Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Oppenheimer promises to be a harsh look into the life of the revered scientist, known as the ‘father of the atomic bomb.’ Seen as a hero by many and as a criminal by others, Robert Oppenheimer and his work definitely change the world forever, but the moral behind his creation still sparks debate and the movie might as well open up the discussion.
The scientist, who was nominated for a Nobel Prize three times (although he never won) was blessed with great talent and knowledge like very few in the history of humanity, but besides his many contributions to the world of science, he battled with his moral compass for decades.
This is the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who played God and saw the consequences of employing his brilliant mind for humanity’s greed.
A Scientific Prodigy
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born in 1904 in New York City. He was the son of German Jewish immigrants who experienced the real American Dream and found fortune in the textile trade of the time. The family’s wealth allowed the brilliant mind of young Oppenheimer to attend some of the best universities in the world.
He studied at Harvard where he graduated with honors in only three years and where he perfected his studies in theoretical physics. His talent soon took him to Cambridge University and the University of Göttingen where he got his doctorate at only 23 years old. During his time as a student, he met some of the most brilliant scientific minds of his time.
Some of the most important work he developed during his university years was focused on quantum theory. But beyond his scientific work, Oppenheimer had an ambitious mind for knowledge that also took him to gain expertise on themes like religion and languages; he learned Sanskrit on his own.
The Infamous Manhattan Project
Around the 1930s, as the world was going into a deep economic and the threat of a second world war, Oppenheimer became politically active. Perhaps what urged him to make a change from his own area of expertise was the rumor that Germany was working on creating the first nuclear weapon. The war broke out in Europe in 1939 and while the US was still a silent spectator, Oppenheimer’s mind was already eager to do his part in the effort.
The US joined the Allies side of the war against Germany and its Axis in 1941. Being already a renowned scientist, Oppenheimer was invited to participate and lead a secret team known as the Manhattan Project. The goal, as we know, was creating before anyone else an atomic weapon that would put an end to the war.
The team, as scientists on both sides, knew that the way to create this first atomic weapon was to come up with a way to trigger and keep a neutron-chain reaction that would spark an explosion. And Oppenheimer’s work in theoretical and quantum physics was just the right path to achieve it. In 1942, Oppenheimer chose the perfect spot to test their work.
Oppenheimer owned a ranch in New Mexico and knew already that the territory would allow the team to safely test their bomb. He chose the Los Alamos Ranch School in Santa Fe and renamed it the Los Alamos Laboratory.
The Atomic Bomb
After only three years after the Manhattan Project started, Oppenheimer and his team were ready to test their creation. Known as the ‘Trinity’ test, the bomb named ‘Gadget’ was tested on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo. The stakes were high and the team was expectant to see if three years of hard work had paid off. Oppenheimer and his team were watching the test from a control bunker as their bomb exploded.
They had succeeded in creating a device that would change the world forever. The war in Europe had already ended a couple of months prior, but the war wasn’t over and the US feared that the confrontation with Japan would continue. This bomb, as history has deemed it, was the only way to put an end to one of the bloodiest wars in history. Oppenheimer and his team hoped that the threat of deploying the bomb would suffice to make Japan surrender.
As Oppenheimer saw ‘Gadget’ explode, he famously said: “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’. I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”
Moral Regrets?
Less than a month after the successful ‘Trinity’ trial, the US dropped the first bomb in the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, three days later they dropped a second one in Nagasaki. It’s estimated that at least 100,000 people passed in the blasts and the Japanese cities and surrounding areas were wiped out like no weapon had done so before.
As the world saw the devastation o the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer started having some moral regrets. A couple of days after the blast, Oppenheimer met President Harry S. Truman and expressed his disgust at the decision of deploying the second bomb in Nagasaki. According to history, Oppenheimer told Truman he felt there was “blood on his hands.” But Truman was celebrating a great victory and no scientist would take that away from him, once the meeting was over, he told his aides “I never want to see that son of a b^*%ch in this office again.”
As the bomb was being deployed in Hiroshima, Oppenheimer only regretted they hadn’t finished the bomb in time to use it against Germany. As the days went by and the government attacked Nagasaki (an unnecessary movement for many), the team saw the horrors their work had created. Oppenheimer understood the scientific implications and contributions of the Manhattan Project. But he became adamant in making governments understand that this shouldn’t be the new way to solve conflicts.
Life after Manhattan Project
After the war, Robert Oppenheimer was a celebrity with his face appearing on the covers of magazines. In 1947, seven years after the bombings, he was named chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). As chairman, he constantly opposed the intentions of the commission of creating a more devastating bomb using hydrogen.
Although paranoia grew bigger during the Cold War, he stood firm on this matter. Naturally, his stance gained him many powerful enemies, who took advantage of the political hysteria to denounce him for allegedly having Communist sympathies. In 1954, he was fired from the AEC and he and his family were stripped of all security clearances. Oppenheimer lost his influence and many job opportunities. Still, he continued working on ways to employ nuclear technology for beneficial uses like generating power.
Robert Oppenheimer never returned to work for the government. He founded instead the World Academy of Arts and Sciences where he conducted long and passionate lectures on science ethics. Oppenheimer passed in Princeton, New Jersey, on February 18, 1967, of throat cancer. He had just retired one year before.
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The Man Who Survived Both Atom Bombs In World War II
