I sent a message to Chairman Mao for Joliot Curie: To oppose the atomic bomb, you must have the atomic bomb yourself

Article source: Centennial Tide Author: Yang Chengzong dictated by Bian Dongzi. The copyright of the article belongs to the author, if there is any infringement, please contact to delete.

Editor's note: Yang Chengzong, former researcher and director of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, deputy director of the five business institutes of the Second Ministry of Machinery Industry, vice president of the University of Science and Technology of China. He studied at the Curie Laboratory of the University of Paris in France under the tutelage of Nobel laureate Elena Joliot-Marie Curie. After receiving his doctorate, he resolutely returned to China, devoted himself to the cause of socialist construction, became the founder of radiochemistry in New China, and made significant contributions to the development of China's first atomic bomb.

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out. Soon, the "United Nations Army" led by the United States ignored the warnings of the Chinese Government, crossed the 38th Line, and burned the flames of war to the Yalu River. On October 19, the Chinese Volunteer Army entered the Korean War and quickly turned the tide of the Korean War. After a heavy blow, U.S. President Harry S. Truman, at a press conference on November 30, 1950, answered the question of whether the atomic bomb would be used, and said vaguely: "Use all available force." In April 1951, the United States transferred B-29 bombers capable of carrying atomic bombs to Okinawa. The nuclear blackmail of the United States has aroused the resolute opposition of peace-loving people in the world. Frederick Joliot-Curie, chairman of the World Committee for the Defense of Peace, not only took a clear stand against the U.S. policy of nuclear blackmail, but also had deep thinking about how to stop nuclear war. It was against this background that one day in June 1951, Joliot-Curie met with Yang Chengzong, a Chinese scientist who had received his doctorate from the Curie Laboratory and was about to return to China, and said to him: "You go back and tell Mao Zedong that if you want to defend peace and oppose the atomic bomb, you must have the atomic bomb yourself." The atomic bomb is not so terrible, and the principle of the atomic bomb was not invented by the Americans. ”

After Yang Chengzong returned to China in August 1951, he conveyed the advice of Jolio Curie to the CPC Central Committee through Qian Sanqiang and Ding Zhan, which played a positive role in the CPC Central Committee's determination to build China's own nuclear shield.

The Joliot-Curies

To oppose the atomic bomb, you must have the atomic bomb yourself

One day in June 1951, Marie Joliot Curie said to me, "Would you like to see Mr. Jolio Curie?" ”

I said, "I was going to thank him." ”

After meeting Monsieur Joliot Curie, he said something very important to me, and my impression was very deep, and while he waved his left arm in the air, he said passionately and loudly: "You go back and tell Mao Zedong that if you want to defend peace and oppose the atomic bomb, you must have the atomic bomb yourself." The atomic bomb is not so terrible, and the principle of the atomic bomb was not invented by the Americans. You have your own scientists, Qian, you, Qian's wife, Wang. "Qian refers to Qian Sanqiang, and Qian's wife of course refers to He Zehui." Wang should refer to Wang Dezhao. He is a student of Lang Zhiwan, a good friend of Qian Sanqiang, and is also familiar with Yorio Curie. When he arrived in Beijing, I picked him up at the Qianmen Railway Station, and for a while he was also the director of the atomic energy institute. Soon in accordance with the deployment of the state, he founded the Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he was the first director, known as the "founder of the new Chinese national defense hydroacoustics".

At that time, I only memorized the words of Joliot Curie repeatedly, so that I could report to Chairman Mao Zedong as I was after returning to China. I don't understand why he said this. Later, I learned that at that time, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was being fought tightly, and the "United Nations Army" headed by the United States could not win, so it clamored for the use of atomic bombs, and the US military even transferred heavy bombers capable of dropping atomic bombs to Japan, and only waited for an order to use nuclear weapons to bomb the Volunteer Army and the Korean People's Army, and even clamored to bomb Northeast China. The US nuclear blackmail policy has aroused strong opposition from peace-loving people in the world. Mr. Joliot-Curie has always been sympathetic to and supports Chinese people. He was very angry at this time, who was chairman of the World Committee for the Defense of Peace, and asked me to convey this passage to Chairman Mao Zedong.

