Dr. Rhinehart's Commentary

What follows is Dr. Stephen Rinehart's commentary - presented in two parts since we corresponded on the subject of the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast over a few days. You may wonder why I contacted Stephen in the first place. Within the U.S. Department of Defense (where we both work - albeit at different locations and for different services), Stephen is widely recognized as international expert in this field. So in order to give you some insight into his professional background - in addition to his commentary - he has kindly provided us a brief resume - which I have attached to the conclusion of his commentary. I originally contacted Stephen to see if he would please give us a description (from physics) of the conditions that exisited at the Jesuit's home, estimated to be one kilometer from the estimated 15-20 kiloton atomic blast at Hiroshima.

Stephen is also a wonderful Catholic, and is very devoted to Our Lady and the Holy Rosary.

....his comments follow...

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Part 1...

Richard, I will check but quick calculation says at 1 kilometer the bulk temperature was in excess of 20,000 to 30,000 degrees F (transients in microseconds greater than 100,000F perhaps as high as 1,000,000 F within 1 kilometer - depends on construction details and you are inside the fireball) and the blast wave would have hit at sonic velocity with pressures on building (at one kiolmeter) greater than 600 psi. and buildings were demolished over a mile from epicenter. The "fireball diameter" is probably on the order of two to four kilometers (depends on certain definitions). No way any human could have survived nor should anything have left been standing at one kilometer. Yet, at about ten to fifteen kilometers I saw the brick walls standing from an elementary school (some phasing due to bomb's pineapple construction) and I think there were a few badly burned survivors at ten to fifteen kilometers (all - except the Jesuits - died within fifteen years of some form of cancer). Also, I think they were Jesuits that were near epicenter and a panorama view from epicenter at Shima Hospital did show some kind of two story house totally intact (at least from what I could make out and it look to me the windows were in place!?). Also there was a church with walls still standing but roof gone a few hundred yards away!? DOD never commented officially on this and I suspect it was classified and never discussed in open literature. I think it is possible the Jesuits were asked not to say anything either at the time.

Part 2.....

The Hiroshima atomic bomb was an airblast burst (i.e., detonated at altitude between 600 yds. to 1000 yds.) as opposed to an atomic ground burst (i.e., designed to crater a certain area – possibly against deeply buried targets). Two of these types of weapons were built and the other was dropped on Nagasaki. The third weapon was larger and intended for a ground blast [Tokyo Harbor?] but was never used on Japan and no target ever identified. The bombing order was against cities not specific military targets. The cities selected were Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yokohama, and Nagasaki.

In reviewing the damage patterns and blast characteristics of the Hiroshima blast, it appears this weapon was detonated at a height of 0.6 to 1.0 kilometers [Highest probable fireball diameter is about 1.4 kilometers]. This weapon was detonated at this height to produce the maximum damage area from the fireball (maximum sustained fire/airblast damage from the propagating temperatures and airblast pressures in the shock wave front). However, the epicenter was not the area with the greatest damage since the weapon was designed to “spread the fireball effects” over a wide area. The strongest building [steel reinforced frame] was the Hiroshima Bank building which was gutted inside by fire 250 meters from hypocenter of bomb but its walls remained standing but the window frames were blown away.

The overriding conclusion from my review of the weapon effects at Hiroshima is that this weapon was intentionally designed and deployed to kill or maim as many humans as possible in residential housing (or unprotected outside) over the widest possible area for the weapon’s size (while minimizing radiation effects from contaminated debris being thrown up into atmosphere). Since much of the Hiroshima industrial capacity was also located in unreinforced brick structures this type of airblast would also destroy any unreinforced masonry or brick buildings. One of the most flammable items on a person is their hair and clothing.
Much of the clothing at this time was cotton (or blended cotton) which would be considered highly flammable. I suddenly came to the realization that the intent of propagating a fireball at this height was to be able to set fire to a person’s clothing (and all types of fabrics) at relatively long distances from the blast’s epicenter. The airblast would be felt for miles (blowing out windows and damaging most all structures by cracking the walls) and terrorize the remaining population. Hence, the description by those who survived of seeing burned bodies everywhere (or charred skeletons) and skin that was shredded into strips is consistent with the bombing order to hit a populated city in the center without specific regard to military objectives [See Remarks - located four paragraphs below].

