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Myers, Rollin G., November 30, 1947

6.1.49.1.jpg

Revision as of Jun 22, 2015 11:36:21 AM, created by 128.193.164.143

HON. MEMBER SIGMA XI. STANFORD FELLOW. A. A. A. S. MEMBER A. C. S. ACT. MEMBER N. Y. ACAD. SCIENCE

ROLLIN G. MYERS, PH. D. BIOCHEM.. STANFORD

6060 S.E. Johnson Creek Blvd. Portland 6, Oregon, Nov. 30, 1947.

Professor Albert Einsten, Chairman, Emergency Committe of Atomic Scientists, Room 28, 90 Nassau Street, Princeton, New Jersey.

Dear Profesor Einstein :

  Enclosed is check for $3.00 which I hope will be of some assistence to the Committee.  Unfortunately my income is small and the increasing living cost hasent helped any. 
  As a scientist with no portfolio, I can state only that your circular letter only outlines too ominously the extreme danger of nuclear energy when applied to war.  So too the"Appeal for a 'Higher Realism' of the Emergency Committee. 
 
  To a considerable extent I can understand the lack of any sustaining popular interest in scientists and more particularly the nuclear bomb.  In the first place only a relatively few people in America ever experinced an air raid.  None of our towns or cities were destroyed by bombs or shells since luckily for us the United States was not invaded by a destroying host.  My wife and I experienced all those events.  We survived the bombing of Cavite and Manila.  We know what air raids are and with no air raid shelters and no certain assurance of escaping schrapnel or being straffed.  We were prisoners of the Japanese Army authorities for over three years, most of which time was spent in the Santo Tomas Internement (better) Concentration Camp, Manila.  Three years ago at this time our average calorie intake (about 3000 others) was not much over 600 per diem.   Many internees died later from malnutrition and starvation.  During the Battle of Manila, February, 1945, the main building in which we were interned was shelled by the Japanese.  Over fifteen were killed outright and many more injured, some for life.  In Manila it was estimated that from 30 to 35% of the the civilian population were either massacred or killed by the cross firing,  add the city itself was 70% ruined.  Only a few buildings in the Intramuros-ma ny of them granite were left standing.  Those that remained were masses of crumbling walls and rubble!  That is why I cannot justify the numerous bellicose statements and stories in the press.   We have been baiting Russia since 1917. Apparently we were glad enough that Russia sided with Britain and us, but we cant