Einstein and the Bomb
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
Albert Einstein
Einstein was, from the beginning a pacifist, claiming that he himself would "unconditionally refuse to do war service, direct or indirect... regardless of how the cause of the war should be judged." (Ronald Clark, "Einstein: The Life and Times", pg. 428)
This feeling changed only when confronted with the moral dilemma of pacifism in the face of the implications of a Nazi Bomb. In 1939, a letter with Einstein's signature was delivered to President Roosevelt urging the government to develop a weapon before the Germans. The unconditional surrender to the German forces in May 1945 changed the scenario, at least from the vantage point of the “pacifists”. The bomb was dropped three months later in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly decimating the two cities. Einstein would later write, "I have always condemned the use of the atomic bomb against Japan." (Otto Nathan & Heinz Norden, editors, "Einstein on Peace", pg. 589)
Can a man be blamed for his invention or discovery? Keep in mind that the Manhattan Project was a project directly employed tens of thousands of individuals and occurred decades after Einstein’s Theories of Relativity were published (Special theory in 1905, General Theory in 1915).
Of course we do not blame the man, but that does not exclude the possibility that he blamed himself. The more interesting question is whether or not his condemnation of the bombing of Japan was genuine or whether or not he felt more responsibility than he should have.
More to come…
Albert Einstein
Einstein was, from the beginning a pacifist, claiming that he himself would "unconditionally refuse to do war service, direct or indirect... regardless of how the cause of the war should be judged." (Ronald Clark, "Einstein: The Life and Times", pg. 428)
This feeling changed only when confronted with the moral dilemma of pacifism in the face of the implications of a Nazi Bomb. In 1939, a letter with Einstein's signature was delivered to President Roosevelt urging the government to develop a weapon before the Germans. The unconditional surrender to the German forces in May 1945 changed the scenario, at least from the vantage point of the “pacifists”. The bomb was dropped three months later in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly decimating the two cities. Einstein would later write, "I have always condemned the use of the atomic bomb against Japan." (Otto Nathan & Heinz Norden, editors, "Einstein on Peace", pg. 589)
Can a man be blamed for his invention or discovery? Keep in mind that the Manhattan Project was a project directly employed tens of thousands of individuals and occurred decades after Einstein’s Theories of Relativity were published (Special theory in 1905, General Theory in 1915).
Of course we do not blame the man, but that does not exclude the possibility that he blamed himself. The more interesting question is whether or not his condemnation of the bombing of Japan was genuine or whether or not he felt more responsibility than he should have.
More to come…
posted by mrcyriac at 1:08 AM
4 Comments:
If at all there is a 4th War??May be the third one would vaporize the whole globe!!
I think that's exactly what Einstein was implying. As a strong disbeliever in nuclear weapons, he imagined that somethign much worse than the initial bombs would essentially send us back to the stone-age in the next all-out global conflict.
.. That's an interesting comment from the man who initially PLEADED with Roosevelt to start the bomb research project...
So basically, Einstein thought it was cool to kill Jew killers, but since the Japanese killed no Jews (atleast not in any significant numbers) than it was not cool to bomb them. (Despite the fact that the Japanese perpetrated horris just as bad as the NAZIs in China the Philipnes and pretty much any other situation where they were dealing with non Japanese (whom they saw as subhuman).
I'll leave it at this since to say any more in this country would brand me an antisemits and I am sure Mosad or someone else will hunt me down and put me on trial in Israel for my crimes against humnanity.
lol
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