It appears the Jesuits (at one kilometer from the geometric epicenter) had greater than 90% probability of being outside the atomic bomb’s “plasma” since it was an airburst but they were on the “hairy edge”. Depending on the actual height of detonation, the Jesuits must have had the edge of the fireball literally outside their window. Assuming they were just outside of the plasma, their residence should still have been utterly destroyed (temp > 2000 F and airblast pressures > 100 psi). In contrast, unreinforced masonry or brick walls (representative of commercial construction) are destroyed at 3 psi, which will also cause ear damage and burst windows. At ten psi, a human will experience severe lung and heart damage, burst eardrums and at 20 psi your limbs can be blown off. Your head will be blown off by 40 psi and no residential or unreinforced commercial construction would be left standing. At 80 psi even reinforced concrete is heavily damaged and no human would be alive because your skull would be crushed All the cotton clothes would be on fire at 350 F (probably at 275F) and your lungs would be inoperative within a minute breathing air (even for a few seconds) at these temperatures.

Conclusion: There are no physical laws to explain why the Jesuits were untouched in the Hiroshima airblast. There is no other actual or test data where a structure such as this was not totally destroyed at this standoff distance by an atomic weapon. All who were at this range from the epicenter should have received enough radiation to be dead within at most a matter of minutes if nothing else happened to them. There is no known way to design a uranium-235 atomic bomb, which could leave such a large discrete area intact while destroying everything around it immediately outside the fireball (by shaping the plasma).

From a scientific viewpoint, what happened to those Jesuits at Hiroshima still defies all human logic from the laws of physics as understood today (or at any time in the future). It must be concluded that some other (external) force was present whose power and/or capability to transform energy and matter as it relates to humans is beyond current comprehension. >From the standpoint of the current universal “string” theory in physics (relating atomic scale effects to macroscopic world)
it suggests that the physical “strings” (i.e., bodies) of the Jesuits and the “energy strings” representing the house’s physical matter) were either transformed at the moment of the blast into an opposing energy field (to cancel the weapon effects and then transformed back on a time scale totally imperceptible to humans) or an enormous external force field was present which precisely cancelled the weapon’s effects over the totally irregular geometry of the residential house including protecting the occupants. Either way it is a plausibility argument for the existence of a Creator who left his “calling card” at Hiroshima.

Remarks: In 1921, a group of German optics and mechanical designers were sent from Bausch (in Germany) to Tokyo, Japan to design the optics from periscopes, bomb sites, binoculars, microscopes, precision machining [aircraft engines] as well as a new generation of advanced fighters and heavy bombers [Kate]. That’s right, the concept of the Japanese “Zero” and twin-engine bombers was secretly on the drawing boards in the late 1920s by German designers. Coincidentally, in 1921 German Jesuits showed up in Japan! In addition, Herbert Smith [famous aircraft designer for Sopwith] was asked by Mitsubishi to come to Japan in 1921 to design the world’s first carrier fighter. It was called the Type 10 and was tested at a facility near Hiroshima. The German families (and most of the German designers) did not know the real agenda of their Governments at the time. In the late 1920s, the concept for large aircraft carriers [to accommodate the Zero] were also being drawn and work was initiated on Japan’s atomic bomb. In 1923, a massive earthquake stuck Tokyo causing widespread destruction. I believe this earthquake set the Japanese war effort back two full years in recovering and much of this design effort was relocated to Hiroshima, Honshu and Nagasaki. Hiroshima had much heavy shipbuilding/aircraft manufacturing and was a key site in development of Japan’s aircraft carriers as well as engine/weapons development. In addition, there was a large University for mechanical engineering. (The speculation being that a full-scale WWII was planned by Japan and Germany and should have started in 1939). As a possible consequence of this 1923 earthquake, Japan was not yet ready to enter WWII in 1939 (in a worldwide coordinated attack because it lacked trained aircraft carrier pilots and the Zero’s production was just starting) when Hitler attacked Poland [Hitler decided not to wait but to sign a peace treaty with Russia, England and the US to keep them off guard until Japan could finish its aircraft carriers and train carrier pilots]. This however permitted the Allies valuable time in preparing for WWII (especially in the US). By late 1940, naval intelligence had identified Pearl Harbor as the point of a Japanese “sneak attack” by the Japanese carriers. In September, 1941 all dependents of the carriers Lexington and Yorktown had been recalled to San Diego and these carriers were outfitted for war in San Diego (summer 1941) and left in September for Pearl Harbor. Rumor has it the fighter pilots aboard the Lexington and Yorktown had been told in a “classified” briefing this country was going to war with Japan soon. The Lexington and Yorktown were ordered out of Pearl Harbor on Thanksgiving Day in November 1941 and were three hundred miles from Pearl Harbor (out of reach of Japanese fleet) on Dec 07, 1941. The War Dept has never declassified that briefing.


