The Bomb (Taylor novel)

The Bomb is also a novel by Frank Harris.

The Bomb is a 1995 novel by Theodore Taylor written to protest against nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll after the natives are forced to move. It was first published by Harcourt Children's Books in October 1995.

Plot summary

Sorry Rinamu is a 16-year old boy who lives on Bikini Atoll. In the first section of the book, Sorry and the natives live through World War II, under constant threat by the Japanese soldiers occupying the island. However, one day, American forces attack the island, defeating the Japanese soliders, and freeing the island. Later, World War II ends.

However, an American battleship lands in the lagoon, and a few days later, an American commander, one of which represents Operation Crossroads, delivers the news to the natives that Bikini has been chosen as a site for nuclear tests due to "ideal" conditions, and asks the villagers to move. Most agree, but Abram, Sorry's uncle, insists that the villagers should not submit so easily to white men, yet they still do. The villagers vote to move away from the island. The American tells the natives that the atoll will be returned in a few years, but Abram and Sorry believe that he is lying.

As scientists arrive on the atoll, it is being converted to a temporary military base. Abram comes up with a plan to stop the nuclear tests by sailing into the test area with a red sailboat, but he dies of a heart attack before he could carry out the plan. When Sorry decides that he should do it, the natives believe that he is insane, yet he is accompanied by Tara, a local teacher, and his maternal grandfather, Jonjen.

They carry out their plan, but the bombers fail to notice them, and they are killed by the blast.