Manhattan Project National Historic Site at Los Alamos, NM

So....this is a strange one to take a five-year to, and it is an emotionally heavy one for a nine-year old.   As you probably know this is the birthplace of the atomic bomb and is where the Fatman and Little Boy bombs (that were later dropped during WWII on Nagasaki and Hiroshima respectively) were constructed.

So the Manhattan Project National Historic Site at Los Alamos was established in November of 2015 and was a partnership between a number of agencies that were trying to preserve this history.  When you visit there is a walking tour through the town that takes you to a number of sites ran by a different entities (NPS, historical society, the city, and the Los Alamos laboratories).  Through the various sites there are a number of movies and exhibits that tell the story of the area.  Of course the story is one of people being displaced so that the town could be set up as a secret base.  The main set of buildings that were taken by the government were those belonging to the Los Alamos Ranch School - a lot of history there.

Of course the whole point of converting this area into a secret base was so that the nuclear bomb could be developed.  I am quite a pacifist and my view on the dropping of these bombs is not positive - of course the way history is told is that the dropping of these bombs ended the war - which is a debatable point of view as there were other factors that contributed to the end of the conflict.  Anyhow, this visit took a great deal of contextualization, explanation, and emotional conversation.  Additionally there is the legacy of nuclear weapons on the planet and the nuclear weapons in the U.S.  ...conversations that needed to be had.

Here are some pictures of the Ranch School:

So....quick story, on the way home I asked Sister, "what did you learn?"  She said, "I think there was a war?"  She wasn't quite sure after talking about the war all day....So, yes, she was exposed to some information, but it wasn't exactly a five-year-old friendly day.  Also, as Husband has a better memory for history, I really missed his contribution to the conversations Brother and I had.   So, the take-away is that this is a very important part of U.S. history and it was very educational for Brother and I, but it was also a troubling and difficult visit due to the mass murder perpetrated by BOTH the allies and the axis powers.