After I returned to China, I told these few words of Monsieur Jolio-Curie to the three strong comrades. Comrade Sanqiang said: "This matter must be kept secret and not told to anyone, including our wives and children. "Therefore, I was so tight-lipped that I never mentioned it to anyone else, even when I was working at the Atomic Energy Institute. Because I thought, I always put these few words on my lips, and do a good job.

In the "Cultural Revolution," the "left" was not good, nor was the right, let alone these few words. In the 1970s, I followed the University of Science and Technology of China to Hefei. After the "Cultural Revolution," I remember that in 1985, Li Yi, the party secretary of our Institute of Atomic Energy, brought a young man to visit me, saying that he wanted to write about the past and present lives of the Institute of Atomic Energy, and came to me specifically for this matter. At that time, Li Yi was already in a semi-retired state, because he was my old boss and very familiar, and of course I received him very warmly. At that time, I did not know his tortuous experiences during the Cultural Revolution. Li Yi first briefly introduced his situation during the "Cultural Revolution": when he was overthrown, where he worked in Hubei, how much time he worked, and so on. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he returned to the Institute of Atomic Energy and intended to write a history about our Institute of Atomic Energy, especially before and after the establishment of the second part of the Institute of Atomic Energy. At that time, the second department moved from Zhongguancun to Tuoli, all the construction was from scratch, Li Yi played the role of paving stone, and did a lot of down-to-earth things. From 1958 to 1959, he also did a lot of things in Zhongguancun. Under his leadership, a house was built on the south side of our Institute of Atomic Energy, a house about the same size as the Institute of Atomic Energy, perhaps even larger than the house of the Institute of Atomic Energy. After the construction was completed, before we could move in, he was ordered to go to the lump to build the current Institute of Atomic Energy Science, and the house was not moved in, and it was all handed over to the Academy of Sciences. The Academy of Sciences gave the building to the Institute of Biophysics and to Mr. Pei Shizhang. So the Institute of Biophysics moved to a new house, and a part of it was given to the Institute of Microbiology, including the Chinese "Foster" (Note: English "first" or "first"), which is the microbial strain bank, which is very valuable. After that, our Institute of Atomic Energy came to an end and became two units, the Chinese Academy of Atomic Energy Sciences and the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

I have a very good impression of Li Yi, not only me, but also the comrades in the institute have a good impression of him. He was a colonel when he transferred from the army, and he was also an intellectual, and we told him anything we had. I told him everything I knew about the Institute of Atomic Energy, and he brought a tape recorder. At that time, the tape recorder was still relatively small and valuable. The young man who came with him didn't say a word, he just kept recording, because we were talking about history. Together, we talked for three and a half days, a total of one and a half days.

In this conversation we spoke of a few words that Monsieur Jolio Curie asked me to bring to Chairman Mao, and I saw that he was also very cautious, and he recorded the sound with a tape recorder. Later, Li Yi sent me a volume in the series of contemporary China, called "The Nuclear Industry in Contemporary China," which was edited by the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and published by the China Social Sciences Press. This is where I was posted with a few words that Monsieur Jolio Curie asked me to tell Chairman Mao in the early 1950s. This shows that international friends are very sympathetic to China, and they have a lot of opinions on some countries engaging in nuclear blackmail. The things discussed in the book "The Nuclear Industry in Contemporary China", especially the international situation at that time, I also knew for the first time, and I myself did not know it before. The few words that I had agreed to keep secret from the three strong men were spoken publicly for the first time, and I told Li Yi. Why? I think I'm in Hefei, and I don't do this industry anymore. Besides, bringing these few words is not a big deal. Therefore, I also approve of Li Yi writing about this matter in the book, and I am also calm, and I don't have to think of it as a matter of mind anymore, I always think in my head. It was the mid-'80s.

I returned to Beijing in 1994 and lived in Zhongguancun, just upstairs from He Zehui's house. One day, He Zehui and Peng Huanwu came upstairs to see me. Because I live in the same building as He Gong, we often meet. Peng Gong lives in the Huangzhuang community, and I live in the north district, which is far away, so it is rare to see him. Of course, we are old acquaintances with each other, and there is nothing polite to say, straight to the point. Peng Gong asked two questions: The first question, how did my dormitory come about? I replied: Haha, this house is very simple, it was given by the University of Science and Technology, where did the University of Science and Technology come from? It was given to the University of Science and Technology by the Academy of Sciences. Second question, I heard that before I returned to China, Mr. Jolio Curie had a few words for me to bring to Chairman Mao. He asked, "What's going on here?" ”

