The Atomic Conscience: Should physicists feel responsible for the bomb?

The iconic 'mushroom cloud'

I have been reading the excellent book, 'Brighter than a Thousand Suns', and this is what came of it.  Just imagine, for the moment, that this is the 1940s, and my chosen topic is therefore still something of a contentious novelty...

Should Faraday, if he had lived impossibly long enough learn of it, have felt himself responsible for the electric chair?  Of course this analogy is not a perfect one, because at the time of development, there was no suggestion that the electrical current might be used as an implement of torture.  In this, Faraday is like Hahn; a scientist whose early work with radioactivity revealed the astonishing power in the heart of an atom.

But, what of the other atomic physicists, working for the US government at the ‘atomic cities’ during WWII?  They knew that their work was intended for the ‘war effort’, and that as subsidiaries of the US military, they would not necessarily be able to limit the use of their creations to the purely peaceful.  In spite of this, many still consented to work on the bomb.

However, they cannot, surely, be held wholly responsible for their actions?  The majority of employees at Los Alamos, for instance, were unaware toward what goal they were working.  In addition to this, even the scientists who did know about the proposed atomic bomb were, like almost all of the world at that time, swept up in feelings of patriotic duty and national pride.  These emotions led them to make judgements which would normally be out of character for them, and which many later regretted.

One way of dealing with this regret was, for atomic physicists in particular, to protest against the use of this new source of immense energy to destructive ends.  These objections became especially loud following the detonation of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, and again upon the development of the ‘H-bomb’.  Were these men genuinely repenting for their perceived ‘sins’, or was it a case of playing to the public?  I am given to suspect the former.  Assuming that I am correct, however, it still remains to say whether their conscience came too late into action – a question for those better placed to judge their fellow man than I, I feel.

It must be remembered, in the midst of such a smorgasbord of inner turmoil and public expressions of guilt, that emotions have no real impact upon past actions.  The apologies of these physicists are gratifying, yes, but they do not change the fact that the same men knowingly developed, as only they could, the means of constructing a more powerful bomb than had ever been seen.  They knew that their work would be used by the military, and – barring a very small number – they continued anyway.

Perhaps the most satisfactory conclusion to draw is that the atomic scientists of that war were indeed responsible for their respective parts played in the production of such a deadly and inhumane weapon.  However, their regret that they were party to such an act seems genuine, and in this case, they ought perhaps to be afforded the benefit of the doubt.  It is my belief, therefore, that these men should be held responsible for their actions, and subsequently forgiven for them.