Editing J. Robert Oppenheimer (section)

=== Trinity ===
{{Main|Trinity (nuclear test)}}
[[File:Trinity Detonation T&B.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|The [[Trinity (nuclear test)|Trinity test]] was the first detonation of a nuclear device.{{sfn|Jungk|1958|p=201}}|alt=a large mushroom-shaped cloud forming after a nuclear explosion]]

In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, near [[Alamogordo, New Mexico]], the work at Los Alamos culminated in the test of the world's first [[nuclear weapon]]. Oppenheimer had code-named the site "[[Trinity (nuclear test)|Trinity]]" in mid-1944, saying later that the name came from [[John Donne]]'s ''[[Holy Sonnets]]''; he had been introduced to Donne's work in the 1930s by Jean Tatlock, who killed herself in January 1944.{{sfn|Herken|2002|pp=128–129}}{{sfn|Streshinsky|Klaus|2013|pp=194, 211}}

Brigadier General [[Thomas Farrell (United States Army officer)|Thomas Farrell]], who was present in the control bunker with Oppenheimer, recalled:

{{blockquote|Dr. Oppenheimer, on whom had rested a very heavy burden, grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off. He scarcely breathed. He held on to a post to steady himself. For the last few seconds, he stared directly ahead and then when the announcer shouted "Now!" and there came this tremendous burst of light followed shortly thereafter by the deep growling roar of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of tremendous relief.<ref>{{harvnb|Szasz|1984|p=88}}</ref>}}

Oppenheimer's brother Frank recalled Oppenheimer's first words as "I guess it worked."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bernstein |first1=Jeremy |title=Letters : Bomb in the Head |journal=London Review of Books |date=April 26, 2018 |volume=40 |issue=8 |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n08/letters |access-date=January 10, 2022 |issn=0260-9592 |archive-date=July 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230715054555/https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n08/letters |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="WP-20220722">{{cite news |last=Johnson |first=Mark |title=How Oppenheimer weighed the odds of an atomic bomb test ending Earth |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/07/22/oppenheimer-manhattan-project-history-atomic-bomb-test/ |date=July 22, 2023 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20230722123414/https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/07/22/oppenheimer-manhattan-project-history-atomic-bomb-test/ |archivedate=July 22, 2023 |accessdate=July 22, 2023 }}</ref>

{{external media |float=right|width=18em<!--<<expressing width in ems--> |video1=[https://www.atomicarchive.com/media/videos/oppenheimer.html Oppenheimer recalling his thoughts after witnessing the Trinity test] }}
[[File:Trinity Test - Oppenheimer and Groves at Ground Zero 002.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|Oppenheimer and Groves at the remains of the Trinity test tower. Oppenheimer is wearing his trademark broad-brimmed hat; white overshoes protect against [[nuclear fallout|fallout]].<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=September 17, 1945 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854500-2,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629043245/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854500-2,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 29, 2011 |url-access=subscription |title=Science: Atomic Footprint |access-date=March 16, 2011 }}</ref>|alt=Two men, one in a suit and hat and the other in military uniform, stand in front of twisted metal whilst wearing white overshoes]]

According to a 1949 magazine profile, while witnessing the explosion Oppenheimer thought of verses from the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'': "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one{{nbsp}}... Now I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds."<ref name="life-1949">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GVIEAAAAMBAJ&dq=oppenheimer+%22if+the+radiance+of+a+thousand+suns+were+to+%22&pg=PA133 | title=J. Robert Oppenheimer | author-first=Lincoln | author-last=Barnett | magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] | date=October 10, 1949 | page=133 | access-date=July 31, 2023 | archive-date=August 9, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230809204214/https://books.google.com/books?id=GVIEAAAAMBAJ&dq=oppenheimer+%22if+the+radiance+of+a+thousand+suns+were+to+%22&pg=PA133 | url-status=live }}</ref> In 1965 he recalled the moment this way:

