J. Robert Oppenheimer - The man behind the bomb
Julius Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist called the father of the atomic bomb, was born April 22, 1904, in New York.
Oppenheimer, who died in 1967, led the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The theoretical physicist was later accused of having communist sympathies and his security clearance was revoked following a four-week, closed-door hearing.
With the upcoming release of a film about his life, we looked through the Associated Press photo archives for coverage of Oppenheimer over the years.
From left to right: Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, youngest Nobel prize winner in physics; Nobel laureate Robert A. Millikan; and Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer are seen at Cal Tech in Pasadena, Calif., May 28, 1935. This photo is said to be the first of Oppenheimer ever made as he has dodged news cameramen until Millikan insisted. (AP Photo)
Scientists and workmen rig the world's first atomic bomb to raise it up onto a 100 foot tower at the Trinity bomb test site near Alamagordo, N.M., July 6, 1945. In the blast that followed, the tower disappeared. Heat generated within the bomb's explosion was nearly 100 million degrees, more than ten times the heat at the surface of the sun. (AP Photo)
Seven atom bomb scientists look over a roengenometer at the site of the test atom bomb explosion on Sept. 13, 1945. From left to right, Dr. Kenneth T. Bainbridge, Harvard; Dr. Joseph G. Hoffmann, University of Buffalo; Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, California; Dr. Louis H. Hempelmann, Washington; Dr. Victor Weisskoff; Dr. Robert F. Bacher, Cornel University; and Dr. Richard W. Dooson, of California. (AP Photo)
This Oct. 15, 1965 photo shows a "Fat Man" nuclear bomb of the type tested at Trinity Site, N.M, and dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, on view for the public at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Museum. (AP Photo)
Gen. John Leslie R. Groves, right, and Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, who cooperated on the development of the atomic bomb, inspect the base of a tower from which the test atomic bomb was exploded in Alamogordo, N.M., on Sept. 9, 1945. (AP Photo)
In this Sept. 9, 1945, photo, Gen. Leslie R. Groves, right, and Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, who cooperated on the development of the atomic bomb, survey the area in Alamogordo, N.M., where a tower once stood before the test bomb exploded. (AP Photo)
The following text is from The Associated Press article, "Men 5 Miles Away Felled, Steel Tower Is Vaporized”, printed in The Boston Herald, Tuesday, August 7, 1945
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Aug. 6 (AP) – A blinding flash, followed within 40 seconds by a shuddering explosion that sent a huge multi-colored cloud roaring upward to an altitude of 40,000 feet and caused reverberations felt for a 250-mile radius across New Mexico and Arizona, marked the first test of the new destructive atomic bomb, conducted July 16, at a remote location on the Alamogordo, N.M., Army airbase.
The steel tower which held the bomb was melted, and turned into vapor by the blast, and in the earth of the remote, New Mexico desert test ground a deep crater was gouged.
As winds dispersed, the mass that had shot into the stratosphere in five minutes, and the tremendous pressure wave that knocked down two men standing 5 miles away, passed over, the scientists and military authorities whispered, “This is it.“ they said the test of their $2,000,000,000 experiment was successful beyond all hope.
They had observed the test from 10 miles. In disclosing details of the bomb, which hit Japan, the army quoted them today as seeing a ball of fire “many times brighter than the mid-day sun.“
The brilliant flash startled a blind girl, Miss Georgia Green, 120 miles away, and she asked “What’s that?“ Windows rattled at Gallup, N.M., 250 miles north west.
“It was just as if the sun had come up, and then suddenly gone down again,“ one witness, 150 miles west remarked.
In the control center, Dr. James B, Conant, president of Harvard University, and J. R. Oppenheimer, Director of the atomic laboratory, stared ahead in the long seconds just before the blast.
When the announcer shouted “now!“ And there came a burst of light, followed shortly by a deep, growling roar, Oppenheimer’s face relaxed in tremendous relief.
The test had been delayed an hour and a half by a thunderstorm which prevented aerial observation.
So terrific was the blast that the Associated Press in New Mexico and Arizona received numerous inquiries, some an airline distance of 250 miles from the blast seen, regarding an earthquake.
