J. (Julius) Robert Oppenheimer is commonly known as the ‘father of atomic bombs.’ He was the director of the Manhattan project that led to the invention of the first atomic bomb in the history. The project was conducted in the U.S in which and many countries contributed to it since it was considered to be one of the most expensive projects in the history. The project intended to build a nuclear weapon before Germany. This was after the inversion of Nazi in Poland, one of the allies of the United States. Julius, agree to be part of the project as he believed it would be something to be reckoned. His development led to the first mass killing in which the United States dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which led to the end of WW11. J. (Julius) Robert Oppenheimer is still remembered as one of the greatest physicians that ever lived.
Oppenheimer was born in the New York City on April 1944 to one of the wealthiest people in that region. His father, Julius Oppenheimer, was a wealthy textile importer who migrated from German. They moved out of German due to the Hiller as they were also Jews. During that time, Hitler had commanded his soldiers to kill all the Jews in the country. When they migrated to the United States, they had no money to sustain themselves (Prince, 2010). He later good a job at one of the textile industry in the country in which he moved in ranks and become one of the executive directors. Oppenheimer was taken to one of the prestigious school in New York in which he performed very well. He was interested in learning English and French. His parents did not imagine that at some point Julius would be interested in chemistry. However, after completing his third and fourth grades in one year, he wanted a subject that could challenge him. In most cases, many people were afraid of studying Chemistry since was believed to be one of the most difficult subjects during those times. It is indicated that Julius skipped a half of his eighth grade. It shows how intellectual he was as he used to top his class in all the subjects. His teacher encouraged him to study physics once he enrolled in the University. Oppenheimer was given admission to study chemistry at Harvard during that year. However, before he could complete his education, he suffered from a unique disease that forced his parents to move to Mexico as a way of helping him to recover (Prince, 2010). After he got better, Oppenheimer continued his education in which he majored in chemistry. However, one of the policies of Harvard was that student should take other six subjects apart from taking Chemistry alone. In that light, he enrolled in other subjects who included physics, History, and literature. Oppenheimer was attracted to the study of experimental physics by a course of thermodynamics. He later graduated after three years from the same university.
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Oppenheimer made a lot of contribution sot the study of physics which are still practiced up to date. One of his contributions was the invention of calculation of transition possibilities. He calculated the effects of the X rays and other substances such as effects of hydrogen on a given molecule. In that light, the invention of those calculations to estimate the number of sun rays that was needed in those X-rays. Another contribution was the theory of cosmic rays.
After graduating from Harvard University, Oppenheimer sailed to England and enrolled in another prestigious University of Cambridge where he began his atomic research (Monk, 2013). Before he was even approached by the government to take part in the Manhattan project, Oppenheimer was very interested in discovering something that would change the physics world. With the help of his friend Gottingen, they open a laboratory in which they focus all their efforts in discovery atomic bombs. Some government officials heard about his project and became interested. However, the US government had not approached him in that regards. Oppenheimer turns down all the invites by government’s officials as he wanted to concentre on that project as a private investor. However, Oppenheimer faced several barriers that hinder the success of this project. First, the project was estimated to be very expensive in which he did not have adequate resources to finance it. He tried to approach other private citizens, but they all turn him down as they were not sure on how they would benefit from it (Grubin, 2009). Second, he was facing various threats from the public who believed that his project was posed a threat to the public. As such, many people protested after a certain aspect of his project was leaked to the media. The third challenge that he faces was pressure from the government to include the project in a government agenda. They promised to fiancé him with all the resources that he would need to ensure that the project as a success. Another challenge was the fact that he could not be able to carry out the project alone since he needed help from other scientists.
