Grant Powers, USMC: Witness to the A-Bomb’s Deadly Force
Combat artists record the first atomic explosions in the South Pacific
In the summer of 1946, official combat artist Grant J. Powers, USMC (1899-1978) was brought in by the U.S. Navy to witness and record, in art, the first two atmospheric nuclear weapon tests at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Two other artists were an eyewitness to this real danger and existential threat to mankind.
The test series named Operation Crossroads consisted of two detonations, a low altitude test and a shallow water test. Each device had a yield of 21 kilotons and were named ABLE and BAKER. It was intended to study the effects of nuclear weapons on warships, equipment, and material. But it was clearly intended to make a statement of power to the Soviet Union.
These two Crossroads detonations were major media and scientific events. Scientists studied the nuclear weapon explosion phenomena and radiation contamination. Newspaper, magazine, and radio correspondents were allowed to cover the test atomic bomb explosions, as the Military phrased it, "with sufficient thoroughness to satisfy the public as to the fairness and general results of the experiment.”
Powers was commissioned to make paintings that were informative, but he took it further. His images of sequential atomic cloud formations and the decimation of warships have an ominous quality. He saw his reportage as significant in sharing to the world how we would now be faced with the possibly of a nuclear war.
Powers’ paintings were both scientific and aesthetic. He was able to capture the dynamic action of destroyers and cruisers exploding in flames, and the scattering of fireballs and bomb debris. He also had an ability to capture the explosion’s aftermath, like Navy tug boats fighting deck fires and sinking transports.
These above-ground tests generated quite a bit of radioactive fallout. Individuals near the blast site would be exposed to high levels of radiation and could develop symptoms of radiation sickness. But winds carried heavy fallout over the populated atolls to the east of Bikini. 23 fishermen who were downwind of the blast were exposed and all developed leukemia and thyroid cancer within a decade. The U.S. conducted 65 thermonuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, before they were moved to a test facility in Nevada.
Also present at these tests were two other artists, including Captain Charles Bittinger, USNR (1879-1970), who was known for his skill at painting the terrible beauty of ‘mushroom’ clouds.
Lieutenant Commander Arthur Beaumont, USNR (1890-1978) was especially good at depicting mangled destroyers and cruisers, that suffered heavy damage and contamination after the blasts.
This was the dawn of the atomic age. Powers, Bittinger and Beaumont played an essential role in providing us with the implications of a future with nuclear weapons on human civilization. All three artists continued their service drawing and painting in the South Pacific. After te War they returned to their wives and families and lived long lives.
More Resources:
Here is a listing of artists found within the U.S. Navy Art Collection. This extraordinary archive of art and documents are significant to the history of the Navy and includes over 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, and engravings from all eras and wars of U.S. Naval history.
Here's a thought-provoking book of essays from Japanese and American artists and scholars with responses to the atomic bomb.
Here’s a huge cache of photographs, IDs, photos, a scrapbook and a diary from Grant Power's time at Iwo Jima and elsewhere that he served.