Welcome to Richland, where the local high school's mascot killed 80,000 people

Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Washington

(Image credit: Jeff T. Green/Getty Images)

published 21 July 2015

Richland, Washington, knows all about that awkward feeling.

That awkward feeling when you buy a "meltdown" at the local hamburger joint. That awkward feeling when you chant "Nuke 'em till they glow!" at a high school football game. That awkward feeling when your high school mascot is the "Bombers," whose mushroom cloud logo celebrates the deaths of 60,000 to 80,000 people.

The trouble is, Richland is divided on how to acknowledge its past. The small town played an integral role producing the plutonium that made up the core of "Fat Man," the atomic bomb that America dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, to effectively end World War II. At the time, the bomb was a point of pride for little Richland. But 70 years on, local sentiment in some cases has swung to horror. Leah Sottile has the story for Al Jazeera America:

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For some, Richland High's mascot embodies political incorrectness: a symbol that glorifies destruction and the deaths of innocents, a mark of hatred and fear. The bombs changed "humanity's relationship with technology," said Tim Connor, who was born in Hanford in the 1950s. Connor went on to become an investigative journalist and activist, working to shut down plutonium production at Hanford, which is now considered the most contaminated nuclear site in the country. "We really used our best and brightest to unlock the secrets of the atom that, in a way, still hold the world hostage to this incredible terror."But for Pierard, a 1959 local graduate with cloudy blue eyes and a long gray ponytail, the Bombers R-Cloud is an inspiring reminder of a time when Richland, in his mind, saved the world. He's not willing to see this symbol dismissed without a fight. "If you are gonna take my R-Cloud away from me," he said, rolling back his black sweatshirt to reveal a green and gold R-Cloud tattooed onto his right shoulder, "you're gonna rip it off my cold, dead arm." [Al Jazeera America]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.