Oppenheimer became politically active in 1933 and agreed with the Us government officials that Nazi would be able to develop a nuclear weapon. He remembers how Hitler had brutality murder many of the Jews in Germany and he knew that it would be a great disaster if Hitler managed to develop that nuclear weapon. The Us government selected him to administer the project in which it was named Manhattan project. One aim of the project was to develop a nuclear weapon that would ensure the US is viewed as one of the most powerful nations in the world. Due to various war activities that were taking part in the world, the US government knew that through developing such weapon, many of their enemies would fear to attack them (Prince, 2010). Also, they wanted to develop a nuclear weapon to sacred the German who was a threat to the world. In 1933, German attacked Poland which was one of the Us allies during the war. As such, the US government had to speed up measures of ensuring that the weapon was ready at any time. They knew that Hitler would hesitate to attack them now that Poland was very close to the United States. The project was estimated to be very expensive. The Us government approached other stakeholders who be interested in that research such as the British government.
Oppenheimer faced a lot of opposition from certain government officials who believed that he was not ready to take up the project. It would be major losses for the government since they had invested a lot of taxpayers money. Many of those people argue that Oppenheimer had not received any Nobel prize and was not also reconsider as a scientist. However, the chairman of the US secretes development project had faith in him since he saw some of the projects that Oppenheimer had carried in the previous years (Monk, 2013). For security purposes, the Us government considered that project as a top secret. They knew by rising any alarm about the project would result in other competing firms such as Germany to start inventing their weapons. Oppenheimer knew that the best location of carrying that project was away from the country to avoid raising any public concerns. They set on a new place which was in New Mexico, a region which was away from the people. In fact, the region was near o his Mexico ranch in New Mexico where he had lived with his parents. However, Oppenheimer feared that high cliff of the location might affect the people in case of leakage and was against that region as the suitable place to conduct that project. Other engineers supported his aspects they were also concerned about the flooding which was very common in that region. They decided on another place far from his ranch which was flat and did not pose any health hazard to the people. Again, the engineers were not satisfied with his aspects as they reported the region had a poor infrastructure which would take much longer for the resources to reach them. They settled in another region which they had to pull down various buildings for the purpose of establishing the Los Alamos Laboratory ( Pais, 2012). Oppenheimer assembled a group of physicians to conduct the research. Unlike the expectations of many people who thought that the project would be best carried by the scientist.
The project was later populated by many scientists who had escaped fascist regime in Europe. They documented a new fusion program involving Uranium-235, which they opted it would make a nuclear weapon. They were receiving pressure from the government to finish that project on took since the country was facing various threats from their enemies. Initially, Oppenheimer knew that the project was supposed to act as a protective measure for the country and not that the US government was going o use that nuclear weapon anytime. He knew that kind of disaster that such particular weapon can cause. The project initially accumulated $6000which was financed by the US government. It was later estimated that the project took $ 2 billion which was the most expensive project in the US history (Oppenheimer, 2013). The government is new that the public would start to ask questions if they had not completed it on time. That year, marked the first test of the bomb which was a success, in which two bombs were deployed the following month in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These actions were believed to be another major reason that led to the end of WW11. However, it led to the killing of millions of people in which Oppenheimer felt personally responsible.
Oppenheimer later resigned from his post later that month and was denied any security clearance to the secret government missions. He was supposed to receive an award from President Kennedy that year before he was assassinated. However, he was still given the Presidential Medal for his contribution in Physics.
References
Grubin, David, David Strathairn, Campbell Scott, and Michael Bacon. The trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer. [Alexandria, VA]: PBS Home Video, 2009.
Monk, Ray, and Michael Goldstrom. Robert Oppenheimer: [a Life Inside the Center]. New York: Random House Audio Publishing Group, 2013.
Monk, Ray. Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer. 2013.
Oppenheimer, Joel, Robert J. Bertholf, and David Landrey. Drawing from Life. Wakefield, R.I.: Asphodel Press, 1997.
Pais, A., & Crease, R. P. (2012). J. Robert Oppenheimer: A life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Prince, Peter, et al. Oppenheimer. [England]: British Broadcasting Corp, 2010.
