The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

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Table of Contents

Chapter One – Everything will be Taken care of: Train to Nowhere (August 1943)
Chapter Two – Pearl
Chapter Three – Through the Gate-Clinton Engineer Works
Chapter Four – Bull Pens and Creeps: The Projects Welcome for New Employees
Chapter Five – Only Temporary: Spring into Summer, 1944
Chapter Six – To Work
Chapter Seven – Rhythms of Life
Chapter Eight – The One about Fireflies
Chapter Nine – The Unspoken: Sweethearts and Secrets
Chapter Ten – Curiosity and Silence
Chapter Eleven – Innocence Lost
Chapter Twelve – Sand Jumps in the Desert
Chapter Thirteen – The Gadget Revealed
Chapter Fourteen – Dawn of a Thousand Suns
Chapter Fifteen – Life in the New Age

During her research as a writer, Denise Kiernan came across a black and white photograph that captured her attention. In the photo is a group of smartly dressed women working in a factory setting. The women are working on a secret uranium enrichment program for the government during World War II. The most interesting thing is that the women did not know what they were doing. They were misled to believe that their services were needed to end the war. However, the truth of the matter was that they were engaged in the development of the first atomic bomb to be used in the world.

In the book, Kiernan gives the account of some of these women and their contributions to World War II. In the current paper, the author will provide an outline of the book. The review will be carried out on a chapter by chapter basis.

Chapter One – Everything will be Taken care of: Train to Nowhere (August 1943)

The chapter begins with a scene illustrating a departure early in the morning. The author creates a picture of humidity. A scenario is created to illustrate Celia sitting in the train near a window. The journey that Celia is taking is going to be long and tiring. For that matter, the bath she took seems ideal for the journey that awaits her. The destination of the train is initially set as Southbound. As she departs from the train station, Celia still has no clue about her final destination.

Notwithstanding the mystery of the journey ahead of her, it is obvious that Celia had taken many similar trips before. She is a 24-year-old lady from Pennsylvania. She comes from a town where coal mining is the main economic activity. However, just as other American towns, Celia’s hometown, which was thriving once, is now deteriorating. Perhaps this is one of the reasons behind her departure. Most of the residents in her home town are originally from Eastern Europe. Celia is a Pole, and her town is full of Czechs, Russians, and Slovakians. They all suffer from unemployment with the decline in the mining industry.

During this time, the Second World War is at its peak. One of the effects of this war was the collapse of many industries in which the mining sector was part of. Once Celia arrives at her destination, it becomes clear that she shares the plight of many other women. The war had made it hard for many women to cope with life. The result is a mass exodus from many parts of the country. The trip is an indication of what the war has done to society.

Chapter Two – Pearl

The second chapter introduces the Bohemian Club. The club was an all-male fraternity with a history spanning almost a hundred years. The club was formed in 1872. It had a motto that reads “weeping spiders come not here.” The San Francisco based fraternity usually had an annual gathering.

The chapter indicates discrimination against women, which characterized the life of people in that town. The Bohemian Club represented the male chauvinism in the city. The coming of women to the city is perhaps an indicator of the struggle that would ensue.

The Hills of Tennessee were characterized by developments brought about by power generation. There are rivers used to generate electric power for individual farms. The same is an indication of the industrialization going on in 1942.

Given that the war was at its peak, such developments prove essential in advancing the plight of women in early societies. The chapter outlines the struggle that women had to go through during the war.

Chapter Three – Through the Gate-Clinton Engineer Works

In this chapter, the Clinton Engineering Works is introduced. The section of the book illustrates the developments that were ongoing in spite of the war that had ensued. Kattie’s husband is one of the employees in this project. Willie, the husband, sends money to his wife regularly. He sends as much as $100. Since Kattie is a housewife, the responsibility of managing the household falls on her. She is prudent in the running of domestic affairs.

Kattie was born in a family of nine children. She is unique from the rest. The mother illustrates the hard work carried out by this girl. She (the mother) sides with Willie regarding Kattie’s hard work. However, because she grew up among many children, she is an aggressive woman.

Chapter Four – Bull Pens and Creeps: The Projects Welcome for New Employees

Once the newcomers have settled in the city, they embark on the search for accommodation. The projects are regarded as the ideal mechanisms through which large swathes of people can be accommodated. In the new towns, people come from different parts of the country to seek gainful employment. However, owing to the large numbers of these new entrants, the only way to provide accommodation is through structured housing units. The projects are referred to as projects.

As already mentioned, the projects are depicted as functional units that could provide accommodation to the employees. In this chapter, a detailed outlook into the projects reveals a scenario where the housing complex was a reliable asset in ensuring that the members of the community would access work. The projects were characterized by organized transport and security. The same was done at a time when conflict prevailed courtesy of the world war.