{{Cquote|We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the ''Bhagavad Gita''; Vishnu is trying to persuade [[Arjuna|the Prince]] that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on [[Vishvarupa|his multi-armed form]] and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.atomicarchive.com/media/videos/oppenheimer.html | title = 'Now I am become death...' | people=Oppenheimer, J.R. |year=1965 |type=video |access-date = November 19, 2021 |publisher = Atomic Archive | archive-date = May 16, 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516104658/http://www.atomicarchive.com/Movies/Movie8.shtml | url-status = live }}</ref>{{refn|group=note|"If the radiance{{nbsp}}..." is ''Bhagavad Gita'' verse XI,12 ({{IAST|divi sūryasahasrasya bhavedyugapadutthitā / yadi bhāḥ sadṛṥī sā syādbhāsastasya mahātmanaḥ}});<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&field_chapter_value=11&field_nsutra_value=12&choose=1 |date=September 2, 2017 |title=Bhagavad Gita XI.12 |publisher=Gita Supersite by [[Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur]] |access-date=April 25, 2023 |archive-date=August 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230804015213/https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/srimad?language=dv&field_chapter_value=11&field_nsutra_value=12&choose=1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |access-date=October 24, 2012 |url=http://www.asitis.com/11/12.html |title=Chapter 11. The Universal Form, text 12 |work=Bhagavad As It Is |archive-date=August 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130804075758/http://www.asitis.com/11/12.html |url-status=live }}</ref> "Now I am become Death{{nbsp}}..." is verse XI,32.({{IAST|kālo'smi lokakṣayakṛtpravṛddho lokānsamāhartumiha pravṛttaḥ}})

Oppenheimer had read the ''Bhagavad Gita'' in the original [[Sanskrit]], and the translation is his own.<ref name="Hijiya">{{harvnb|Hijiya|2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |access-date=October 24, 2012 |url=http://www.asitis.com/11/32.html |title=Chapter 11. The Universal Form, text 32 |work=Bhagavad As It Is |archive-date=November 17, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121117120052/http://www.asitis.com/11/32.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the literature, "shatterer" is usually given rather than "destroyer," because "shatterer" appears in the first printed rendition of Oppenheimer's anecdote (in [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]], November 8, 1948).<ref name="Eternal Apprentice"/> The "shatterer" version later appeared in [[Robert Jungk]]'s ''Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists'' (1958),<ref name="Jungk, p. 201">{{harvnb|Jungk|1958|p=201}}</ref> which was based on an interview with Oppenheimer.<ref>{{harvnb|Hijiya|2000|pp=123–124}}</ref>|name="quote" }}
}}

Rabi described seeing Oppenheimer somewhat later: "I'll never forget his walk ... like ''[[High Noon]]''&nbsp;... this kind of strut. He had done it."{{sfn|Monk|2012|pp=456–457}} Despite many scientists' opposition to using the bomb on Japan, Compton, Fermi, and Oppenheimer believed that a test explosion would not convince Japan to surrender.<ref>{{cite web |title=Debate over how to use the bomb |url=https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945/debate.htm |website=The Manhattan Project |publisher=U.S. Department of Energy History Office |access-date=September 13, 2023 |archive-date=September 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230902103805/https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945/debate.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> At an August 6 assembly at Los Alamos, the evening of the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bombing of Hiroshima]], Oppenheimer took to the stage and clasped his hands together "like a prize-winning boxer" while the crowd cheered. He expressed regret that the weapon was ready too late for use against Nazi Germany.{{sfn|Monk|2012|pp=467–468}}

On August 17, however, Oppenheimer traveled to Washington to hand-deliver a letter to Secretary of War [[Henry L. Stimson]] expressing his revulsion and his wish to see nuclear weapons banned.{{sfn|Monk|2012|p=476}} In October he met with President [[Harry S. Truman]], who dismissed Oppenheimer's concern about an arms race with the [[Soviet Union]] and belief that atomic energy should be under international control. Truman became infuriated when Oppenheimer said, "Mr. President, I feel I have blood on my hands", responding that he (Truman) bore sole responsibility for the decision to use atomic weapons against Japan, and later said, "I don't want to see that son of a bitch in this office ever again."{{sfn|Monk|2012|pp=493–494}}{{sfn|Bird|Sherwin|2005|pp=331–332}}

For his services as director of Los Alamos, Oppenheimer was awarded the [[Medal for Merit]] by Truman in 1946.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bella |first1=Timothy |title=The atomic bombings left Oppenheimer shattered: 'I have blood on my hands' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/07/21/oppenheimer-truman-atomic-bomb-guilt/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=July 21, 2023 |access-date=August 18, 2023 |archive-date=August 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813140643/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/07/21/oppenheimer-truman-atomic-bomb-guilt/ |url-status=live }}</ref>