bullhead leaves Fremantle, Australia, to commence her third war patrol. This patrol would be under the command of Lieutenant Commander Edward R. Holt, Jr. The previous captain of Bullhead, Commander Walter T Griffith, is sent to Guam, where he is to become Assistant Operations Officer to Vice Admiral Lockwood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_T._Griffith

Griffith recieved TWO Navy Crosses - from his previous sub tours, before Bullhead.

Stimson to Truman

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/henry-stimson-harry-s-truman-attached-draft-press-release?documentid=NA&pagenumber=1

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/countdown-to-hiroshima-for-july_b_3663837.html

August 1945

Wednesday, August 1,1945 - 16 Days After Trinity

Thursday, August 2,1945 - 17 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)

An intersting equivalence, the ship was sunk early Monday, one week before Hiroshima; they are found mid-Thursday, one week before Nagasaki

Friday, August 3,1945 - 18 Days After Trinity

https://www.csmonitor.com/1995/0802/02101.html

Hiroshima's Legacy - by Motoko Sakama

Been looking for some pictures of the train station in Kobe, found one of GIs there in January 1946, and this one here.

https://www.meijishowa.com/photography/5335/160305-0004-hankyu-railway-kobe-station

Saturday, August 4,1945 - 19 Days After Trinity

• The Soviets gifted a plaque to the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow that was secretly bugged with The Thing, one of the earliest covert listening devices ever invented. It would hang in the Spaso House for seven years until its secret was discovered.
• Paul Tibbets briefed his crewmates on the bombing mission to Hiroshima, saying the bombs would be immensely powerful and "something new in the history of warfare", but giving no specifics.[

Summer of Trinity is a part of Mapping History here on The Latest Generation.

Re-running Summer of Trinity, this time with episodes released at the start of their respective weeks rather than the end.

Just for a different perspective.

July 22 to July 28, 1945

This is Summer of Trinity - a daily description of events in the summer of 1945, touching points around the world but centered (as that summer was) on the Trinity nuclear test. This episode has daily events for the week ending Saturday July 28th, 1945.

Sunday, July 22,1945 - 6 Days After Trinity

From Stimson's diary, excerpts on http://www.doug-long.com/stimson8.htm

Monday, July 23,1945 - 7 Days After Trinity

Marshall Philipe Petain is put on trial for treason.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Pétain

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/goofs?item=gf6476041

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/VLVAAZ495DZU8UIV501CI3L12J1LY-THE-1945-TRIAL-OF-PHILIPPE-PETAIN/query/wildcard

Tuesday, July 24,1945 - 8 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_Kure_and_the_Inland_Sea_(July_1945)

http://www.ussunderhill.org/html/kaiten_information.html

http://www.ussunderhill.org/html/sorryno.htm

Nathan G. Benchley, in an article written for the New Yorker in 1953, mentions a conversation about current attitudes towards the war.

"Who's winning the war?" Roth asked me as I came in. "Search me," I said, and sat down.

"I heard that in Guam the birdmen have a pool on it," Tampke said. "They got a million-dollar pool that says the war will be over by October. You can dip into it for any money you want."

"Did they say October what year?" I asked. "I don't know," Tampke replied. "I just heard October."

Wednesday, July 25,1945 - 9 Days After Trinity

An official bombing order is made for the first atomic weapon:

From http://www.dannen.com/decision/handy.html

Thursday, July 26,1945 - 10 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declaration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokusatsu

Friday, July 27,1945 - 11 Days After Trinity

https://ancientwarhistory.com/the-final-days-of-imperial-japan-the-potsdam-declaration-soviet-intervention-and-japans-surrender/

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/truman-papers/correspondence-harry-s-truman-bess-wallace-truman-1921-1959/july-27-1945

Saturday, July 28,1945 - 12 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_Empire_State_Building_B-25_crash

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aioi_Bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial

Note: Dobashi is near to Koamicho

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Callaghan_(DD-792)

Re-running Summer of Trinity, this time with episodes released at the start of their respective weeks rather than the end.

Just for a different perspective.

July 15 to July 21, 1945

This is Summer of Trinity - a daily description of events in the summer of 1945, touching points around the world but centered (as that summer was) on the Trinity nuclear test. This episode has daily events for the week ending Saturday July 21th, 1945.

Sunday, July 15,1945 - 1 Day Before Trinity

12th Army Situation Map (Germany and surrounding areas)

https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945/trinity_evaluations.htm

The American contingent arrives at Potsdam. The imminent start of the conference was a major reason the Trinity test had been planned of this week.

Returning from his one-day shakedown cruise for the USS Indianapolis, Captain McVay meets with Captain William Parsons of Project Alberta and Admiral William R. Purnell - one of the chief military advisors for the Manhattan Project. They don't mention these connections to McVay, who is informed only that his ship has been chosen for an important mission: He is to proceed with all possible speed across the Pacific, first to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and then to the Marianas, on the edge of the Philippine sea. There he will deliver his cargo to the air base on the island of Tinian. He is assured that every day saved delivering the cargo is a day closer to the end of the war. He is to safeguard the cargo at all costs - ALL costs. If the ship is lost, his first priority will be saving this cargo - if necessary, a lifeboat is to be used to ensure it is undamaged. McVay will not, however, be told what the cargo actually is.

There are some clues, however. There are two Army officers who will accompany the cargo and see it safely ashore at Tinian: Major Robert Furman, and Capt. James Nolan. While they are presented as "artillerymen," McVay eventually learns from Captain Nolan that he is actually a doctor, with the implication that there are some health concerns about the cargo. Nolan assures McVay that there is no actual danger to the crew of the Indianapolis. Nolan does not mention that he is one of two medical doctors at Los Alamos - not that McVay would have know where that was - nor that he is the doctor who put together the safety plan to ensure the health of those attending the upcoming Trinity test. But McVay knows that there are not a lot of materials that are both relatively small and enough of a health concern to merit the attendance of a doctor.

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/james-f-nolan/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_B._McVay_III

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)

Monday, July 16,1945 - Trinity

Yoko Moriwaki's diary is available through online and other booksellers, and in some libraries.

https://www.amazon.com/Yokos-Diary-Paul-Ham/dp/0733331173/r

https://www.dearfolksies.com/wabern-germany-july-10-august-23-1945/6/

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/node/400674

Tuesday, July 17,1945 - 1 Day After Trinity

The Potsdam Conference began in Potsdam, occupied Germany. Representatives of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States met to discuss how to administer postwar Germany.

https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/images/szilard_petition.htm

https://biology.indiana.edu/documents/historical-materials/gest_pdfs/hgSzilard.pdf

Wednesday, July 18,1945 - 2 Days After Trinity

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/correspondence/groves-leslie/corr_groves_1945-07-18_print.htm

Thursday, July 19,1945 - 3 Days After Trinity

https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/timeline

Friday, July 20,1945 - 4 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin_bomb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_fuze - The atomic bombs used these, which were actually a very new technology, but one that had already proven its worth - Patton proclaimed that the proximity fuze had contributed greatly to the American success in the Battle of the Bulge.

Saturday, July 21,1945 - 5 Days After Trinity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Underhill

https://ussunderhill.org/index.html