On December of 1942, the height of conflict was at its peak, and industrialization was a key economic pillar. In Chicago, success relied on the ability of the masses to make good with the employment opportunities which had brought people from the countryside. Farms had been abandoned for the city, and success relied on how best individuals would benefit from the meager returns from the employment opportunities. However, the projects would act as a means through which the country folk would have some sense of purpose. A country gripped in fear of war required people to coalesce around the idea of an optimistic populace.

Chapter Five – Only Temporary: Spring into Summer, 1944

By 1944, the Second World War was at its climax. Most of the workers in the cities had suffered huge losses after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. At this point, the entire country was focused on a mission to changing the entire landscape of the war that ensued. The allied forces were braving the battlefields trying to secure victory. Back home, in America, the Manhattan project was ongoing. Experts from various fields of science had come together to contribute ideas as to how to win the war. During this while, the sentiments of developing an atomic bomb were in the moot. There needed an element of decisiveness. To this end, the duration between Spring and Summer was characterized by an anxious research team that was all the while developing what would be the game-changer in the war.

The need for extra caution was heightened by the probability of foreign agents trying to learn the secrets of the Manhattan Project. To this extent, the women were used as spies in the various factories. The women were selected owing to their ability to gather information at a faster rate. In what appeared to be a calculated move by the state to keep the secrets safe, the spy program was executed well enough with traitors being arrested every so often. During the period between spring and summer, the state introduced tough policing measures. The measures were meant to ensure that at no particular moment would the secrets of their projects get into enemy hands.

Chapter Six – To Work

With most of the men had gone off to war, most of the activities within the country were meant left to the women. At one point, the women became couriers of important messages to the families of the deployed soldiers. During the war, it was common for most families to have at least one member enlisted in the army. Since they were mostly from the countryside, the family members relied on the city folk to act as conduits for information. The women played a key role in this role of couriers. In this chapter, the active role played by the women during the war becomes clear. They play subordinate roles in assisting their friends and family to survive the entire ordeal of the war.

In this chapter, it becomes clear that the Americans are inching closer to developing a weapon that would win the Second World War and bring an end to global conflict. However, notwithstanding the global politics, the role played by the women is discussed at length in this chapter. Specifically, the element of being couriers sends a strong message that women can act as good support elements if need be. Also, the chapter highlights the manner through which subordinate roles can become integral to the main objective of society. The Tubealloy came to be known as the conduit center through which most of the information was transmitted. All credit goes to the young women who played a key role in ensuring that the project’s secrets were safeguarded from spies.

Chapter Seven – Rhythms of Life

As the war raged on, the political elite became warier of the goings-on in their country. To this end, it became essential that the state controls all forms of information. To begin with, the government decided to wage psychological warfare by using the media to advance propaganda. The same was coupled with heightened security in the entire country. There intelligence gathering was advanced a notch higher to ensure that potential spies would be caught even before their missions could start. Part of the security apparatus deployed included the normal police and a contingent of officers from the military. In this chapter, the entire scenario of a peaceful world was changed. Impromptu raids were the order of the day.

The chapter makes reference to instances of censorship. The government intended to become the only avenue through which information would reach the public. To this effect, the authorities instituted a law that would prohibit the publication or broadcast of information inconsistent with the government position. Censorship, in this chapter, is regarded as a major violation of the individual rights and freedoms of the citizens. The same is ironical since the country had sent troops elsewhere to go and promote the ideals of democracy.

Courtesy of the increased policing measures, the press appeared to be the main target. The government extended a crackdown to all publishers to ensure that only government-sanctioned news would be reported. However, such actions were not that common in the city. That notwithstanding, the press appeared to sell the same message about the war. All this while, the women continued to assist in any small way that they could. Such reports often made it to the headlines.

Chapter Eight – The One about Fireflies

In the fall 0f 1944, the escalation in the war-affected food rations supplies everywhere. The main delicacy in Tubealloy was pumpkin and chicken soup. This was the food that most women made for their husbands and children. At the time, the women’s role as spies became even more evident. A select group of women would report the activities of their coworkers to the relevant authorities. The kind of intelligence ranged from deviation from work procedures to other serious intelligence like attempts to sell out government secrets.

Mr. Truman was the president at the time of the development of the Manhattan Project. He was a firm and decisive leader. However, just like any other, the jitters that enemies had infiltrated the country were increasingly getting high. To this end, spying was taken to an all-time high in a country that boasted of independence.

President sanctioned spying in factories, schools, and even hospitals. At the time, the collective employment opportunities in places like Teubealloy gave the citizens some sense of self-worth. The idea for spying became accepted as a measure of safeguarding the economic benefits that would be lost if the enemy got their hands On American technology.

