The photo above (Getty Image) is the view of the mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb nicknamed “Fat Man” dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. This was taken from almost 10 km away on August 9, 1945.
The American theoretical physicist of German-Jewish descent J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) led the Manhattan Project (1942-) as the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during WWII to develop an atomic bomb. Their test of the first atomic bomb (named “Trinity” test by Oppenheimer) on July 16, 1945 succeeded, and less than one month later (Aug 8-9), two atomic bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities, instantly killing 105K people and severely injuring 94K, which was one of the biggest tragedies in human history.
While we know that Oppenheimer later opposed nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the USSR, it is hard to deny that it was Oppenheimer himself who had opened Pandora’s Nuclear Box. I doubt, however, that Oppenheimer took great pleasure in developing the atomic bomb. He knew more than anybody else did that what he and the team were doing would change the world forever, in a very destructive way. While the atomic world was a constant fascination for him, taking out the immeasurable force of energy and using it to destroy human lives must have placed unendurable pressure and stress upon him. In that sense, when I watched Christopher Nolan’s new film Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures), I thought Cillian Murphy had done an amazing job depicting the agony in which Oppenheimer may have found himself.
On Aug 8-9, 1945, the world witnessed the first use of atomic weapons. It should also be the last use of nuclear bombs against human lives.
