Fermi Says Scientists Are Sane
Sirs:
In your issue of Dec. 3 under Science, you imply that U.S. scientists are a group of madmen who are itching to exterminate life on earth in order to prove their theories. The possibility of an uncontrollable, disastrous chain reaction has been carefully considered, and there is no known or foreseeable way of starting one. Furthermore, your statement that Dr. Fermi bet that the New Mexico test would end in worldwide disaster is completely false.
We need only point out that in a development so new and so dangerous, in which many thousands of people were involved, only one fatal casualty occurred, aside from ordinary industrial accidents. As a matter of record, it has been stated officially that every possible consideration was given to all conceivable dangers of every step in the development and use of nuclear bombs and other chain reactions. This is true in any potentially hazardous research undertaking. Where calculated risks were taken, the extent of the worst conceivable damage that could occur was considered.
The purpose of science is to extend our knowledge and thereby our control of the forces of nature. The whole history of civilization is witness to the compelling necessity of this process. Any danger to mankind lies in the destructive use of discoveries which could have been used for its benefit. It does not lie in the discoveries themselves, least of all in the possibility that they may get physically out of control as you suggest in your article. . . .
ENRICO FERMI and
The Executive Committee Association of Los Alamos Scientists Santa Fe, N. Mex.
P: TIME, which wondered why there were no takers for such a bet (what could they lose?), is glad to be reassured that U.S. scientists are not really mad--just very, very inquisitive.--ED.
The World v. The Bomb
Sirs:
... In the atomic bomb all the nations, all the people of the earth have a mutual enemy. This enemy is an inanimate object that cannot be fought with men's lives against men's lives. This new-found fear in this newfound age is what will be used to unite the world. . . . To get flowery--the atomic bomb is the long awaited antagonist against which the world, a United World, will be the protagonist.
MAYNARD W. KENDALL Ensign, U.S.N.R. c/o Fleet Post Office San Francisco
Not Atom but Adam
Sirs:
I submit that the problem is not the control of Atom but of Adam. We do not stand in terror of a thing but of ourselves. In this subterfuge of speaking about the Atom we simply give credence to the words of Jeremiah: The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
GILBERT A. JENSEN
Chaplain, U.S.N.R.
Mayport, Fla.
A Humanitarian Jap
Sirs:
While atrocities committed by the Japanese are being brought to light, why not also give tribute to some of our former enemies who proved themselves humanitarians? They are probably slightly harder to find, but they still exist. I, a former war prisoner, can vouch for one outstanding example of a truly good man.
That person, Captain Shindo by name, was head of the medical department in Kiang-wan Prisoner of War Camp near Shanghai, China. Very tall and rugged for a Japanese, he easily topped the 6-ft. mark. However, he was the least feared and best liked of the Japanese I have ever come across. He refused no one who came to him for medical care, Japanese, Chinese or American. By his aid the American corpsmen and doctors had complete access to Japanese and Stateside medical supplies during most of our internment. With and through his cooperation, any man who had the slightest temperature would be placed in the hospital until he had fully recovered. In addition to this, the convalescent received a week's rest after he had been discharged from the hospital.
Shindo's share of American Red Cross food supplies coming into camp was absolutely nothing, although he could have made himself rich by plundering as other Japanese had done. I have mentioned only a few of the things he did to make life easier for the war prisoners in Shanghai.
ROBERT P. GILLESPIE Former Wake Island Prisoner of War Boise, Idaho
Third-Class Country?
Sirs:
American Beauty roses to Leroy Blodgett of Burlington, Vt. His outspoken arraignment of our "cultural" background in Letters [TIME, Dec. 3] was as refreshing as a cloudburst in a barnyard--even if it won't be as efficient.
Any real culture acquired in this Panglossian land of ours is despite, rather than because of, our vaunted educational opportunities. Anyone openly acknowledging a preference for Shakespeare over Superman is on the way to becoming a social outcast, and his morals, as Mencken used to say, likely to be suspect.
A minor indication of our intelligence level might be found in the number of 100%-ers who will now write to damn Mr. Blodgett for a dirty Red and ask "Whyncha go back where ya come from?" With a name like his!
LAWRENCE DEFOY Rochester, N.Y.
Sirs:
Did you print that letter about the States being a third-class country to start a riot, or did you think you had to show us that there are 4-Fs like Leroy Blodgett ?
This man, Leroy Blodgett, is supposed to be old enough to have five children, but does not have sense enough to hold his tongue, or ink, when he hears a report of misbehavior of our Army of Occupation. We all know the kind of personality who tries to build himself up, by seizing every opportunity to run down the people who are doing a big job. . . .
