The Girls of Atomic City (48 page)

The gargantuan, U-shaped K-25 plant contained approximately 44 acres of floor space. It housed a maze of pipes that had to be specially conditioned to ensure they were absolutely airtight.

Women occupied a wide variety of roles at Oak Ridge, wielding everything from blowtorches to Geiger counters.

Gen. Leslie Groves, scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and others examine ground zero of the Trinity Test at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

A fireball resulting from the Trinity test of July 16, 1945, rises above the New Mexico horizon as the world enters the nuclear age.

On August 14, 1945, Oak Ridgers and people everywhere celebrated the end of World War II.

Celia (Szapka) Klemski

Colleen (Rowan) Black

Jane (Greer) Puckett

Touchstone Reading Group Guide

The Girls of Atomic City

By Denise Kiernan

Introduction

The Girls of Atomic City
tells the true story of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a secret city founded during World War II to help create fuel for the atomic bomb. Oak Ridge didn’t appear on any maps, but thousands of workers moved there during the war, enticed by good wages and war-ending work. Their jobs were shrouded in mystery, but the workers – many of them young, single and female – were excited to be “all in the same boat,” buoyed by a sense of shared purpose.

But these hardworking young women also faced unexpected challenges. One young woman, Helen, was recruited to spy on her fellow workers. An African-American janitor, Kattie, faced daily discrimination and separation from her children in segregated Oak Ridge. Toni, a secretary, was mocked by her Northern bosses for her Tennessee accent. Dot, a factory operator, had lost a brother at Pearl Harbor and had two others still away fighting. Through it all, day in and day out, nobody knew what they were working on, only that they had been told it would help end the war. The secret wasn’t out until after the first atomic bomb, powered by an uranium enriched in Oak Ridge’s massive factories, fell on Hiroshima, Japan. Today, Oak Ridge and the other Manhattan Project sites continue to carry the legacy of helping to make the first atomic bomb a reality.

Topics & Questions for Discussion

1. Denise Kiernan explains in an author’s note,
“The information in this book is compartmentalized, as was much of life and work during the Manhattan Project.”
How does the book manage to recreate the workers’ experience of months-long ignorance, and the shock of finding out what they were working on?

2. Consider the losses of lives, land, and community that resulted from the Manhattan Project. What were some of the sacrifices that families and individuals made in their efforts to end the war? How do these losses compare to the gains of salary, solidarity, and peace? Do you think the ends of the Project justify the means? Why or why not?

3. Discuss the role that patriotism played in everyday life during World War II. Do you think Americans today would be willing or able to make the same sacrifices – including top-secret jobs, deployment overseas, rationed goods, and strict censorship – that families of that era made? Why or why not?

4. Consider the African-American experience at Oak Ridge. What kinds of discrimination did Kattie and her family face? How did Kattie manage to make the best of her substandard living conditions? What role do you think race played in the medical experimentation on Ebb Cade?