J. Robert Oppenheimer: Regretting The Atomic Bomb

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Regretting the Bomb On August 6th and August 9th, 1945, the United States showcased a power that had previously never been witnessed: the atomic bomb. Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, the nuclear explosions (and their subsequent effects) caused the deaths of over 140,000 people. More Japanese citizens died in the bombings than the combined deaths of United States soldiers in the entirety of World War II in the Pacific. Thus, creating a museum exhibit in memory of one of the main contributors to the invention of the bomb that caused that much destruction may seem like an unworthy cause, much like the Enola Gay exhibit faced when it was proposed at the Smithsonian, but that is exactly what should happen. J. Robert Oppenheimer was a scientific director for the Manhattan Project (the group of scientists and researchers that created the atomic bomb), and he should be memorialized for his contributions to both scientific and political ideology. Oppenheimer was born in 1904 into a Jewish family. His father was a businessman that immigrated to the United…show more content…
He was “part scientist, part poet; sometimes proud, sometimes humble…a bundle of marvelous contradictions.” He was a contradiction, perhaps, but that just proves that J. Robert Oppenheimer was more than that; he was human. Any man would struggle with himself due to the nature of his invention and the devastation that it caused. It was simultaneously glorious and regrettable. Never before had an invention been so groundbreaking, so impressive; yet, at the same time so universally and unequivocally destructive and fundamentally evil. So yes, Oppenheimer was proud of contribution to one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in history. Conversely, he clearly regretted the way in which his breakthrough was utilized. That is the man that history should remember. The man that dared to imagine world

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