As previously noted, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were probably not “random” targets for the drop of the atomic bomb to just demonstrate the bomb as has been stated all these years. These cities may have contained key [relocated] elements of the German design teams for both Japan’s atomic bomb effort including critical industrial capacity for making an atomic bomb as well as possibly working on very advanced radar and electronics for submarines and building naval surface combatants [carriers]. To protect key Japanese personnel [in later stages of war effort], the Japanese used hospitals to house both military and engineering personnel and relocated the patients to other small “clinics” [to spread them out]. The military personnel and engineers probably wore white uniforms to make it look good. Maybe it was no accident, the Shima Hospital was at the epicenter of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. There are many unanswered questions to this day as to why did German Jesuits come in Japan in 1921, along with so many other German designers!?

Speculation:
I never thought about it until now but there are a number of striking “coincidences” in 1921. It is not improbable that they [the German Jesuits] may have furnished key information on Japan’s war-making activities back to the Vatican [for years] and ultimately to US involving Hiroshima and other cities where a critical part of Japan’s industry was located in this timeframe. The German Jesuits could easily have interfaced with the families of the German designers and were technically astute. The Jesuits have long been actively involved in other country’s politics all over the world and teaching fundamental sciences, mathematics and philosophy at a University gives them access to a country’s brightest minds for the future!?….and who else would come and go virtually unnoticed?

....that brings us to the end of Dr. Rinehart's fascinating comments.

Dr. Stephen A. Rinehart's professional resume follows....


DR. STEPHEN A. RINEHART

EDUCATION:

Ph.D., Engineering Mechanics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1969 M.S., Engineering Mechanics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1966 B.S., Engineering Mechanics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1964 Awards: ASTM (National) Robert J Painter Award (1968) in Mechanical Engineering for Graduate Students

TITLE: Principal Staff Member, Engineering (TRW)

Corporate Affiliations: TRW Systems Integration Group, 1992-Present UNISYS Defense Systems, 1987-1992 NKF Engineering, Inc., 1981-1987 Prior to 1981, Dr Rinehart worked with Boeing Vertol Div., Xerox Corp. and Lockheed Missiles/Marine Systems and has served as a consultant to numerous DoD contractors and Agencies since 1965 including NASA, Office of Naval Research, Defense Nuclear Agency, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Coast Guard, SPAWAR and the Air Force’s Space and Missile Command. At Georgia Tech, he was the first graduate student to receive a NASA fellowship in support of Saturn-Apollo Program.

Years of Related Professional Experience: 34+ in support of DoD Programs

EXPERIENCE:

Dr. Rinehart was the Corporate Technical Director and Vice-President for NKF Engineering, Washington DC in the 1980s. He was responsible for the administrative, marketing, and technical operations for 40 scientists/engineers as well as two field offices (Annapolis/Philadelphia) and a remote shock test facility (Dynamic Testing Inc.) supporting NAVSEA located in Lynchburg, Virginia. He has supported conventional and nuclear weapons development for Naval and Air Force combat weapon systems for over twenty-seven years. This includes programs involving aircraft carriers, destroyers, missiles, mine countermeasures, VSTOL and fighter aircraft and attack submarines.

Prior to joining TRW, Dr. Rinehart served as the Program Manager for the Acoustics, Shock, Vibration, and Magnetic Silencing for the Navy's Mine Countermeasures ship (MCM-1) including directing all the explosive testing and acoustic analysis and classified radiated noise signature testing at PBI Shipbuilders. Also served as the Program Manager for the prototype design/upgrade for the Navy's SEAL Team's SDV Vehicle as well as the Navy’s Mine Hunter Class (MHC) and addressed special munitions (shaped-charges, mine neutralization, CADS) requirements. As project engineer for DTNSRDC directed the shock design of the propulsor and stern section for the Navy SSN-21 submarine as well as developing torpedo countermeasures. Currently, Dr. Rinehart is supporting the Air Force’s Airborne Laser Program and AEF (Air Expeditionary Force) passive force protection against air blast and fragmentation. He also recently served as an advisor to the Joint USAF/Israeli Civil Defense project for passive protection of unprotected structures against terrorist attacks.