1946.09.29 “…And in this corner…”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
14 x 22 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.
In June 1946, the US, via Bernard Baruch, had put forward what became known as the Baruch Plan: a proposal for disposal of US nuclear weapons only if all would agree to an international atomic authority and rigorous inspections. That offer was framed as a stark choice between “world peace or world destruction.”
John Hersey's article "Hiroshima" in The New Yorker in August 1946 vividly depicted the human cost of the atomic bomb, bringing a graphic understanding of the destruction to a broader audience and likely increasing public apprehension about its potential use.
During the war, Admiral William “Bull” Halsey was famous for his bloody-minded tirades against the Japanese. He had publicly said that Japan was “not fit to live in a civilized world.” In September 1946, after Hersey’s graphic article ran in The New Yorker, the admiral told reporters: “The first atomic bomb was an unnecessary experiment. It was a mistake to ever drop it.” He blamed the scientists, who “had this toy and they wanted to try it out, so they dropped it. It killed a lot of Japs, but the Japs had put out a lot of peace feelers through Russia long before.” This outburst angered a group of scientists, who wrote Admiral Nimitz to complain. Nimitz replied that neither the scientists nor the military were responsible for the bomb.
By late September 1946, the Baruch negotiations had broken down, the Soviets felt the plan preserved US dominance, demanded first US disarmament, and rejected the proposal. By year-end, the UN Atomic Energy Commission effectively suspended progress until the West and USSR could politically agree.
