A classmate recalls that, as a third-or fourth-grader, Robert made one of his infrequent trips to the playground. A child threw a ball out of the lot, and the school director admonished the youngsters, telling them they might have injured a passerby. Robert immediately calculated the probable force with which the ball had struck the sidewalk, demonstrating that its velocity could not have hurt anyone (J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER His Life & Times [2]).
Needless to say, even as a young child he displayed signs of genius well beyond his years.
Robert was never specifically interested in science until his later years in high school. He recalled:
I think the most important change came in my junior year in high school... The teacher of physics and chemistry was marvelous; I got so excited that after the first year, which was physics, I arranged to spend the summer working with him sitting up equipment for the following year and I would then take chemistry and would do both. We must have spent five days a week together; once in a while we would even go off on a mineral- hunting junket as a reward for this. I got interested then in electrolytes and conduction; I didn't know anything about it but I did fiddle with a few experiments [although] I dont remember what they were. I loved chemistry so deeply that I automatically now respond when people want to know how to interest people in science by saying, ‘teach them elementary chemistry.’ Compared to physics, it starts right in the heart of things and very soon you have that connection between what you see and a really very sweeping set of ideas which could exist in physics but us very much less likely to be accessible. I know that I had a great sense of indebtedness to him. (Pais [6])
It is interesting to note that it was his high school teacher who sparked his interest in physics. When someone goes on in life to be as successful as Oppenheimer, it is usually a result of passion for that subject. Often times, the flame of passion is kindled in a high school classroom.
In September 1922 Oppenheimer enrolled in Harvard College. This is the place where he grew the most as a scientist. Before this time he did not have the wide availability of study material as he did here. He took as many courses as the university allowed and even slipped in a couple more his junior year. As he continued to progress in his scientific knowledge, he “decided that physics was his first interest, but he did not enter into that austere and noble priesthood, as some did, without exposure to the world of ideas that lay beyond and around it” (J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER His Life & Times [3]). He was constantly reading and expanding his foundation of knowledge. At one point he “petitioned the physics department to take graduate courses, adding a list of books he had read... When the faculty met to consider this request, [one member] said: ‘Obviously he is a liar, but he should get a Ph.D for knowing their titles’ “ (Pais [8]) Oppenheimer continued at Harvard until he “graduated summa cum laude in 1925 and went to England to conduct research at Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory” (atomicarchive [1]) Finally, in 1927, Oppenheimer received a PhD in Quantum Physics from the University of Gottingen in Germany. “When he returned from Europe in 1929, already recognized as a physicist of great promise, he accepted concurrent appointments at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of California in Berkeley” (J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER His Life & Times [3])
While Robert was in California he engrossed himself in his work. It was almost as if all his brain could handle was the development of the atomic theory. Because of this great concentration, he because isolated from the rest of the world. At one point he remarked:
“I was not interested in and did not read about economics or politics. I was almost wholly divorced from the contemporary scene in this country. I never read a newspaper or current magazine ... I had no radio, no telephone ... I was interested in man and his experience. I was deeply interested in my science, but I had no understanding of the relations of man to his society" (J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER His Life & Times [3]).
Because of this isolation, Robert had no real grip on the happenings on the world around him. He was simply not aware of the brewing world war, the treatment of the Jews and the true affect that the great depression had wreaked upon his country. This realization caused him to take a strong stand against fascism as in arose in the 1930’s. It is important to note that this was the first time that he had taken anything close to resembling a stand in the political arena.
At this point Robert was a well known scientist. He had many breakthroughs, and became recognized as:
a founding father of the American school of theoretical physics. He did important research in astrophysics, nuclear physics, spectroscopy and quantum field theory. He made important contributions to the theory of cosmic ray showers, and did work that eventually led toward descriptions of quantum tunneling. In the 1930s, he was the first to write papers suggesting the existence of what we today call black holes (atomicarchive [1]).
This international attention was very important because it set Oppenheimer up for the next stage in his life. His expertise and extensive study into theoretical physics made him the obvious choice when his country needed a hero. This hero came in the form of a theoretical scientist.
In 1939 a world war was looming. “[T]he U.S. Government learned that the Nazis had split the atom, and were preparing to make extremely powerful weapons with their new knowledge” (Tytler [1]). Because self preservation is the most basic form of instinct, America decided that they also needed to take steps to develop an atomic weapon to protect themselves from the perceived threat. The philosopher Jonathan Schell explains that the threat of extinction is the greatest possible harm that a human-being could ever face. Extinction is final. If extinction occurs then nothing can be fixed, or changed. We are all dead. Furthermore, Schell continues by theorizing that because the impact of extinction is so great, even the risk of extinction is enough for a country to justly take some form of preemptive action in order to protect themselves (Schell). This is exactly what America did.