I told him what Monsieur Jolio Curie had said. I also said that I told Comrade Qian Sanqiang as soon as I returned to China, and Qian Sanqiang said that this is a major matter, and I should keep it absolutely confidential and not tell it to outsiders, including my own wife and children. I said, if you can see Chairman Mao, it is up to you to tell Chairman Mao. Qian Gong agreed. Since then, I have followed Qian Gong's instructions and never mentioned it to anyone. Speaking of this place, He Gong interjected, she said: "This three strong, confidentiality has kept me all." I smiled: "Haha, this is a matter between your husband and wife, the three strong told me to keep it a secret, so I didn't talk about it." Finally everyone laughed.

Before they visited me, I thought that Peng Huanwu and He Zehui were our old colleagues, Peng Huanwu was still the deputy director of our Institute of Atomic Energy, he was a manager of physics, there was no direct contact with me in business, and I had more contact with Wang Ganchang. Afterwards, I thought, how come even He Zehui didn't know about this matter? She and Peng Gong came to my house together, and they must have discussed this matter somewhere, because some questions could not be solved, so they asked me here. The top three have died in 1992, and who else can tell? Besides, how the top three were handled later, I also wanted to find out. What to do? About two or three days after Peng Huanwu, He Zehui and I chatted, I called Li Yi, because Li Yi's book was published in 1987 and asked me if I had conveyed Mr. Yorio's message to Qian Gong. Li Yi replied to me on the phone: "I definitely showed the original manuscript to Qian Gong, he did not object, nor did he raise any doubts." Later, Li Yi confirmed the incident again in a reminiscence article published in 2000. Qian Gong is not a confused person, and it can be proved that this matter is no problem. I think Li Yi can be sure to come down, very good.

After that, another year or two, one day, He Zehui called me and asked me to go downstairs to her house and say that she had guests there. This year coincided with the great harvest of lychees in Guangdong, and one of my nieces and sons-in-law sent lychees from Guangzhou by air courier, faster than Emperor Tang Ming's fast delivery of lychees to Yang Guifei, very good lychees, very fresh. I went down with some lychees. Entering her house, she saw that there was a room full of people, among whom He Zehui's sister He Yizhen (a physicist, and her sisters He Zehui and He Zeying enjoyed the reputation of "Three Sisters of He" in the scientific world), which was very lively. I picked up the lychee and said, "This is a lychee that was just sent from Guangzhou, and if you try it, it's hard for Beijing to eat such a good lychee." ”

Unexpectedly, they also invited me to eat lychees. It turned out that the day before, I don't know if Comrade Wen Jiabao came to visit He Zehui to bring it, but anyway, Comrade Wen Jiabao sent it, and it was the Vietnamese prime minister who gave Comrade Wen Jiabao a cart of lychees, and Comrade Wen Jiabao sent it to share with everyone. He Gong took it out for everyone to eat together. As soon as I ate it, it was better than the lychees I brought. While eating lychees, He Yizhen said, "I know you." I said, "Yeah, I know you too, I know you all." "She is Ge Tingxuan's wife, and Lu Xueshan and I are still their marriage introducers!"

She also has a younger sister, He Zeying, who works in Shanghai. When the Japanese occupied Shanghai, we fled to Suzhou. In front of our house, there is a small vegetable market, and He Yizhen often comes to buy vegetables. My lover always saw her, so they met and said hello.

Later, the topic turned to confidentiality. I asked He Gong, who passed on the information that I had agreed to keep strictly confidential with the three strong forces? Who did the top three meet? She said that the three strong did not see anyone, and he went to find Ding Zhan, who reported the words of Joliot Curie. Ding Was then director of the General Office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a member of the Party Group of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Sanqiang told Ding Zhan these few words, and it was Ding Zhan who reported the matter. As soon as I said that, I felt relieved of my burden. First, it is true that He Gong was also kept secret by The Three Strongs, and the Three Strongs did not tell her, and even when the Three Strongs died, they did not tell them. Second, she was also investigating, and she didn't know through what channels she found out that it was Ding Zhan who reported it. By this time, the matter had finally been clarified.