Chapter Nine – The Unspoken: Sweethearts and Secrets

As the New Year approached, reports became even more pronounced as to the development of a weapon to would defeat the enemy forces. However, back home, the women who had been spies managed to keeps their relationships. The same was true, notwithstanding the possible backlash that usually accompanies such scenarios. Lovers would go about their normal activities without disclosing the secrets at work. Such was the way through which many people kept their relationships alive long after work. The chapter outlines the thin line that the women had to walk to ensure that their relationships were unaffected by the work.

The New Year was approaching, and the war was taking a new twist. The allied forces were fighting to have a decisive victory. Truman was gradually releasing the possibility of a new weapon. In the cities, hope was rejuvenated by the possibility of winning a war that had seemed a tedious affair. Most of the women had lost their husbands at war, and it was time the war came to an end. The mood in the country was that a victory was the surest way of seeing their relatives return back home.

Chapter Ten – Curiosity and Silence

The chapter illustrates the height of espionage in the country. Celia, Henry’s wife, is experiencing the same problems that spouses to spies experienced. The husband would take even two days before he returned home. When Henry would communicate to the wife, over the phone, the message was mostly cryptic. Such was the plight of many women during these times. The untold emotional torment due to the war was too much to bear.

Concerning the project’s duration, it became clear that the longer it took, the larger it became. The growth of the projects attracted widespread curiosity from the folk in the neighboring areas. What appeared to be a secluded area for government research was turning out to be a large settlement at the expense of the taxpayers’ money. Those were the sentiments of the people. However, in 1945, the project finally attained the uranium enrichment levels that they were hoping for. Also, other sectors of the project began to flourish.

Chapter Eleven – Innocence Lost

At 6:30 on that morning, the settlers were preparing to depart for work. However, the entire terrain appeared ravaged by the many years of neglect. Cade, one of the staff at the project, illustrates the long days which each employee was forced to work. There are certain employees who worked for as long as 24 hours like Cade.

Born in Macon, Cade moved to North Carolina and eventually found himself in Oak ridge. The journey was one he took with his brothers, a clear indication of the unemployment rate in the countryside.

As the brothers approach the precincts of the project, they are surprised at the new developments. The area appears to have grown than the surrounding towns. It is hard to connect the new setting with what used to happen here during the war.

Chapter Twelve – Sand Jumps in the Desert

On July 17th, 1945, the General sent to evaluate the project returned to Washington, DC. Accompanied by a team of scientists, the General had his work cut out for him. The defense secretary and the president both required a report on the events that had taken place in the desert.

The meeting between the General and a photographer, Ed Westcott, was to take place in the then War Department Building. The building is now the current State Department. The photographer would capture the results of the test. The results of this test would determine the outcome of the Second World War vis-a-vis, the Potsdam Conference in Berlin.

Chapter Thirteen – The Gadget Revealed

The atomic bomb had finally been created. In this chapter, news about the bomb is trickling down to the public. Toni assumed that her husband would receive news about the bomb earlier than her. That notwithstanding, the excitement about the whole issue resulted in her having to send the information to the husband. In the larger spectrum, the news about the bomb spread like wildfire.

Not only was the bomb a reality but had also been used in the war. The president announced to the nation that the Atomic Bomb had been dropped in Hiroshima. Up until the drop, the British bomb referred to as the ‘Grand Slam’ held the record as the largest bomb. However, with firepower, the equivalent of 20, 000 tons of Trinitrotroleum (TNT) the Atomic bomb became the largest bomb in the history of warfare.

Chapter Fourteen – Dawn of a Thousand Suns

The Manhattan Project gave rise to a successful venture in the larger spectrum of things. Toni, while standing at the top of the Empire State Building, attests to this fact. Several skyscrapers have emerged in what used to act as the storage unit. Notwithstanding the development of the Manhattan Project, there were concerns as to the cessation of conflict.

The bomb’s effect had been felt in several parts of the world, and it became necessary for there to be clarification as to the status of the war. The governor commended the efforts by the men and women who helped in the development of the atomic bomb. The secretive nature of the women was commended with regards to the overall success in minimizing leaks to the enemy. They succeeded in safeguarding the secret of the project.

Chapter Fifteen – Life in the New Age

The effects of the atomic bomb tilted the landscape of the war in favor of the allied forces. The Americans sent their medical officers to Japan to evaluate the aftermath of the incursion. The massacre was too harsh to bear. Elsewhere, relatives traveled for long distances to meet their returning soldiers. In the new era, people are slowly piecing back their lives. Regardless of the role played by the Manhattan project, interest had shifted to the international front. At one point, the radio presenters indicate that the country appears to forget its role in the development of the bomb. The atomic bomb has drastically changed the political and social landscape in the world.

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