Oppenheimer – the Film; the Theoretical Physicist

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”

That pronouncement, translated from the Bhagavad Gita and quoted by the creator of the atom bomb as it was released to destroy Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, will be better known and even quoted more since the film Oppenheimer was released for screening worldwide on July 21; in Colombo too.

The Film

I am still to see the film, but I have read about it in two foreign newspapers and been duly impressed. I quote from the NYT: “‘Oppenhiemer’, Christopher Nolan’s staggering film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man known as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, condenses a titanic shift in consciousness into three haunted hours. A drama about genius, hubris and error, both individual and collective, it brilliantly charts the turbulent life of the American theoretical physicist who helped research and develop the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II – cataclysms that helped usher in our

human–dominated age.”

The film was based on American Prometheus: the Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, the authoritative biography published in 2005. Brilliant film director Nolan wrote the screenplay from the book for the film he directed. “The horror of the bombings, the magnitude of suffering they caused and the arms race that followed suffuse the film.

It is a great achievement in formal and conceptual terms, and fully absorbing, but Nolan’s filmmaking is, crucially, in service to the history that it related.” The film was received with rave praise. An Indian writer, however, had this to say: “In India, it’s been a hit too but some have protested against a scene depicting the scientist reading the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduisms’s holiest books, after sex.”

A note about the film’s director is apt here. Christopher Edward Nolan CBE, is a British and American filmmaker, known for his Hollywood complex blockbuster films including sci fi. Considered to be a leading filmmaker of the 21^st century, his films have grossed $5 billion worldwide. Born in 1970 in Westminster, London, he married Emma Thomas in 1997. They and have four children. His wife is often the producer of his films. He has been nominated and won many awards including the Oscar for Best Picture Inception in 2022 and nominated for best screenplay in 2000 for Memento.

The Physicist

Julius Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April 22, 1904 and died of throat cancer on February 18, 1967. His BA degree in chemistry was earned from Harvard University in 1925 and a doctorate in physics from the University of Gottingen in Germany, 1927. After research in other universities, he joined the physics department of the University of California, Berkeley, where he was professor from 1936.

His research was in theoretical physics including quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. In 1942 he was recruited to the Manhattan Project and the next year made a director of the project’s Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico. He led his team to develop the first nuclear weapon. On July 16, 1945, he was present at the first test of the atomic bomb. The bomb was used on August 6 in Hiroshima and two days later in Nagasaki; the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict so far.

In 1947 Oppenheimer became director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and chaired the newly created U S Atomic Energy Commission. He lobbied for international control of nuclear power to avert nuclear proliferation and the imminent nuclear arms race. He saw the horror he had caused. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb in 1949 and ‘50.

This stance and a resurrection of his past association with the Communist Party USA had him blacklisted and led to the revocation of his security clearance following the 1954 US security hearings. This ended his access to the government’s atomic secrets and his career as a nuclear physicist. He would surely have died a disappointed man, with guilt too.

My interest is more in Oppenheimer’s quoting from the more than 2000 year old Bhagavad Gita which he considered to be the greatest book to be ever written. “Very interesting and quite marvelous. The most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue.” He learnt Sanskrit from a lecturer of his in Berkeley – Ryder, and translated the 700 verses in the BG. These consist of the dialog between Arjuna, the warrior prince, and his charioteer, Lord Krishna – incarnation of God Vishnu. The four lesson themes of the Bhagavad Gita, I learned, are desire, wealth, righteousness/dharma and total liberation or Mosha.

In July 1945, two days before the explosion of the first atom bomb in the New Mexico desert, Openheimer recited a stanza from the BG, to relieve his tension, it was said.

In battle, in forest, at the precipice of the mountains

On the dark great sea, in the midst of javelins and arrows,

In sleep, in confusion, in the depths of shame,

The good deeds a man has done before defend him.

The line quoted at the beginning of this article about being the destroyer of the world was repeated by Oppenheimer as the bomb of devastating destruction blew up Hiroshima.

Opinions

Discussing the film with relatives who had seen the film, it was recollected that it was surmised later that dropping the two bombs on Japan was not necessary. Just as the war in Europe had been won by Allied Forces’ concerted effort etc, VJ Day too could have been achieved in the Far Eastern Front with then warfare. The Japanese were supposed to have been ready to surrender. Emperor Hirohito had realized the waste of human lives sacrificed through loyalty to him. He surrendered graciously to General MacArthur – Commander of Allied Forces in the Far East – offering to be taken as prisoner. But after the bombs were dropped. This surrender of the Empire of Japan was announced by the Emperor on 15 August and formally signed on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. MacArthur was instrumental in the rise of devastated Japan.

During our discussion a nephew pointed out that much of the blame for the devastation of large tracts of Japan could be laid on the then US President Harry S Truman who was no statesman at all. He came to be President on the sudden death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) who was re-elected as 32^nd President. He served the US and the world well from 1933 to 1945. After his re-election he held office for only 82 days. Vice Prez Truman succeeded him; far inferior in stature, political skill and finesse than FDR. He permitted the bombing of Japan.