The "secret" can finally be made public

In 2001, my daughter sent me an email from abroad that was copied from Sina. On June 29, 2001, on the eve of July 1, Sina.com reprinted an article by Xinhua Net entitled "China's Development of the Atomic Bomb Was Helped by the Descendants of Mr. and Mrs. Curie." The content is:

The "two bombs and one satellite" was created by our country in the 1960s during the most difficult period and withstood tremendous pressure, and this is the pride of our party. Recently, Wang Suli, an associate researcher at the Central Party History Research Office, briefed reporters on the relevant situation of the CPC Central Committee's decision to develop "two bombs and one satellite." Wang Suli said: At the beginning of the founding of New China, it faced a grim international situation. During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, US Secretary of State Dulles once shouted: "If an armistice cannot be arranged, the United States will no longer bear the responsibility of not using nuclear weapons." At the same time, the United States also signed the Mutual Defense Treaty with Chiang Kai-shek, proposing that if the security of the Taiwan Strait is threatened, they have the right to use atomic bombs. The US nuclear blackmail policy has aroused strong opposition from peace-loving people in the world. In October 1951, the descendant of the Curies, the French scientist Joliot Curie, commissioned Yang Chengzong, a Chinese radiochemist who was about to return to China, to tell Mao Zedong: If you want to oppose the atomic bomb, you must have an atomic bomb. The atomic bomb was not so terrible either. Nor was the principle of the atomic bomb invented by the Americans. She also gave Yang Chengzong a standard source of 10 grams of trace radium salt as a support for China's nuclear scientific research.

Wang Suli said: On January 15, 1955, Mao Zedong presided over an enlarged meeting of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee to listen to reports by Li Siguang, Liu Jie, and Qian Sanqiang on uranium mineral resources and nuclear science and technology, and to study the issue of China's development of atomic energy. Mao Zedong pointed out that this matter always has to be grasped, and now it is time to grasp it. The meeting resolutely decided that China should also engage in atomic bombs, focus on breaking through the cutting-edge technology of national defense, and make a policy decision of great strategic significance for the development and security of the People's Republic. In June of the same year, a central three-person group composed of Chen Yun, Nie Rongzhen and Bo Yibo was established to guide the development of the atomic energy industry. In 1956, in formulating the first long-term plan for the development of science and technology in the country, the development of atomic energy and missiles was officially put on the agenda. In April, Zhou Enlai presided over a meeting of the Central Military Commission to listen to Qian Xuesen's planning and ideas for developing missile technology. After the meeting, an Aviation Industry Committee with Nie Rongzhen as its director was set up to be responsible for the development of the missile industry. In May, Zhou Enlai again presided over a meeting of the Central Military Commission to discuss nie Rongzhen's "Preliminary Opinions on Establishing China's Missile Research Work." On the basis of scientific demonstration, the central authorities have resolutely made a policy decision to develop missile technology. In October, the Fifth Research Institute of the Ministry of National Defense, a missile research institute, was established; in November, the Third Ministry of Machinery Industry (renamed the Second Ministry of Machinery Industry in 1958) was established, which was specifically responsible for the construction and development of the atomic energy industry.

In the future, many magazines also published this news, the content is similar, much the same. Led by "Chinese Talents", there is also "Digest Weekly". The "Digest Weekly" published a slight discrepancy, saying that I went to curie's laboratory was recommended by Qian Sanqiang, no, it was recommended by Mr. Yan Keats. I have kept the letter of recommendation written by Mr. Yan to Marie Jolio-Curie, the letter from Marie Jolio Curie to Mr. Yan, and the letter that promised me to work in Curie's laboratory. Among them, the letter that agreed to my work in Curie's laboratory is still the original. Mr. Yan's letter to Marie Jolio Curie, and Marie Jolio Curie's reply to Mr. Yan, Mr. Yan's family also gave it to me. I think it is best for the Yan family to keep this letter, because it is not for me, I only keep a copy. After Mr. Yan's death, the Mr. Yan Memorial Hall was built in his hometown of Dongyang, Zhejiang, and the original was donated to the memorial hall. Therefore, it was Mr. Yan Keats who really recommended me, but Joliot-Curie once learned about my situation from the three strong, and the three strong told Jolio-Curie that Yang Chengzong categorically refused their request when he was accepted by the Wang pseudo-traitors in the radium laboratory and did not stay to cooperate. The original words of the three strong men said that I was the "guard chief" of the laboratory, and I would rather lose my job than participate in the work of a traitor. Joliot-Marie Curie was satisfied. Comrade Sanqiang is not the person who recommended me, but an introducer and a very powerful witness.