I came home with the conviction that an American is about the finest thing you can find in a dirty European street, and I'm hanging on to that conviction in spite of the bird-brained Blodgetts who live in a third-class country of their imaginations.
J. O. HARVEY Bradenton, Fla.
Sirs:
Huzzah for Reader Blodgett. His letter contains more honest, straightforward common sense than we have seen in ten years of editorials, articles, books, and letters to the editor. . . .
When I see my officers deep in their comic books, my fellow soldiers swooning at some tone-deaf spastic mauling away at a piano, and the feather merchants lamenting the end of the war because of the resulting wage cuts, I have half a mind to send for my Hundred Books and steal away to Mississippi, where they don't even read funny magazines.
(PVT.) DONALD M. FINNIE Scott Field, Ill.
Despairing TIME?
Sirs:
Granted the world is in a hell of a bad fix, I still feel that we are considerably improved over our condition of a year ago, and that TIME is a bit too heavy with despair. . . .
To hear you tell it, all happiness in America over the peace is frivolity, all relaxation irresponsibility, all confidence neglect of duty, all hope blind and unreasoning. I realize the grave danger of further calamity, but I am not yet ready to admit that final and utter calamity is inevitable. I have begun to question your faith in 1) America, 2) humanity, 3) God.
Buck up, TIME. The game is young yet and we have a real good team.
CHARLES G. CULLUM Lieutenant (j.g.), U.S.N.R. Dallas
P: TIME, no calamity-howler, agrees with Reader Cullum that the team is good, believes that with the help of 1) God, 2) humanity, 3) America, the game will eventually be won.--ED.
Relief for Europe
Sirs:
My conscience is staggering under the load of the horn of plenty in the U.S. v. the bleak scene in Europe and China as you have pictured it. Isn't there some agency to which a person can make a private contribution with assurance that it will be rightly used? If not, please let's somebody start one.
A READER El Paso, Tex.
Sirs:
For two weeks I have debated whether or not I could afford to keep a new winter coat I'd purchased. This morning I made my decision. Enclosed is a check for $101.22. Will you please see that the money reaches the proper offices of UNRRA to be used for food in the European theater. . . .
[READER'S NAME WITHHELD] Riverside, Calif.
Sirs:
Senator Vandenberg [TIME, Nov. 26] is right: The dead (in Europe) will not know who starved them. But we will know. The mass of Americans never have been able to stand aside and watch other people--enemy or friend--starve. They won't do so now.
Give us an address and let us send what we can from our overfilled kitchens. . . . Will TIME, Inc., Rockefeller Center, New York, do ? Make way for one sack of potatoes! GRIEG ASPNES
Minneapolis
P: Readers may send UNRRA nonperishable food and donations for general or specific relief c/o Dan A. West, Division of Contributed Supplies, 1344 Connecticut Ave., Washington 5, D.C. Canned food for UNRRA should go to the Community Canning Program for War Relief, 100 Maiden Lane, New York 5, N.Y.--ED.
Tremble, Politicians!
Sirs:
This is an open letter to every American politician--Tremble, you indolent incumbents, and look to your precarious futures, because this postwar world will not find us G.I.s alone at the apple stands. You fattened while we fought. You sent us to enemy shores in ill-manned, rusty scows, and we died for you, and those that were left, you forgot. . . . We don't care if your next opponent is a full-grown chimpanzee, we're voting for him, and you, Buster, are out !
So pick your street corner now, get out your polishing cloths and start learning apple salesmanship because politically, Pal, you're a washout!
(SGT.) C. A. SANGER
(SGT.) LESTER O. MERKEL
(SGT.) MARTIN MATHEWS
(SGT.) D.E. WAUGH
(SGT.) R.C.OWEN
(S/SGT.) ERNE J. COCHRANE
(T/SGT.) OWEN WEIL
(T/SGT.) J. C. HALL
(S/SGT.) ROBERT H. LAWRENCE
(S/SGT.) JULIUS RUBIN
(SGT.) C.F. PADGETT
(PFC.) ELERY ALFONSO
(SGT.) J. C. WILLIAMS
(SGT.) CECIL R. HALL
c/o Postmaster San Francisco
Curled Lip
Sirs:
This week, as it must to all news magazines, error came to 22-year-old, usually correct TIME. Said TIME [Oct. 15]: "Inez Robb was air-dizzy from high-flown metaphors. Wrote she: 'The world is shrinking like a pair of red flannels in a spring rain.' "
No metaphor this, TIME. A curl of the lip to the editor who does not recognize a simile when he sees one.
FRANK R. BAKER 1st Lieutenant, A.U.S. New Delhi, India
P: And who is now shrinking like a pair of red flannels in a spring rain (simile).--ED.
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