Is Einstein responsible for the Manhattan Project and the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima that killed a lot of people?
2007-01-23 04:20:02 · 15 answers · asked by Paolo s 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Einstein felt he was responsible, but in all truthfulness , he was not.
Einstein, under pressure from other physicists wrote a letter to FDR recommending that the US develop nuclear capability before Nazi Germany could do it.
The US had no choice but to do it, or risk to lose the war, to the Nazi thugs, that very unfortunately controlled such a fine nation as Germany.
FDR then set up Robert Oppenheimer to head the Manhattan project, Einstein only was a consultant and not really a key one since his field was cosmology and the nuclear bomb had more to do with Quantum mechanics, nuclear engineering and radioactivity.
Harry Truman was responsible to drop the Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He weighted this decision against the over a million casualties that would have cost the invasion of Japan , both in American and Japanese lives.
The lives lost in Horoshima and Nagasaki, though cruel, tragic and unfair to the civilians, maybe 100 to 150,000 saved the lives of over one million people that would have died, had the allies resorted to the invasion of Japan to end WWII
The Bomb in Nagasaki, could have been avoided, if the Japanese had been given more time to have an unconditional surrender that would preserve the live of the emperor, sacred to the Japanese but a war criminal to the Allies. Hirohito, was responsible to some extent, but he was manipulated by the likes of General Tojo and the Japanese militaristic radicals. Another group of thugs that ruled the very fine nation of Japan.
2007-01-23 04:46:38 · answer #1 · answered by Robertphysics 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
One of his famous quotes is: If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
This shows that he was the one who was against the Manhattan Project and the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. So he was not responsible for it.
2007-01-23 12:31:39 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Indirectly. Albert Einstein provided the theory that allowed the construction of nuclear weapons. Robert Oppenheimer was the project science director and is commonly known as "the father of the atomic bomb". However it was the Office of The President of the United States that actually made the decision to use the device.
2007-01-23 12:48:46 · answer #3 · answered by Paul The Rock Ape 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No Albert Einstein is NOT responsible for creating the atomic bomb. He merely discovered that Matter and Energy are interchangable. and NO he did NOT Design the bomb like one of the other answerers said.
While you may think and rightly so that the Atomic bombs killed alot of people. However please think of this, how many MORE people would have been killed if World War II lasted another 4 years?
Back then War killed ALOT more people than it does today. I am not an advocate of War by any means, however the wars of the early and mid 20th Century killed Hundreds of Thousands more people than the "clean" wars of today.
2007-01-23 12:36:36 · answer #4 · answered by David K 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He realized the potential energy locked in all matter. Energy = mass x speed of light squared. E=mc2. He did write the letter to FDR encouraging research into the atomic bomb. and about the bombings of those cities...imagine it from this perspective...the casualty estimates for a US invasion of the Japanese islands was somewhere around 1 million US troops dead. If you had the choice between saving 1 million of your countrymen, and bombing your enemy, which will it be? What a horrendous decision to have to make either way, but those were the choices...
2007-01-23 16:34:45 · answer #5 · answered by Beach_Bum 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Einstein wrote the famous equation E=mc^2 Energy=massxspeed of light ^2 this physic law means that you can get incredible quantity of energy from few grams of matter. This principle is the basis of atomic bombs. But he didn't wrote it aiming make bombs.
There is a famous letter he wrote to the president of united states and other scientist that they didn't have to develop the atomic bomb.
"I've seen two infinite things in my life: the deep of space and the human stupidity".A.E.
2007-01-23 12:35:57 · answer #6 · answered by bagpipes 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. It was Oppenheimer who was in charge of the Manhattan project. He was not the one who decided to use the bombs for real though.
2007-01-24 09:43:25 · answer #7 · answered by ddntruong 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, the same way Boing is responsible for 9/11
2007-01-23 12:30:12 · answer #8 · answered by celtic_goddess222 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hi. That's sort of like saying the Wright brothers were responsible for 9/11. Any tool can be used for good or evil.
2007-01-23 12:23:59 · answer #9 · answered by Cirric 7 · 6⤊ 0⤋
No more than is Sir Isaac Newton for discovering the law of universal gravitation 200 years earlier, which caused the bombs to fall towards their targets.
2007-01-23 12:39:02 · answer #10 · answered by Martin 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