Face to face | Me and my fathers who made two bombs and one satellite

In the history museum of the Beijing No. 9 Research Institute, seemingly ordinary objects tell the story of the most difficult and magnificent period in the history of China's nuclear weapons research and development. Zhu Guangya, Wang Ganchang, and Yu Min all worked at the No. 9 Research Institute and were nuclear physicists. On the eve of Qingming Festival, the reporter of "Face to Face" and the children of Zhu Guangya, Wang Ganchang, and Yu Min went to the newly built memorial hall of the No. 9 Research Institute to relive the touching story of the "Two Bombs and One Satellite" and that unforgettable passionate period.

Do earth-shaking things and be an anonymous person

Zhu Guangya, Zhu Mingyuan's father. In 1959, at the age of 34, Zhu Guangya served as deputy director and deputy director of the Ninth Research Institute of the Second Ministry of Machine Building Industry, and assumed the heavy responsibility of leading the technical research and development of China's nuclear weapons.

Many years later, people refined the work of the Jiu Institute into "doing earth-shaking things and remaining anonymous." Among those who changed their names for this job was Wang Zunming's father Wang Ganchang.

Reporter: Your father was very famous in the American physics community at that time.

Wang Zunming: He was already well-known. Because he was well-known, for the sake of confidentiality, he was called Wang Jing and was not allowed to use Wang Ganchang. This lasted for 17 years. At that time, Liu Jie and Qian Sanqiang met him and asked him to change his career, but he said he would dedicate his life to the country.

"Science has no borders, but scientists have a motherland. The purpose of my study abroad is to better serve my motherland." This is what Wang Ganchang said after he obtained his doctorate from the University of Berlin in Germany. In 1934, he returned to his motherland and continued his research in the field of elementary particles while teaching, and achieved remarkable results in the international physics community many times. In 1961, the central government hoped that he would give up his research direction and participate in nuclear weapons research, which was unfamiliar but urgently needed by the country. The 55-year-old Wang Ganchang gave the answer "I am willing to dedicate my life to the country." After that, the world lost a famous physicist Wang Ganchang, and gained a Wang Jing who devoted himself to nuclear research.

In order to develop nuclear weapons, Yu Xin's father Yu Min also changed his research direction.

Starting from the end of 1960, Yu Min gave up his nuclear theory research and turned to the development of my country's first hydrogen bomb. In 1965, he was appointed as the deputy director of the Theoretical Department of the Nuclear Weapons Research Institute, and worked with the director of the Theoretical Department, Deng Jiaxian, to lead a group of young scientists to focus on the research of hydrogen bomb technology.

The achievements of the Ninth Institute are of extraordinary significance in the history of China's nuclear weapons development, but for Wang Zunming, Zhu Mingyuan and Yu Xin, the Ninth Institute gave them a busy father who often traveled and whom they seldom met.

The hydrogen bomb is a system that is recognized to be very complex in principle and structure. At that time, China had no idea about it. Yu Min led a small team to the East China Computer Institute in Shanghai to calculate and design the model. After a "hundred-day battle", they discovered the key to the self-sustaining combustion of thermonuclear materials and solved the important issue of the hydrogen bomb principle scheme, making the first contribution to China's hydrogen bomb research. The pressure and suffering in this process are hard for outsiders to imagine, and the ignorant teenagers have no way of understanding it.

Yu Xin: When I was young, I felt that my father rarely took me out to play, but I loved listening to my father tell me stories. Occasionally we would go to the Summer Palace. What I remember most was the Long Corridor of the Summer Palace. I often go there to walk and look at the paintings on the corridor. Every other one or two stories were about a classical story. For example, when I was young, my father told me one story after another. He had a very good foundation in literature. At that time, I really wanted to listen and pestered my father, but the opportunity was rare.

China's first atomic bomb exploded successfully

On October 16, 1964, there was a loud bang in Lop Nur, and a yellow-brown mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and China's first atomic bomb exploded successfully. On that day, 10-year-old Zhu Mingyuan learned the news from the People's Daily Extra Edition.

The first atomic bomb exploded successfully, and China became the fifth country in the world to possess an atomic bomb. When the whole country was celebrating, Wang Zunming, who had already graduated from university and started working, vaguely felt that this event was related to his father.

On June 17, 1967, good news came again: China's first hydrogen bomb exploded successfully. The successful explosion of the first atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb also provided clues for the children of Jiusuo. Unknowingly, they have the ability to crack the mystery of their father's work.

Zhu Mingyuan: In 1967, hydrogen bombs exploded, but none of the children in the courtyard knew what their parents did. Everyone sat together and chatted, and suddenly a little boy asked a question, asking what our parents did and what they did for a living. We were all dumbfounded, not knowing, but he might have had some awareness. So, he said let's check, that is, every time an atomic bomb or hydrogen bomb exploded, were they not in Beijing? These pairs came out, and after the test was over, they came back one after another. They were not in Beijing at the time of the explosion, so we solved this matter in this way, that is, they were all engaged in nuclear weapons.

