Case study: Cold War pilgrimage leads to Washington’s toxic Hanford site
Atomic Pilgrim: How Walking Thousands of Miles for Peace Led to Uncovering Some of America’s Darkest Nuclear Secrets by James Patrick Thomas is a story of holding powers to account.
This Latah Books memoir recounts Thomas’s two-year pilgrimage during the Cold War and then his two-decade focus on the Hanford plutonium factory.
But it wasn’t until planning retirement that he considered writing down his experiences.
So keep reading to find out more about Thomas, how he began his life-story project and tips for your own creating…
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James Patrick Thomas’s Atomic Pilgrim
A story of determination
Atomic Pilgrim is an account of my participation in the Bethlehem Peace Pilgrimage, a 6700-mile (10,780km) walk and prayer for peace and nuclear disarmament across the United States and nine other countries.
After returning from Bethlehem to Spokane, Washington, I spent the next quarter century investigating the Hanford plutonium factory, which was 110 miles (177km) away.
So the book will hopefully inspire people to have the courage and imagination to take on other seemingly impossible issues.
Indeed, with persistence and a supportive community, I know that citizens can confront threats and win.
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Why start this memoir?
As I was planning for retirement, I pondered what I most wanted to do next.
In short, I discerned that I couldn’t fully retire until I had set down my most important findings from decades of investigating the Hanford plutonium factory.
Overall my family and friends were mostly supportive, although my wife and others were sceptical that I could write Atomic Pilgrim.
Though for me, I was hugely intimidated at the prospect of writing an entire book.
How Atomic Pilgrim came together
Writing with consistency
It took me seven years to finish Atomic Pilgrim after I decided to write.
This included five years writing full time following my retirement from paid work.
First I began by attending several classes and workshops offered by Seattle’s Hugo House.
After this I wrote four days a week, devoting the mornings to writing the first draft in longhand and using the afternoons for research and revisions.
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Overcoming barriers
The most difficult part of Atomic Pilgrim was coming to trust my own instinct as a writer.
So each day as I began to write, I would pray to God to give me the words that my readers needed to hear.
As I did every day of the 20-month journey to Bethlehem, I surrendered to whatever would happen that day.
Therefore writing my book was a very similar experience.
Another challenge was making the shift from a history project focused on the Hanford plutonium factory to a memoir about the Bethlehem Peace Pilgrimage and my Hanford investigations.
Finally, it was hard to realise some of my best writing – one of my favourite sections – really didn’t fit in my book and needed to be cut.
But in every instance, I came to see that less is better.
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Finding writing rewards
The most rewarding part has been receiving messages of gratitude from my fellow pilgrims for writing Atomic Pilgrim.
I most wanted them to like my account of our epic journey.
Certainly their appreciation made all the years of labor worth it.
Learnings from Atomic Pilgrim
Favourite part of the memoir?
This is very difficult to answer as there are so many favorites. It’s hard to choose just one from Atomic Pilgrim.
Indeed I think my pick for one favorite changes from day to day – but today I’m picking the scene in Cincinnati where Mary Jude pulls me onto the dance floor.
In so doing, she also continued the process of pulling me out of my shell so that I could eventually realise more of my full potential as a person.
Tips and ideas for new writers
My top tip for any writing project is to take the time to sit in silence, listen to your heart’s deepest desire and hope for what you are writing about.
Secondly, the biggest help in trusting my ability to write was reading Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott.
Especially where she talks about “placing real emotion at the center of your work”.
“Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this… truth is always subversive.”
Thirdly, I found friends who were also writing their own books on Hanford.
Occasional meetings with them were key to renewing my hope.
Furthermore, two other books that helped were Telling True Stories edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call and Working by Robert A. Caro.
Final say
Atomic Pilgrim: How Walking Thousands of Miles for Peace Led to Uncovering Some of America’s Darkest Nuclear Secrets by James Patrick Thomas is brimming with faith, action and persistence.
Importantly it shows how individuals can impact powerful players and reminds us to stay hopeful.
“With our walk, people could see that ordinary folks could do something positive for peace,” Thomas said.
“In nearly every town, we met people who thanked us for giving them hope.”
Grab a hardcover, paperback or digital copy of Atomic Pilgrim by going to Thomas’s website for links or order through your local bookstore.
Happy writing!
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