It has been 79 years since an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
Aug. 6 marks the anniversary of the first use of thermonuclear weapons in war, which devastated the people of the Japanese island. Almost eight decades later, the use of atomic weaponry is as current a topic as ever.
One Waterdown veteran has seen the power of atomic weapons first-hand — and says they should be left alone.
“There's an old, old saying about freedom comes at a price. We know that, but you can't drop a bomb like that on somebody. There's nothing there. You've got nothing, you've achieved nothing,” said Joe Benn.
Benn has lived in Canada for most of his life now, after leaving the Royal Navy in England to raise his children.
But before the 84-year-old settled down in Ontario and made Waterdown his home, he travelled the world by sea and bore witness to a series of nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific.
“I joined the Navy when I was 15 as a boy seaman,” Benn said. He served on the HMS Ganges, a training ship for the Royal Navy, which now has its own museum in Suffolk, England.
A child of the Second World War, Benn said it was common for boys his age to join the Navy. His town, Coventry, was "flattened" by the frequent bombings.
"We had nothing. We had absolutely nothing," he said.
After training, Benn was recruited onto the HMS Warrior, an aircraft carrier ship that was used as the home base for Operation Grapple, the first British tests of atomic and hydrogen bombs, between 1956 and 1958.
“We knew we were going to go to the hydrogen bomb, H-bomb tests, in the South Pacific,” he said.
In the 67 years since Operation Grapple, Benn says, a lot of the details of his time in the Pacific have been lost. He said he was only 16 at the time.
But he remembers the bombs going off.
“It was a pretty horrifying thing. You didn't actually see the blast. We had our backs turned to the actual blast,” he said.
Standing on the deck of the HMS Warrior, between 12 and 20 miles from the explosion, Benn and his fellow seamen faced away from the drop site with goggles on, their hands over their eyes.
“But we still saw the blast,” he said, adding the explosion was like a flash of light.
After the bomb went off, they were allowed to turn around and face the mushroom cloud left behind.
“It seemed to me like the whole sky was just one huge atomic cloud. And it seemed to be so close, you could touch it but it wasn't. It seemed that way,” he said.
Where the bomb had gone off, there was nothing left.
“It literally sucked this island up, you know, with the vacuum that it caused,” he said.
Decades later, Benn reflects on the H-Bomb’s power and the destruction it left behind.
“You can't use the land for thousands of years. So why did you do it in the first place?”
Veteran awarded Nuclear Test Medal
While serving on the HMS Warrior, Benn witnessed three hydrogen bomb tests in the South Pacific. For years afterward, he had to wear a device that monitored his radiation levels.
“They register radiation poison, if you have any,” he said, adding the Navy watched his health for a long time after Operation Grapple.
Eventually, the testing stopped and Benn left the Navy to spend more time with his young children. Soon after, the family immigrated to Canada and decades passed with Benn’s time aboard the HMS Warrior as a memory.
Until this past February.
“Majesty King Charles III convened some kind of meeting where they all agreed that the personnel that took part in these explosions should be awarded a medal,” Benn said.
Benn was awarded the Nuclear Test Medal, in honour of his time in the South Pacific. The award was created in November 2022, two months into King Charles III’s reign.
When it was announced, former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, “This medal is an enduring symbol of our country’s gratitude to each and every person who played a part in this effort and their loved ones who supported them.”
Benn said the medal is now a part of his uniform, which he will wear on Nov. 11 at the Waterdown Legion’s Remembrance Day ceremonies.
He said he was surprised the Royal Navy was able to find him, so many decades and kilometres from his time in service, and that it reminds him of his time in the Pacific, watching the bombs go off, even if it feels like a lifetime ago.
“I'm still here and I've had a good life. I’m very fortunate. I've been married for 62 years. I've got wonderful children, grandchildren, great grandchildren. What else could I ask for?”
