Dunno… I might be too suspicious, but I never bought Oppenheimer’s regret, as if he didn’t know what was gonna happen. Maybe I’m wrong, it’s just a feeling.
Phosphorus444 on
When you spend years working on a superbomb only to find out you made a bomb: 😱
Pyrhan on
He created it for good reasons (Stopping Nazi Germany at first, and later bringing the war against Japan to a quicker end).Â
It’s use in World War 2, under Truman’s orders, did save more lives than it cost, again by shortening an incredibly violent conflict.Â
I suspect what weighed on Oppenheimer’s conscience wasn’t just the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the continued existence of his invention after its intended use.Â
It now posed an existential threat to humanity, and would continue being so for the foreseeable future. The prospect of a nuclear war, which could kill billions, would not have existed without his work.
In that sense, that blood was on Oppenheimer’s hands, not Truman. Â
Theoretical blood, but he *was* a theoretician…
Kalraghi on
Funny thing is, Japanese on the internet hate none of those two for the nuke.
Instead, all their hate is directed at Leslie Groves, like he was the sole person creating and dropping nuke while disobeying Truman’s order.
Probably they couldn’t dare to directly attack the US president during the war.
Kaiser_Richard_1776 on
I genuinely don’t understand why Truman was such an ass about this.
5 Comments
Dunno… I might be too suspicious, but I never bought Oppenheimer’s regret, as if he didn’t know what was gonna happen. Maybe I’m wrong, it’s just a feeling.
When you spend years working on a superbomb only to find out you made a bomb: 😱
He created it for good reasons (Stopping Nazi Germany at first, and later bringing the war against Japan to a quicker end).Â
It’s use in World War 2, under Truman’s orders, did save more lives than it cost, again by shortening an incredibly violent conflict.Â
I suspect what weighed on Oppenheimer’s conscience wasn’t just the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the continued existence of his invention after its intended use.Â
It now posed an existential threat to humanity, and would continue being so for the foreseeable future. The prospect of a nuclear war, which could kill billions, would not have existed without his work.
In that sense, that blood was on Oppenheimer’s hands, not Truman. Â
Theoretical blood, but he *was* a theoretician…
Funny thing is, Japanese on the internet hate none of those two for the nuke.
Instead, all their hate is directed at Leslie Groves, like he was the sole person creating and dropping nuke while disobeying Truman’s order.
Probably they couldn’t dare to directly attack the US president during the war.
I genuinely don’t understand why Truman was such an ass about this.