In just a few years, researchers completed airborne nuclear bomb explosion tests, missile-borne nuclear warhead explosion tests, and underground nuclear tests. China, which had a lot of work to do, achieved a breakthrough in nuclear weapons from scratch, and the difficulties and hardships experienced by the pioneers of China's nuclear industry can only be understood by themselves.

Scientists don't retire

In 1978, Wang Ganchang was transferred back to Beijing from the nuclear test base and served as the then Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry and Director of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At this time, Wang Ganchang was over 70 years old, but he did not stop at all.

Reporter: You are over 70 years old now, so you should be old enough to retire.

Wang Zunming: Scientists never retire. Their brains never rest. They are always thinking about problems. I found that my father would sleep every day, and he would lie there to take a nap at noon. Sometimes I saw him, but he was not asleep. He was just lying there thinking about problems. Sometimes he would suddenly say, "Call so-and-so and ask him to come right away. I have an idea." He was like this. Maybe a new concept came out. He was like this. He never retired until he died. He was always working there.

After being transferred back to Beijing, Wang Ganchang actively promoted the peaceful use of nuclear energy in my country. He and other experts jointly wrote a letter proposing "self-reliance as the main method and foreign aid as the supplementary method" to accelerate the construction of nuclear power in my country. In 1982, the central government approved the construction of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Haiyan, Zhejiang. Ten years later, the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant was successfully connected to the grid, announcing the end of the history of no nuclear power in mainland China.

In 1994, 70-year-old Zhu Guangya participated in the establishment of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. At the founding ceremony and first academician conference of the Chinese Academy of Engineering held in June of that year, Zhu Guangya was elected as the first president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering with a unanimous vote.

On September 18, 1999, the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission decided to commend 23 scientific and technological experts who made outstanding contributions to the development of the "two bombs and one satellite" and awarded them the "Two Bombs and One Satellite Medal of Merit", which is the highest honor in the scientific and technological community. It was not until then that the name "Zhu Guangya", who dedicated his life to the national scientific research cause, became truly well-known to the Chinese people. At the commendation meeting, Yu Min spoke as a representative of the winners, but Wang Ganchang was unable to attend because he passed away 9 months ago.

Reporter: Although a person's life is very short, it leaves traces on this world. If you look at your father's life in this way, what traces has he left on this world in these 91 years?

Wang Zunming: I think the traces he left behind are his scientific achievements and his patriotic spirit, which are worth learning from. He really gave everything he had to the country and his career in his life.

Because he devoted all his energy to China's nuclear industry, he had almost no time to take care of his children and family. This became a regret in Yu Min's heart, especially in 2012, when his wife Sun Yuqin, who had been with him for half a century, unfortunately passed away due to illness, leaving him with eternal guilt.

On January 16, 2019, Yu Min died of illness in Beijing at the age of 93. Yu Min is often called the "father of the hydrogen bomb", but he himself has always disagreed with this statement. He said, "Nuclear weapons are the work of thousands of people."

There are countless unsung heroes behind the cause

Reporter: Do you think of your deceased father?

Yu Xin: I often think of my father. I think his life was not easy. He said in many interviews that a person's ability is limited, and being able to integrate his meager strength into the prosperity of the motherland is enough to comfort himself. So he had his glory and regrets in this life.

Eight months after Yu Min's death, the old man who made outstanding contributions to the hydrogen bomb breakthrough was awarded the "Medal of the Republic". Later, at the 70th anniversary celebration of the National Day, Yu Xin held his father's portrait in his hand and received the people's tribute in a representative car.

Yu Xin: In his own eyes, he thinks he is just an ordinary person. He has told us many times that he is the representative of the nuclear industry. There are many uncles and aunts behind him. They are all unsung heroes, really unsung heroes.

Zhu Guangya officially retired in 2005 at the age of 81. Five years later, this scientist who had illuminated China for half a century passed away in his sickbed. According to his will, part of Zhu Guangya's ashes were buried at the Malan Nuclear Test Base, which he had been concerned about all his life. After that, Zhu Mingyuan would go there every year to continue his scientific research experiments and visit his father.

Reporter: What do you want to say to him?

Zhu Mingyuan: What I want to say is that I did not disappoint him. We are not great, but we are very persistent. This is what he hoped for. He said that you have to be persistent in doing things, no matter whether you are doing big or small.

Reporter: Your father has many marks of the times. He came from that era, which is not replicable. But is there anything in him that transcends time and should be passed down?

Wang Zunming: For example, if you want to do scientific research, you have to devote yourself to it wholeheartedly. I think many young people nowadays seem to think too much about their personal lives. If you really want to contribute to the country, you have to devote yourself to it wholeheartedly.

Reporter: Do you think you have met the requirements your father set for you at that time?

Yu Xin: I love my family, my nation and my motherland. I can’t reach such a high standard, but this standard has always been the direction I strive for.

Producer: Liu Bin

Reporter: Dong Qian

Planning丨Huang Ying

Director: Wang Huidong

Editor: Wang Feng

Editor: Zhang Hongfei

Photography丨Wang Yang, Wang Zhongren, Gao Zhong

Editor-in-charge: Chen Zhuoran

Source: CCTV News Client