THERE was a huge debate among the restless on how the world should witness the mother of all catastrophe. Clouds of doubts refused to subside. No one knew whether it would work when the world was watching.
How many lives would be saved? How many more would be lost? No one seemed particularly perturbed about the aftermath. Many were only keen to bask in the glory of victory. There was an innocent, yet incessant plea to unleash hell on a remote site as a demonstration of power. The ones who engineered its creation inadvertently signed the warrant to be doomed forever as the architect of the coming apocalypse.
Had Albert Einstein not written the fourth ground breaking paper during his annus mirabilis (miracle year) in 1905 while residing as a Swiss patent clerk, would we have witnessed such a horrible end in mankind's history?
Had Leo Szilard not stopped at the traffic light in Southampton Row, Holborn, London, in 1933, would he have found the inspiration to concoct the fundamental idea of chain reaction? Had Pierre refused to embrace Marie Curie's love for the mysterious penetrating rays emanating from rare substance in the modest ill-equipped laboratory in 1898, would those strange rays finally be discovered by someone else, and thus opening the floodgates to hell?
Had Enrico Fermi not travelled to New York after receiving his Nobel Prize in Stockholm, and yet was the bravest of all men by gallantly producing the first controlled chain reaction at the University of Chicago's football stadium in 1942, would his closest friends, Edward Teller and Szilard, be persistent enough to convince the best brains to forge ahead towards science's seemingly holy grail?
UGLINESS OF SCIENCE
History is littered with so many possibilities. In the many-worlds interpretation (which implies that there are most likely an infinite number of universes) in quantum physics, where every possible quantum outcome is realised, does it mean each possibility has its own universe?
Why must such possibility collapse into the very unforgiving one where so many more would perish under a humongous mushroom cloud that would go on to obliterate priceless lives in a shocking demonstration of the ugliness of science. It was the rarest spectacle of doom devouring the land of the rising sun in the briefest moments in time.
The tiniest of all things was ready to unleash hell at 8.15am when the sun was still smiling its brightest. The "Little Boy" pierced through the dancing molecules, floating aimlessly in the air and finding its way to the desired destination with vengeance intoxicating its mind.
Little Boy, the first atomic bomb used in history, jumped from the belly of Enola Gay (a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber), unperturbed by the unfolding drama. The Little Boy was calm, yet purposeful in its action. Its unannounced arrival flattened earth instantly, decimating everything in its path.
The explosion's heat melted the hardest metal and destroyed the hopes of many, leaving only utter destruction unheard of in the annals of mankind. The world wept, shocked by the magnitude of destruction.
The sun was forgotten and night took centre stage.
Soon the blackest rain fell like poisoned arrows on disoriented survivors, ignoring their incessant plea for mercy. Science demonstrated its darkest side in centuries and would never be forgiven for the wanton atrocities imposed on those innocent lives, whose only fault was merely to stand behind their men with honour.
NO GLIMPSE OF TOMORROW
Next, the "Fat Man" (a plutonium implosion bomb) was delivered to its target three days later, leaving no time for the world to even properly grieve over the first bombing. Released confidently from the signature belly of Bockscar (another B-29 Superfortress bomber), it raced gleefully downwards, aided faithfully by the unseen force of gravity and falling freely for 43 seconds towards its impending target.
After such a devastating debacle three days earlier, we'd expect the sun to be hiding in submission. However, the fiery and unyielding sun bombarded earth with its rays, illuminating the world reeling from an unprecedented chaos.
Yet the sun's loyalty was once again overshadowed by the dreadful mushroom cloud piercing the atmosphere at 11.02 am. The smiling faces of life were drowned violently in a demonstration of sheer cowardice. Their world shockingly crumbled in a pile of rubble. The glimpse of tomorrow would be forever buried beneath the debris of nothingness.
Metals were swiftly shattered. Bones were promptly crushed. Souls were lost in a sea of blood. Hopes vanquished in the shadows of doubt. Only utter despair remained. The sun shed its tears once again. Nights took everyone hostage. The blackest rain again overwhelmed the downcast, prolonging the sufferings.
The will to survive rose from the ashes of doom. And submission had to be the order of the day, signifying an end to a monstrous war gripping earth for the longest time. The men of science, led by the guilt-ridden physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, would forever be the devilish winged serpent suffocating the lives of the innocent. Would they find peace from within after such a cowardly end?
GREATEST WEAPON
The Manhattan project was sanctioned by Einstein, the self-proclaimed pacifist of war. Cajoled and convinced by Szilard, Einstein reluctantly signed the letter addressed to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, warning him of the Nazis working on a similar dreaded weapon of mass destruction.
