What "Oppenheimer" Left Out

The movie “Oppenheimer” only briefly touches on the effects of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Here's what you should know about both the instant and genetic effects of the bombs.

Photo Source: Live Science via Universal Pictures

“Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.”

J. Robert Oppenheimer originally said these words in the NBC News documentary  “The Decision to Drop the Bomb.” In the movie “Oppenheimer,” he says them to his lover, Jean Tatlock, before he even starts work on the Manhattan Project, but it doesn’t detract from their impact. The audience knows the true meaning of these words and what the line points to: the devastation first witnessed at the Trinity Test at Los Alamos, and then seen twice more at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Oppenheimer” is a biopic movie, focusing on the progression of Oppenheimer’s career and only briefly touching on the effects of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It gives the estimated death counts- between 90,000 and 120,000 at Hiroshima, between 60,000 and 70,000 at Nagasaki- but fails to comment on the exact nature of the deaths. This makes sense in the context of the film, but it means that the emotional impact of the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was lost. Of course, showing the exact results of the bomb might have been a bit much, even for an R-rated film.

The Effects of the Atomic Bomb

When the bomb was dropped, it killed in two ways: by pressure and heat, as well as by ionizing radiation. In the first case, victims died instantly or within a few days, due to broken bones or unmanageable burns. In some cases, this was caused by the pressure wave and heat released by the bomb, but in others it was caused by collapsing buildings that trapped their inhabitants, or fires that could not be controlled in the chaos surrounding the impact. 

In this instance, the deaths were worsened due to the lack of available medical care in the immediate aftermath. Inosuke Hayasaki, who was in Nagasaki at the time of the bombing, told Haruka Sakaguchi as part of the 1945 Project, “I heard a man in passing announce that giving water to the burn victims would kill them. I was torn. I knew that these people had hours, if not minutes, to live. These burn victims – they were no longer of this world.”

The burn victims might have had a chance if functioning hospitals and emergency medical care was available, but there was not, and the lack of organization meant it was some time before it became available. That same chaos has made it difficult, even in the intervening years, to determine how many of the victims at Hiroshima and Nagasaki died in the initial impact versus of radiation exposure in the later weeks. However, it’s believed that 70,000 people in Hiroshima died in the initial blast.

The other way that the atomic bomb killed was through ionizing radiation, which killed over the course of several weeks. In this case, victims often could find medical care, either through Japanese hospitals or aid centers set up by the United States Army and the Red Cross. However, there was only so much that could be done.

Ionizing radiation is radiation that causes ionization, or removal of electrons from atoms and molecules. In living tissue, excessive ionizing radiation can cause multiple kinds of DNA damage. This DNA damage is what began to kill people as days passed after the bombing.

DNA generally functions as the ‘code’ for cellular function. When the code was damaged, cells could no longer function as necessary, and when spread across the entire body, the radiation exposure often proved fatal.

Radiation deaths began about a week after the bomb was dropped and peaked around a month later. Patients with radiation sickness exhibited hair loss, bleeding, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, seizures and necrosis, generally leading to death. By two months, most of the people suffering from radiation exposure had either died or were likely to live for many years. Those that survived often had cancer later on. Even many of those who did not suffer from radiation sickness would show the effects of exposure later in life. 

Yoshiro Yamawaki, a resident of Nagasaki when the bomb dropped, said as part of the 1945 Project, “I was 11 years old when the bomb was dropped, 2 km from where I lived. In recent years, I have been diagnosed with stomach cancer, and have undergone surgery in 2008 and 2010.” Survivors of the bomb are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer, especially leukemia or stomach cancer. The chances of a diagnosis are higher the younger someone was when they were exposed. However, there is no evidence that it affected the children of those exposed.

The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused untold harm to hundreds of thousands of people and fundamentally changed global politics. We have the distance now to make some sense of it, but in many ways the world is still being affected by the decision to drop the bomb.

Oppenheimer believed that once nuclear fission became possible, a bomb was inevitable. Even so, he felt in some way responsible for its use. In the movie “Oppenheimer,” he tells President Harry Truman, “I feel I have blood on my hands.” Truman reassures him, telling him that no one in Japan held Oppenheimer responsible; rather, they would view Truman and the people involved in the decision to develop and then drop the bomb as culpable. It prompts an interesting question: are scientists responsible for how people use their inventions?

I would say that it depends on the situation. In the context of the Manhattan Project, where the Allies were seriously concerned that the Germans would be producing a bomb of their own to change the tide of the war, it’s hard to fault someone for wanting to serve their country in any way they were able. Still, let us know in the comments what you think. This is a complicated issue, and I know that I left some things out. I’d welcome any thoughts you have.

Best,

Grace for the Don’t Count Us Out Yet Team