Ernest Graves
Q:
Where does it take us in terms of time?
A:
That would take us to September of 1946.
Q:
Okay. How many people did you have working for you then?
A:
Oh, I suppose no more than ten.
Q:
Any of them Japanese?
A:
We had a couple of Japanese draftsmen. Most of the men were Army NCOs or
specialists. I had one other officer working for me.
Q:
You were still a lieutenant?
A:
I got to be a captain in January of 1946.
Q:
That's pretty early.
A:
Yes, but that's what happened to everybody.
Q:
I thought you had become involved with the Manhattan project in 1945.
A:
No, not that early.
Q:
Excuse me, before we go into that, could I interrupt? Did you see Hiroshima when you
were over there?
A:
I did not.
Q:
Or Nagasaki? You didn't see--?
Manhattan Project and MIT, 19461951
A:
I did not see either of those. I was very busy in this job, which I was fascinated with.
I had various plans--to go down to Kyoto, to go up to Nikko. I was planning several
excursions. Suddenly, the call came for certain of us to go back to Albuquerque.
[Lieutenant] General [Leslie R.] Groves had come up with the idea that he wanted to
form a military unit to assemble nuclear weapons.
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