The intoxicating belief that the Nazis were actively recruiting the best brains, spearheaded by Werner Heisenberg for their gruesome project, sparked fear among the scientists who fled their homeland in Europe.
Fear is the greatest weapon for the purpose-driven hellish objective. Once the men in uniform become collaborators, the men of science should already know of the dire consequences. But they were more enthralled by the mysterious possibilities of harnessing the power from the process of splitting the atom. They wanted to explore further and felt the essence of patriotism running in their veins.
Intoxicating patriotism is a double-edged sword. Morality is usually compromised in the name of the greater good. Right or wrong becomes a question of choice. The will to vanquish the enemy supersedes all others and brutality takes centre stage. Besieged by the rampaging enemy, the only way to survive is to destroy everything in its path.
FEAR REIGNS
Fritz Haber was hailed a saviour when he discovered an innovative method of synthesising ammonia from the abundance of nitrogen in the air, which resulted in massive production of fertiliser, and thus, galvanising the efforts of increasing agricultural yield.
Such deeds didn't go unnoticed, and the Nobel committee was prompted to award him the prestigious Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918. Yet, he was also instrumental in developing the first chemical weapon in the form of poisonous chlorine gas to be used against the Allied soldiers in World War 1, which could promptly decimate the enemy in the battlefront. How should we look upon him? Would he then be remembered as the saviour of the world or the villain who brought hell onto earth?
Indeed, the rest of the world feared the Nazis when they invaded France with lightning speed after conquering the Netherlands in 1940. It didn't help that after a vehement display of protest by the French and British that it propelled Hitler to steamroll into French territory.
An ingenious manoeuvre then forced the Allied army to be stranded in Dunkirk, culminating in one of the largest military evacuations by sea. Conquest of France was a foregone conclusion. But the Nazis waterloo was their overzealous efforts to conquer the East, where they faced the mighty Stalin.
IMPENDING END
The Americans abandoned their pacifist approach after the Japanese decimated the US Pacific fleet in a surprise morning attack in 1941. Yet, after the Americans emerged victorious in the Battle of Midway in 1942, and thus dealing a huge blow to the Japanese naval forces, all signs pointed to an impending end of the conflict that had engulfed the world of yesterday.
It was only a matter of time when the Allied forces reclaimed their lost territories. The Normandy landing on the coastal areas of France finally signalled the end. By the time the Allied forces marched into Germany in early 1945, the Manhattan project, led by Major-General Leslie Groves and Los Alamos director Oppenheimer, was already on the verge of producing the atomic bomb.
The top-secret project commenced in 1942. However, it would take them more than three years to finally be able to test the sheer power of the bomb at the New Mexico desert in mid-1945. Allied encroachment upon the east of Rhine, Germany, occurred before that.
Nobody had prepared them mentally for the test codenamed "Trinity".
The first nuclear test shook the world violently and shattered their faith. They had inadvertently unleashed a draconian monster from hell. None could save their tortured souls, let alone have mercy upon them. Breaking up the uranium-235 nucleus was the ultimate destination.
The Germans unconditionally submitted to shame by mid-1945. The dream of outright hegemony would soon be abandoned. They were overwhelmed by a new order eager to punish without trial.
MISSION: DESTRUCTION
So why must the sun witness the mushrooming clouds contaminating the blue sky with a poison that would outlast many generations? What was the rationale that the only two bombs produced must be used to destroy innocent lives?
Radioactive materials stayed the longest on earth as their half-lives are extremely long. They'd poison the soil and contaminate drinking water. Unleashing the floodgates of destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 only precipitated the emergence of a Cold War with the Soviet Union.
By the actions of Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs, the secrets of the atomic bomb were swiftly grabbed by the Soviets. The nuclear arms race began in earnest. By then, Teller, also known as the father of the hydrogen bomb, had decided that it was time to bring the sun to the surface of the earth.
Why are we so eager to annihilate each other into oblivion when there's only one Earth, and it is still habitable for now? In the vastness of the universe where we need many lifetimes to venture to its edge, a place seemingly devoid of intelligent life except ours, we're still preoccupied with trying to prove our own superiority against others who might subscribe to a different ideology.
Why can't we just collaborate for a (much) better tomorrow? The simplest task is sometimes the hardest to achieve.
Tan Bok Hooi holds a postgraduate degree in particle physics. He's an entrepreneur focusing on healthcare in the area of consultancy, talent acquisition and personalised coaching. Tan has six books to his credit, in both English and Bahasa Malaysia. Contact him at bokhooi@yahoo.com.
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