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The Responsibility of The Scientist in Atomic Bomb Literature
The Responsibility of The Scientist in Atomic Bomb Literature
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to Comparative Literature Studies
JOHN T. DORSEY
One of the main themes of literature related to the atomic bomb is the
responsibility of the scientist in the nuclear age. The scientist is held
responsible not only for the creation of the atomic bomb and the destruc-
tion of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also for the evolution of the "fail-safe"
world in which we live and the "day-after" world we face. Thus the role of
the scientist in atomic bomb literature is not limited to nuclear physicists
such as Oppenheimer and Teller, the putative "fathers" of the atomic and
hydrogen bombs, but also includes medical doctors, mathematicians, com-
puter scientists, and even scientists from earlier times such as Newton and
Galileo, who are held responsible for bringing us to the brink of self'
extinction.
First of all, a number of works depict the efforts of the scientists to build
the bomb, exploring the motivations which led the scientists to work so
enthusiastically on such an appalling weapon. One important aspect of
such novels as C.P. Snow's The New Men1 and Pearl Buck's Command the
Morning is their depiction of the joys of science: the fascination of
theorems and the ecstasy of sudden inspiration which exercise a powerful
attraction over the scientists. Naturally, since these novels were written
after the war, the consequences of such irresponsible indulgence are
clearly foreshadowed. And yet even in such an austerely critical work as
Heinar Kipphardt's In der Sache ]. Robert Oppenheimer, we find the nuclear
physicist admitting that the fascination of the scientific ideas involved
"If the slow-moving neutron creeps into the atomic nucleus and
stays there for a while, the nucleus suddenly breaks in two and
separates. Then the great atomic energy latent in the nucleus is
released and bursts out."
"Wow! That's brilliant! It can be done with the neutron alone."
"A very interesting fact is that the mass of the part that was
broken in two is less than the original mass. This proves Einstein's
theory of the equivalence of energy and mass."5
After a few pages, one of the doctors concludes, "Well, we can't deny that
it is a tremendous scientific achievement, this atomic bomb!" (60).
Nagai, a medical doctor and professor of radiology at Nagasaki University,
who has lost his wife in the bombing and who has been severely injured
and exposed to a high level of radiation, exclaims, "In this devastated
atomic desert, fresh and vigorous scientific life began to flourish!" (60).
In addition to the attraction of scientific ideas, regardless of their
consequences, another motivation for the scientists explored in a number
of works is the fear that the scientists in Germany were working on the
atomic bomb. In The New Men and Command the Morning, this fear is
Der Eid ist die Formel fur eine unlôsbare Fusion. Unser Gott ist
die Wissenschaft, die Erkenntniskraft des menschlichen Geistes,
auch ich habe keinen anderen. Sie werden bei mir die
weitestgehende Meinungs-und Forschungsfreiheit genieBen-dafur
verlange ich unbedingte Gefolgschaft - zu mir, und zu England.
Wenn Sie mir die Hand geben, bedeutet das mehr als ein Schwur
vorm Lord Oberrichter. Wollen Sie das tun?7
The scientist then finds that laboratories, computers, and other scientific
equipment, as well as supporting teams of researchers and engineers, are
placed at his disposal, and he enthusiastically pursues a Faustian question:
the nature of matter and energy, the ultimate foundations of the universe.
From the outset, however, there is something inhuman, rather than
superhuman, about the scientist's work. He finds himself in an ideal
research laboratory, but he is imprisoned there, isolated from society and
from the international community of scientists. His individual rights are
denied, in particular his right as a scientist to publish his findings and to
read the publications of others because the enemy (the Germans) wil
take advantage of his research. Ultimately, the scientist's love affair with
the atom culminates in scenes of hell on earth: the destruction of two
Nihon University
NOTES