MidTerm Blog
Many American people seem to have the idea that their country’s history is patriotic and heroic; they don’t want to think of their great country as one that has been built on the premise of mass genocide and centuries of oppression. Being born as a United States citizen and MSU college student, I feel very privileged and comfortable speaking about my country and its disgusting history. Many people often tend to overlook the ugly truth of this “great” country and would rather encourage white superiority. Science is often used to discover as close to the truth as possible with aims of a better life and explaining the understood. With dreams of becoming a future scientist and from my few years at Michigan State University, I’ve conducted and executed many experiments. I’ve learned that science is often taken for granted and that science itself contains lots of issues that must be addressed. One of these issues is what the driving force behind why we conduct science and its goals.
In 1939, Leo Szilard wrote a letter to President Roosevelt Franklin warning him about a new source of energy used to create bombs and the nuclear arms race against Hitler backed with his Nazi’s. Two years later, President Franklin Roosevelt started the Manhattan Project with goals of creating an atomic bomb. Scientists, like Frank Oppenheimer, explained the work “most of us were working from twelve to sixteen hours a day … Before the attack, getting the job done had been a challenge; afterwards it was an obligation” (Cole Pg. 57). Scientists worked tirelessly trying to win the race of who develops the first atomic bomb. In 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Nazi’s lust for creating the first atomic bomb created tension within the scientific community in the United States.
After working tirelessly to successfully obtain enough uranium-235, scientists manifested the first successful atomic bomb, which scientists questioned its destructive powers. Leo Szilard wrote to the President urging passionately against using the bomb and warning against a nuclear arms race. “Szilard also created a petition raising objections to a surprise attack; if the bombs were to be used, the petition said, the Japanese ought to be warned and allowed to surrender” (Cole Pg.62). After President Franklin Roosevelt died during his fourth term, President Harry S. Truman took over during the end of World War 2. A petition was created which was signed by more than 150 Manhattan Project scientists. It proposed staging a demonstration and setting off a bomb in some deserted area to which Japanese officials could be invited. Truman never saw these documents and gave the go ahead for two of the only atomic weapons to be used in Japan.
Eisenhower and General Curtis LeMay argued that, “since Japan was already defeated, dropping the bomb would serve no legitimate military purpose.” (Cole Pg.62). Many argued that the war was won and defeat for the Japanese was inevitable. “The organizational structure is set up and much energy spent trying to prevent abuse and protect power as it exists rather than to facilitate the best out of each person or to clarify who has power and how they are expected to use it”. (Okun) Truman undermined the destructive power that he possessed and wanted to show that the United States was a force never to be reckoned with. The sheer destruction inflicted by the United States is nothing more than disgusting and horrific.
According the FBI, terrorism is defined as the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives (2010). On August 6th, 1945 an atomic bomb, called Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima without warning and killed 140,000 people instantly and over 200,000 in the course of 5 years. “In an instant the city was flattened, its people reduced to charred cinders, survivors hobbling around with their skin peeled off and hanging from their bodies like rags; many were so badly burned that their faces didn’t look human” (Cole Pg.63). Three days later on August 9th another bomb called Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki immediately killing 70,000 people and over 140,000 over the course of 5 years. It’s truly a tragedy what happened and sad to think about the lives that will be forever affected by the United States.
Many of the scientists working on the bomb were doing “science” for their country and attempting to save the world from itself. They didn’t really think about future implications. The science they were studying wasn’t humanized until it took hundreds of thousands of lives. Robert Oppenheimer, considered the father of the atomic bomb, later admitted to President Truman, “I feel I have blood on my hands” (Cole Pg. 65). Truman told his Under Secretary of state Dean Acheson, “I don’t want to see that son of a bitch in this office again” (Cole Pg. 65) . A year later, Truman called Robert a “cry baby” (Cole Pg. 65). Truman’s insensitivity shows his power as prideful and anything not showing power is considered weak in his eyes .Okun says, “those with power assume they have the best interests of the organization at heart and assume those wanting change are ill-informed (stupid), emotional, inexperienced”. (Okun). Robert’s feelings of empathy and sorrow for the hundreds of thousands of lives his invention took were viewed as weak and unfit.
Work Cited:
Cole, K. C. (2009). Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the world he made up. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Okun, T. (n.d.). White Supremacy Culture. Retrieved from https://www.dismantlingracism.org/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/okun_-_white_sup_culture.pdf
Terrorism 2002/2005. (2010, May 21). Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005
