End of WWII in Los Alamos

By Heather McClenahan
Los Alamos Historical Society
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This week marks the 73rd anniversaries of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the end of World War II, the bloodiest conflict in human history.
Reaction to the end of the war in Los Alamos, according to those who lived it, was mixed.
Eleanor Jette described events in her classic book, Inside Box 1663: “About two o’clock, bedlam broke loose; word of the surrender request had reached the [army] barracks. GIs in trucks, jeeps, and on foot assembled in front of Theater Two, and a good part of the civilian population joined them. An impromptu parade started. Willy Higinbotham, playing his accordion, balanced precariously on the radiator of the leading jeep, and lids snatched from garbage cans clashed merrily.

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