When the message for Mr. Joliot Curie was made public, I felt a lot more at ease. I conveyed Jolio Curie's advice to the top three, and the top three honestly conveyed it. Both of us are true to the facts, and both of us have been cautious for decades. I faithfully carried out the instructions of the three strong, and the three strong also faithfully carried out our confidentiality agreement, until his death, Mr. He did not know. As for me, before my wife died, she could only guess that I had not spoken to her. Now it seems that this is also very interesting. Now I can finally tell my friends and make it public to everyone.

Humanity will get more good things from new discoveries than the harm it does

My sister-in-law, Ms. Belloni, became a Ph.D. in Curie's lab after passing her thesis in 1956. We are brothers and sisters in succession. Her teacher was Heisinsky, a Jew, and I was also familiar with him. I didn't know Belloni because she was behind me and had only graduated in 1956, when I had already left France. In 1989, she came to the University of Science and Technology for the first time. When she talked to our radiation chemistry teacher, she didn't know who mentioned that our principal had been in the Curie laboratory and had received a doctorate in the Curie laboratory. She said, "Oh, me too!" ”

So, the teacher of our university of science and technology brought her to my house. When the two of us met and talked, she was very, very happy: first, she met someone in China who could speak French directly; second, she talked about many people and things, and she was very familiar with them. So Belloni came to the University of Science and Technology several times, and later we invited her to be an honorary professor at the University of Science and Technology.

Around 2002 or 2003, I had moved to the North District of Zhongguancun, and she returned to Paris from Japan and spent a few days in Beijing, at the invitation of the Sciences of Sciences. She came to see me on purpose, and when I was inconvenient at home, I invited her to eat in the restaurant outside. It was a special restaurant and she was happy too. A young lesbian from the photosensitive office accompanied her. At that time, many newspapers and magazines across the country published articles on the development process of China's first atomic bomb. I told her about it. She was amazed because she was a little younger than me and didn't know anything about these things. I told her that this was still the same thing that Mr. Jolio Curie wanted me to tell Chairman Mao Zedong: "If you want to defend world peace and oppose the atomic bomb, you must have an atomic bomb, the atomic bomb is not so terrible, and the principle of the atomic bomb was not invented by the Americans..."

She said: "'If you want to oppose the atomic bomb, you must have the atomic bomb,' which has been said for a long time. "I am very strange to hear, because this passage seems to me to be very important, very dialectical, and was invented by Monsieur Joliot Curie. She said: "No, we all know that. She said they had read Latin in elementary school, and there was a proverb in Latin. She wrote it down, in Latin. My Latin was so-so, but neither was her Latin, and she changed it to French. I'm afraid I can still find this piece of paper. As soon as I saw this, which I hadn't seen, I asked her to give me this piece of paper. The discussion was quite lively. When I got home, I looked up the Latin book, and there was indeed an idiom that meant "If you want peace, you are ready for war." That is to say, the best way to avoid being invaded is to be prepared to resist.

After eating that day, they dispersed. The next day, before leaving, Belloni called me from the hotel, and on the phone we discussed the role of the atomic bomb and argued over a sentence she said, that is, she thought the atomic bomb was invented by the Americans. She said: "It wasn't the Americans who invented it, who invented it?" Have you ever read a book written by an American? What began to be kept secret and later released to the public, called "The Atomic Bomb", written by American Smith, is the official history of the first atomic bomb in the United States. ”

I said, "I have this book, which I bought when I was in Paris." This yellow book is interesting, and I learned about the international struggle and why the French were competing fiercely with the Americans in this regard. I said, "What Jolio Curie meant was that the principle of the atomic bomb was not invented by the Americans." I also said: "I remember Pierre Curie once said, 'We can imagine that if radium falls into the wrong hands, it will become a very dangerous thing.' This may raise the question: Is it good for humanity to know the mysteries of nature? Is there a benefit or a disadvantage to humanity's new discoveries? Nobel's invention is a typical example. High explosives can do miracles for humanity, but in the hands of those who push people to war, they become terrible weapons of destruction. I am a man who believes in the Nobel faith. I believe that humanity will gain more good things from new discoveries than the harm it does. You see, Mr. Curie Sr. said in 1903 that the discovery of the radioactive material RADIU can bring happiness to mankind in the good aspect; the bad aspect can also bring great calamity to mankind. ”