J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Father of the Atomic Bomb
On April 22, 1904 one of the greatest physicists of all time came into the world. While at the time he was only an infant, he would one day change the world in which we live. His name was J. Robert Oppenheimer. Growing up in New York City, it was apparent early on that the child was brilliant. His extraordinary grasp of science made him a gem among his instructors and a reject among his peers. By the age of 17 he was attending Harvard taking a varied selection of courses, everything from Math, to Science, to Eastern Religion. It was here he first realized his calling, quantum physics, the study of atoms and sub-atomic particles. His studies continued for years taking him to many places, including Cambridge University, where he studied under Ernest Rutherford, and to Cottingen University in Germany. It was during his time at Cottingen that the Nazis began to grow in power. It began to be apparent that the next cataclysmic weapon would be found in the field of quantum physics. Oppenheimer, a leader in the field, was considered quite an asset to the Nazis. Realizing this, Oppenheimer, a die-hard Democrat, left the country, refusing to work for the extremist right-wing party. At that moment Oppenheimer single-handedly changed the outcome of the war. The Nazis were right. Oppenheimer pioneered the atomic bomb, winning the Second World War. Oppenheimer held the fate of the world in his hands.
Some years later in America news was brought to US by Niels Bohr informing the nation that the Germans had split the atom. It was only a matter of time before they could find a way to harness that power. President Roosevelt knew that he could not let the Nazis be the first to control an atomic bomb and in 1941 established the now famous Manhattan Project, with Oppenheimer as its director. Based in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Robert Oppenheimer gathered over 3,000 of the nations' brightest minds, a group that seemed destined to create a bomb, but would it be in time? They labored for over four years, tackling each problem that arose, until they finally had a finished bomb.
On July 16, 1945, they witnessed their creation in full force. In the center of the New Mexico desert the team tested their first atomic bomb, the Trinity, and in a blinding explosion of fire and destruction the world changed forever. As Oppenheimer watched the mushroom-shaped cloud develop over the blast site he realized what he had unleashed upon the world, but it was too late. Within a month, two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan, killing over 240,000 people instantly and many more would die from nuclear poisoning for years to follow. The Japanese surrendered on August 10 and the war had ended.
Oppenheimer watched with horror as his own creation incinerated vast areas in the blink of an eye, destroying everything and everyone in its path. He knew the world would never be the same. He was mortified as he slowly visualized what he had worked so hard on not only destroy the enemy, but the world. After the war when plans began to develop an even more powerful hydrogen bomb, Oppenheimer stiffly opposed this. "Why do we need a weapon capable of even more destruction?" he thought, "We've done enough." However, in the end his reluctance and interest in communism did him in. At the height of anticommunist feelings in 1953, Oppenheimer was accused of communist sympathies, and was stripped of his position and security clearance. He no longer could have influence on the nation's weapons program and soon after leaving, the hydrogen bomb project commenced. He left his position gracefully and went on to serve as a director at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. Yet his dreams of continuing quantum physics were dashed forever. Morals destroyed his dreams.
J. Robert Oppenheimer died of throat cancer on February 18, 1967, leaving the world a different place. In the beginning, no one could have predicted that that little boy would have grown up to cause destruction; and at the end no one would have guessed how much he regretted having done it. His work has earned him a place in the history books, an example of the dangers of science.
