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 Atomic Age
I Am Become Death:
They Made the Bomb
A film by Arthur Mac Caig
Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films, 1995
56 minutes
In 1955, ten years after two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant director of the Manhattan project, spoke these haunting words from Indian scripture: "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." "Oppie," whose work changed the course of WWII and, perhaps, the future of humanity, was, at the time, caught in the anti-communist fervor of the era. A decade before, he had been a hero. I Am Become Death: They Made the Bomb is a chronicle of the Manhattan Project and the scientists who worked on it. They reflect on their motivations and how they now see their involvement, and their memories are interspersed with footage of the war, making the bomb, and the thoughts of visitors at the Trinity site in 1995.
In the 1930s, when Hitler came to power, there were vague thoughts in the U.S. of the possibility of producing atomic weapons, an idea encouraged by Albert Einstein. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the thoughts became reality as President Roosevelt ordered a crash program to build the bomb. Major General Leslie Groves, in overall charge of the project, chose Robert Oppenheimer as project director. The scientific community was surprised and somewhat bemused; Oppenheimer was a left-leaning "white tower" theoretical physicist with no administrative experience. He had, however, as Hans Bethe says, "...just about the quickest mind that I have ever seen."
Robert Oppenheimer project director for the Manhattan Project.†
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Oppenheimer assembled the best mathematicians and experimental and theoretical physicists that he could find (as well as some brilliant assistants) - among them Robert Wilson, Robert Christy, Harold Agnew and German emigres Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, Stan Ulan, Hans Bethe and Robert Serber. Though many were pacifists, they felt compelled to do whatever they could to assure Hitler's defeat. Hans Bethe says: "I did not mind the possibility that the bomb would be used against Germany." Robert Wilson, of Quaker heritage, remembers feeling that he could not stand back and let Hitlerism rise.
They assembled at Los Alamos, New Mexico, a place which did not officially exist. Francoise Ulan remembers it as a gathering of young people who worked hard and enjoyed their fun at a site so secret that children born there had their birthplace registered as Box 1663, New Mexico.
Serber, Christy, Bethe and others speak of the early times at Los Alamos, and the oddly comfortable relationship between Groves and Oppenheimer, two very different personalities. Oppenheimer is remembered as a superb administrator with knowledge of every aspect of the project, able to make a diverse group of Nobel Laureates and graduate students into a cohesive team.
Two years later, the atom bomb was tested in the remote New Mexico desert early on the morning of July 16, 1945. Oppenheimer dubbed the test "Trinity." Wilson speaks of being part of the test, and Serber remembers that when the bomb exploded most people's primary reaction was fright - not only had it worked, but it had worked on a massive scale. He recalls the words of test director Ken Baindrige: "Now we're all sons of bitches." Fifty years later, residents of El Paso, Texas, one hundred miles away, remember waking up to a silent, immensely bright light, and having no idea what it was.
By 1945, the war in Europe was over, but the war with Japan raged. A planned invasion of Japan was anticipated to cost 500,000 American lives. Should the bomb be dropped instead? Now the cohesive group split. Oppenheimer, Serber and others opted for action. Teller joined with those who preferred a demonstration drop off Tokyo Bay with no casualties. President Truman chose action. Little Boy was dropped by Col. Paul Tibbets on August 6, 1945. He later said he had no regrets and had never lost a night's sleep over it. A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, and the Japanese surrendered five days later.
Before (top) and after (bottom) the attack mosaic view of Hiroshima, Japan.
†
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Today Robert Wilson recalls being sick as everyone else celebrated, and feeling that the bomb should not have been dropped. Teller, however, now believes that the immediate end of war was imperative. Furthermore, the bomb was good for Japan, Teller feels, since without it the US would have continued conventional bombing rates, killing more people in the long run. Today, in easy retrospect, many condemn dropping the atom bombs. "At the end of the war we were heroes and now we're villains," Robert Serber states. He adds, however, "The bomb did a very valuable thing - it made war impossible between great powers."
Oppenheimer was not so sure. A national hero and government advisor in what was now the Cold War, he spoke out for international control of nuclear arms, talks with the Soviets and halting research on the hydrogen bomb. In 1954 secret hearings were begun, examining Oppenheimer, who had never made a secret of his politically leftist leanings, as a security risk and even a possible spy. Edward Teller was the only scientist to testify against him. Even today many have not forgiven Teller, considering him motivated by selfish desire to continue work on the hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer was dismissed from his government job and was never again given the opportunity to serve his country. Robert Wilson calls Oppenheimer's treatment "a disgrace."
In retrospect, the scientists are agreed that their work during the war was morally supportable. Fifty years later they seem to feel little different. Today, however, some Americans, to whom WW II is history, are less certain. As a minister visiting Los Alamos in 1995 replied to a Japanese visitor's question of whether it was right to use the bomb, "Who can say? Who can say?"
† Still Picture Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001 PHONE: 301-837-3530, FAX: 301-837-3621, EMAIL: stillpix@nara.gov
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