Atomic doctors; conscience and complicity at the dawn of the nuclear age

摘要

This is a book by a sociologist who by chance came to realize a historian's dream. After his father died, Nolan came into possession of numerous family documents. Among them was a pile of documents and photographs belonging to his grandfather who had been one of the physicians at the huge Los Alamos site, where the first atomic bombs were being made. At first the Manhattan Project had been set up out of fear that Germany would be able to construct a nuclear bomb before the Allied countries. But after it became clear that this atomic race would be won by the Allies, a new problem had to be found to which the atomic bomb would be the solution - showing how hard it is to stop scientific research even if the initial motivation has vanished. This 'problem' was Japan. Furthermore, a Cold War was already anticipated and a nuclear bomb could come in handy to show Russia what America was capable of. Not for nothing was heavy pressure put upon Oppenheimer and his fellow-researchers to organize the first detonation, at a site in New Mexico, just one day before Truman met Stalin and Churchill at Potsdam.