Timeline: The Life of Joel Protagonist

Thomas Smith

May 13, 2002

1921 I was born in January of 1921. • | Benito Mussolini appointed prime min - | 1922 ister of Italy. • | | | | | | | | | | | 1931 Japan occupies Manchuria. • | | | 1933 Hitler comes to power in Germany. • | | Iattend a segregated high schoolinNew | 1935 York City. • | | 1937 Japan invades China. • | | | 1939 Germany invades Poland. • • 1939 I turn 18 and join Army as truck driver. | | 1941 Manhattan Project established. • | 1942 Captured by Japanese. • | | | | 1945 1st atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima • • 1945 I escape from POW camp near Hi - (6 Aug.) | roshima (6 Aug.) | | 1948 Berlin Airlift begins. • | | | 1950 Korean War begins. • | 1951 My son, Hiroaki Protagonist, is born to • | a Korean woman. | | | 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education • | | | | | | | | 1960I learn to use my katana and wakizashi. • | |

| | 1964Hiro attends a desegregated high school. • | | | 1966 I meet Oppenheimer at a lecture at • | 1967 PrOinpcpeetnohne.imer dies of throat cancer. • | | | | 1970 Kent State massacre • • 1970 While on leave, I meet Allen Ginsberg. | | | | | 1974 Nixon resigns. • | 1975 I go to a concert by David Bromberg. • | | | | Andrew Young becomes first black US | 1978 ambassador to UN. • | 1979Igive my swords to Hiro for 18th birthday. • • 1979 I retire after my twice-twenty years. | 1981 I move back to NYC from DC. • | | | | | | | 1986 Chernobyl • • 1986 Challenger disaster | | | | | | | 1992Rodney King police brutality acquittal; riots • | | | | 1995Imove to a veterans’ home in upstate NY. • | | | | | | | | | |

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/baoppe.html (oppenheimer)