Oppenheimer, Einstein and the Bomb
"Unable are the Loved to die for Love is Immortality" ~ Emily Dickinson.
On Academy Awards night earlier this spring, I happened to tune in right as the last three major awards were announced, and they were all given to the movie Oppenheimer. Clearly, the theme of nuclear annihilation continues to resonate with a vast number of people. I found the most jarring image of the movie to be the rapidly advancing ripple of flames destroying our beautiful planet Earth at breakneck speed. Such a vision may not have been even imagined by people without Einstein’s research on quantum mechanics nor Oppenheimer’s spearheading of the Manhattan Project.
I am reminded of a provocative and troubling quote from Emily Dickinson’s poem “My Life had Stood a Loaded Gun:”
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through -
Poem 764A second image from the movie remains indelibly imprinted on the minds of many viewers. It is of Oppenheimer and Einstein speaking somberly together in 1947. They are standing by a pond amidst pristine natural surroundings at Princeton University, an idyllic backdrop belying the horror of what they discuss. Both men understand they have created something that has evolved into a sinister entity beyond their control. It was not this horrendously tragic outcome that either man had wanted to happen, of course. In 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the nightmare come true of the searing and colossal carnage caused by the atomic bomb.
My sonnet below reflects Einstein’s and Oppenheimer’s despair caused by the evil they have unleashed. In this poem, a frantic Einstein from the future is sent back to the past, back to the annihilistic outcome of the Japanese bombings. He mutters over and over in despair that “death is the only answer”, as he is unable to combat the evil propensities that proliferate amongst so many of his fellow humans.
In a more hopeful vein, Einstein himself advocated for peace vehemently in the years following the war right up to his death in 1955. He wrote: “Dear Posterity, if you have not become more just or peaceful and generally more rational than we are or were, then may the devil take you.”
What ultimate motivator would there be for peacemakers were it not their love of their Earth home and of their fellow human beings? Humans who are loved by others are special in Emily Dickinson’s mind, for they are those humans who achieve immortality. "Unable are the Loved to die for Love is Immortality" ~ Emily Dickinson, Poem 809.
Oppenheimer as well continued to advocate strongly for peace until his death in 1967. It is an electrifying tribute that the actor Cillian Murphy, who played Oppenheimer’s character in the movie, dedicated his best actor academy award to the “peacemakers” of the world. He received one of the biggest ovations of the evening.
Oppenheimer, Einstein Discuss
Oppenheimer, Einstein discuss
The earthly bomb that could our world destroy.
Deep concern is held by each man who
In searching his soul, speaking his fears, must
Staunch by any means he can employ,
Visions of rippling flames our planet through.
There is an episode of Dr. Who
Written by children in oddly prescient voice,
Where Einstein is in rabid jest contrived,
Transformed into a hapless squid-faced Ood
From a slave race, chanting repeatedly
“Death is the only answer.” “Death is the
Only answer.” Then he makes the choice
To time-travel back to nineteen forty-five.
Corey Elizabeth Jackson