In June 1942 General Leslie Groves appointed Oppenheimer as the director of the Manhattan Project; this was a group of individuals tasked with the sole purpose of developing an atomic weapon. ”Under Oppenheimer's guidance, the laboratories at Los Alamos were constructed. There, he brought the best minds in physics to work on the problem of creating an atomic bomb. In the end, he was managing more than 3,000 people, as well as tackling theoretical and mechanical problems that arose... the joint work of the scientists at Los Alamos resulted in the first nuclear explosion at Alamagordo on July 16, 1945, which Oppenheimer named ‘Trinity’” (atomicarchive [1]).
The task was completed. After the atomic bomb was tested and proved to be successful It did not take long for Truman to call in the order. On the 6th of August 1945, a specially designed B-29 bomber carrying only one bomb departed from Tinian air force base at 2:45 a.m. The Enola Gay carried the first atomic bomb ever to be used on a populated area: Hiroshima. Three days later the Bock's Car would deliver a second atomic bomb, the third ever tested, to destroy Nagasaki. These two bombs would forever change the path of world history. The time was now gone where wars were fought on the ground between individual human beings. August 6th 1945 made our world smaller. Any country with this technology could send a plane across the ocean and obliterate another nation. After August 6th 1945 we all must live in fear.
The American response to the bombs varied. The general public mailed in letters to Time magazine soon after the bombs were dropped. Some responses were very optimistic about the effects of the bombs:
[T]he atomic bomb, in one fell swoop, struck down three enemies of human progress. It destroyed the hopes of the Jap fascists and their followers; it shattered the illusions of the isolationists; and it all but demolished the silly argument that governmental planning is ineffective and incompatible with democracy. It was public investment and government planning—the kind of planning that we rejected in peacetime—that enabled us to discover the instrument which finally smashed the last hopes of those who still think in terms of superior and inferior peoples, predatory individualism, and unrestrained aggressiveness (Letters: The Atomic Bomb [1]).
Others were staunchly against the action that the United States government took:
The United States of America has this day become the new master of brutality, infamy, atrocity. Bataan, Buchenwald, Dachau, Coventry, Lidice were tea parties compared with the horror which we, the people of the United States of America, have dumped on the world in the form of atomic energy bombs. No peacetime applications of this Frankenstein monster can ever erase the crime we have committed. We have paved the way for the obliteration of our globe. It is no democracy where such an outrage can be committed without our consent (Letters, Aug. 27,1945 [1]).
The usage of these atomic bombs was one of the most debated moral controversies of the 20th century. Some people wanted the weapon destroyed. Those in power though, did not. In the Autumn of 1949 the Soviet Union tested their own atomic bomb. This action immediately put the US government on the defensive. They proposed development of the hydrogen bomb.
“After the war, Oppenheimer chaired the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. In 1949, he strongly opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, because he was now fully aware of the dangers of radioactivity caused by nuclear explosions. However, he was overruled by President Harry Truman” (Tytler [1]). Robert’s obvious disagreements with the development of the hydrogen bomb fostered disconcertment in the political sphere.
In 1953, after many hearings and testimonies for and against Oppenheimer, the Atomic Energy Commission finally revoked his security clearance. While his interest in physics never disappeared, this public humiliation crippled his zealous spirit. In 1963, in an attempt for recompense, “he was forgiven for his former far-left leanings and was awarded the Enrico Fermi medal by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This award honors scientists of international stature for their lifetime achievements in the development, use, or production of energy” (Tytler [2]). In the later years of his life (1947-1966), Oppenheimer “served as the Director of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. There, he stimulated discussion and research on quantum and relativistic physics... [He] retired from Princeton in 1966” (atomicarchive [1]).
After a long bout with throat cancer (most likely a result of his chain smoking habit) J. Robert Oppenheimer died on February 16, 1967. To this day it is debated wither the impact he made upon the world was a positive or negative one. All we can conclude is that Robert’s life was one dedicated to learning and to his country. He gave his life to the development of the atom bomb for the protection of his country. He chose to allow the moral ramifications of life lost to rest upon his shoulders. If for no other reason then that, he deserves the respect of the nation that he so loved. J. Robert Oppenheimer: the father of the atomic bomb.
Works Cited
"J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967)." atomicarchive. Web. 19 Nov 2009. <>.
"J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER His Life & Times." Time 26 Ap. 1954: 1-10. Print.
"Letters, Aug. 27,1945." Time 27 Aug, 1945: Web. 19 Nov 2009. <>
"Letters: The Atomic Bomb." Time 10 Sep. 1945: Web. 18 Nov 2009. <http://www.time.com>
Pais, Abraham. J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. 4-8. Print.
Schell, Jonathan. The Fate of the Earth: the Abolition. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000. Print.
Tytler, Carolyn. "Biography: J. Robert Oppenheimer." Associated Content. 31 Dec. 2008. Web. 19 Nov 2009. <http://www.associatedcontent
.com>
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