Posted on 12/07/2011 12:13:51 PM PST by shoedog
Johnston designed the first atomic bomb detonator and is believed to be the only eyewitness to all three 1945 atomic explosions - at White Sands, N.M., and in Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, events that killed some 200,000 people and ended World War II. Johnston was assigned to measure the impact of the bombs.
Johnston had just completed his bachelor's degree and begun graduate work at University of California, Berkeley in 1940, when he agreed to follow his mentor, Nobel-prize-winning Luis Alvarez, to Boston to help develop microwave radar at MIT's Radiation Laboratory. By 1943, Johnston had helped develop a ground-controlled-approach radar blind landing system for airplanes, an invention critical to the success of World War II Battle of Britain and the post-war Berlin Airlift. Both Alvarez and Johnston then moved to Los Alamos, N.M., to help develop the atomic bomb. Back at Berkeley after the war, Johnston helped Alvarez build a new type of proton linear accelerator. Johnston then headed construction of a larger version of it at the University of Minnesota, and worked on another at Stanford University.
In 1967, the Johnstons moved to Moscow where he served as physics professor at the University of Idaho until 1988. He focused on nuclear physics, lasers and molecular spectroscopy. After retiring, Johnston continued to give talks about his experiences to all ages, from elementary school children to scientists. A natural teacher, Johnston used many occasions as teachable moments. When fishing, gutting fish meant also examining contents of the fish's stomach and asking his kids to decipher its last meal. "Hmm, caddis fly larvae."
Friends and family teased Johnston that his interest in explosives went back to his birth on Chinese New Year - known for its fireworks - Feb. 11, 1918, in Shantung Province, China, to Christian missionaries. A picture at age 3 shows him grinning and holding a large Chinese firecracker. The family spent Larry's fifth summer traveling across the USA in a Model-T Ford, paying farmers 25 cents to camp on their property and visiting national parks. Ever after, Larry loved camping and the outdoors. Larry was beginning graduate studies at the University of California Berkeley when he fell in love with the beautiful Mildred "Millie" Hillis, finding in her a match for his wit and intelligence and a partner in his Christian faith. After Luis Alvarez recruited Larry to come to Boston to help invent radar, leaving Millie behind, Alvarez thought Larry seemed depressed. When Larry admitted he was missing Millie, Alvarez pulled strings to fly Larry to Berkeley, where they were married and returned together to Boston. Millie sometimes accompanied the radar team on trips to test their new blind landing system. She had a ringside seat for history in the making.
As children arrived, Millie ensured that they had quality time to spend with their busy father, who often worked around the clock on war projects. Thus began a tradition of his telling bedtime stories that continued throughout their five children's childhoods. Intermingled with stories of Reddy Fox were tales of Larry's youthful experiments with electricity, involving chewing gum, his sister, Eunice, and her bedsprings. Stories about his summer adventures tide pooling at La Jolla also figured prominently. "Though we have mostly lived inland, we all think our love for the sea is thanks to Daddy's bedtime stories," said daughter Margy. His kids could stall the going-to-bed process by asking scientific questions, "Tell us about the giant squids, Daddy!"
Johnston was asked in post-war years whether he regretted working on the A bomb. "My answer," Johnston told an MIT interviewer in 1991, "is that I felt very privileged to be part of an effort that promised to end the war abruptly, and which had the prospect of saving many lives, both Japanese and American." Johnston, known for his wit and kindness to all, held this view even during heated debate over the ethics of the bomb in more recent decades.
Johnston devoted much of his retirement to improving the relationship between modern science and the Bible. A proponent of intelligent design, Johnston sought understanding of evolutionary biology from the University of Idaho's Holly Wichman and James Foster through weekly lunchtime sessions that continued until his death.
Millie and Larry treasured two trips to Israel where they worked on Biblical archeology projects and Larry helped Israeli scientists use sonar to locate potential dig sites. The Johnstons supported Christian ministries in Moscow and attended Bridge Bible Fellowship.
Clearly the three blast scrambled his brains...
Bet he squeezed his toothpaste tube from the middle, too....
Thanks for sharing....very interesting obit on an obviously VERY intelligent man.
BTW - he and your wife are correct ....Under is safer than Over...because if a bored little kid is sitting on the pot and starts hitting the roll - in the over position, the paper will quickly spool off and be wasted!! [VBG]
From back when they built engineers that actually, well.. engineered.
Not like these days where everything is computerized.
How old was he, when he passed away?
Fascinating read; RIP Uncle Larry.
Wha??
Everybody knows it should be under. LOL
How was he an eye witness to the two detonations in Japan? There were no crew members with that name on board the aircraft.
Was he in one of the camera/chase planes?
Amazing. How would you even start on that (in the early 40's)?
Communists have stolen our colleges! Oh, Moscow, Idaho.
He sounds like he's had a very interesting life.
Where would he have seen the Japanese detonations? What location or platform?
I thought that Jacob Beser was the only one to have seen both of them.
Very nice obituary...
I too subscribe to the theory that ‘the bomb’ actually saved many lives. It is also quite clear that if he and the full team hadn’t been the first to develop ‘the bomb’, there would have been hell to pay. Germany, Japan, Russia? No thanks.
As for the t.p. installation, it’s my take that over allows your hands to come into less contact with the wall. For the times when more than one application is needed, it’s more sanitary not to come into contact with the wall at all.
Thanks for letting us read the interesting information about your uncle.
Very nice.
We are indebted to him IMO.
Yes. A cat will do the same thing. Whatta mess.
My father and his twin brother were scheduled to be landing craft drivers in the invasion of Japan.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
later
(A 1943 invention would not have been "crucial" to the Battle of Britain - a battle which concluded in 1940)
“I too subscribe to the theory that the bombs saved lives’. How well I recall my days on Leyte as a newly arrived infantry replacement. We had heard about the bombs but we were still being processed for the coming invasion of Japan. My brother had been killed on Okinawa and I can say I was damned angry as well as being very naive about the cost for going into Japan. However, the day I was in a short line for new equipment a Lt. comes out and tells us to go back to our tents and wait for new orders, the shooting was over. I spent many months on Leyte and saw the remnants of war in Jap prisoners and dead bodies bulldozed into large piles in the rice paddies. I really was glad the bombs did what they were intended for and thank the people who made them work.
My dad was a naval stores specialist, and was in Japan within a couple of weeks after the bombs ended the war.
The Japanese people treated him with considerable respect when he was there. One pregnant woman tried to give him her seat on a bus, but he graciously declined.
I believe the Japanese government had turned it’s own people against it. The Japanese had seen their boys destroyed in ways that defied humane norms. If the war hadn’t ended when it did, many more would have died. The Japanese seemed relieved.
I’m convinced there were Japanese who weren’t happy about the situation, but they didn’t cause major problems for us.
Ornery cats make under a necessity.
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