This photo shows The Associated Press article, "Men 5 Miles Away Felled, Steel Tower Is Vaporized”, printed on the front page of The Boston Herald, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 1945. (AP Photo)
This photo shows continuation of The Associated Press article, "Men 5 Miles Away Felled, Steel Tower Is Vaporized”, printed on the front page of The Boston Herald, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 1945. (AP Photo)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer poses in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 16, 1945. (AP Photo)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, atomic scientist, appearing before the Senate Atomic Energy Committee in Washington, Dec. 5, 1945, declines to estimate in public the damage one of the atomic bombs would inflict on a fleet of ships. (AP Photo)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, right, who was in charge of the atomic research laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. and credited with contributing heavily to the development of the atomic bomb, chats with Dr. Robert Serber of the University of California's radiation laboratory at Berkeley, Calif., April 23, 1946. (AP Photo)
Professor Ernest O. Lawrence, left, and Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer examine the diffusion pumps for creating an almost perfect vacuum in the accelerating chamber between poles of new 184-inch cyclotron, July 11, 1946, at the University of California's radiation laboratory at Berkeley. (AP Photo/Ernest K. Bennett)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the new director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, N.J., is shown in front of a blackboard full of mathematical formulas, Dec. 17, 1947. Dr. Oppenheimer served as wartime director of the Manhattan Project when it developed and produced the first atomic bomb. (AP Photo)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Advisory Council, tells a joint Congressional Atomic Committee that U.S. military establishment to his knowledge had never found it necessary to use exportable type isotopes for development of new war machines, June 13, 1949. The hearing continued on charges of mismanagement in AEC. (AP Photo)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, seated at his desk at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., tells newsmen "This thing is not properly adjudicated yet," referring to the special Atomic Energy Board's recommendation that he be barred from atomic secrets, June 1, 1954. (AP Photo)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, atomic pioneer, stands at a window in his office at the institute of Advanced Study, in Princeton, N.J. on June 2, 1954 as he met newsmen on the day following a decision of a three-man special AEC board to bar him from the nation's atomic secrets. (AP Photo)
The following text is from The Associated Press article, "Vote Denies Oppenheimer Atomic Data”, printed in The Detroit Times, Tuesday, June 29, 1954.
Washington, June 29 (AP) – The Atomic Energy Commission announced today it had voted 4-1 against giving Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer access to restricted atomic data.
The commission acted on Oppenheimer’s appeal from a 2–1 security board decision that although Oppenheimer was loyal and discreet, he was a security risk and further access to atomic secrets should be denied him.
In the commission’s 4-1 vote, the majority was made up of Chairman Lewis L. Strauss, and Commissioners Eugene M. Zuckert Joseph, Campbell, and Thomas E. Murray.
One Dissenter
Commissioner Henry D. Smyth voted to permit Oppenheimer access to restricted data.
This photo shows The Associated Press article, "Vote Denies Oppenheimer Atomic Data”, printed in The Detroit Times, Tuesday, June 29, 1954. (AP Photo)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atom bomb, is shown at his study in Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J., Dec. 15, 1957. Oppenheimer has been leading an ivory tower career since the government banned him from classified science projects on security grounds. (AP Photo/John Rooney)
Pipe in mouth, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer leans forward as he listens intently to proceedings on opening day of the Science Conference at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., Feb. 3, 1958. This was a two-day meeting at Yale. (AP Photo/John Rooney)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, his wife Katherine and daughter Toni visit the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, May 28, 1958. (AP Photo)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer puffs pipe during an interview at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, N.J., on April 5, 1963, after he was named winner of the Enrico Fermi Award. The award is the highest honor given by the Atomic Energy Commission, the same agency that declared Oppenheimer a security risk in 1954. He has headed the institute at Princeton since 1957. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams)
The Enrico Fermi science award, one of science's most coveted honors, was awarded to Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer in a ceremony at the White House, Dec. 2, 1963. A check for $50,000 was part of the presentation, which also included a medallion. Oppenheimer's citation was signed by assassinated President John F. Kennedy. The award was made for Oppenheimer's "contributions to theoretical physics as a teacher and for leadership in the Los Alamos Laboratory and in the atomic energy program during critical years." From left: Oppenheimer, his son Peter, his wife Katherine, and President Johnson's wife Lady Bird Johnson. (AP Photo)
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer is shown with President Lyndon B. Johnson during a White House ceremony in which the nuclear physicist received the $50,000 Enrico Fermi science award, Dec. 2, 1963. Lady Bird Johnson is seen at far right. (AP Photo)
Text Excerpts
The Associated Press article, "Men 5 Miles Away Felled, Steel Tower Is Vaporized”, printed in The Boston Herald Tuesday, August 7, 1945.
The Associated Press article, "Vote Denies Oppenheimer Atomic Data”, printed in The Detroit Times, Tuesday, June 29, 1954
Text and photo curation by Kathleen Elliott
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