And then the Rosenbergs sold the secrets to the Russians.

Creating nuclear bombs was one of mankind's worst creations.

And now developing countries such as Pakistan and India have nuclear weapons thanks to their former status as a British colony.

Add Israel (courtesy of the United States) while Iran is currently working on one.

Brinkmanship does not equate to insuring global peace.

@Paul Prentiss...add North Korea to the list as well. They were gifted the technology from the Red Chinese.

Dropping the A-bomb on Japan was a crime against humanity and unwarranted.

Countries like India should be focusing more on environmental improvements rather than storing nuclear armaments and trying to fly to the moon.

Talk about misplaced priorities.

Albert Einstein, Edward Teller, Robert Oppenheimer were gifted physicists of Jewish descent and so it should come as no surprise that Israel eventually gained access to nuclear weaponry.

Nuclear technology was once the sole proprietary domain of the United States until a lucrative breach by the Rosenbergs provided both the USSR and Communist China access to this powerful technology.

Hopefully we have learned a valuable lesson from the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Truman was solely responsible for the unleashing of this destructive force and his decision to do so will always remain questionable.

Nazi Germany was also trying to develop nuclear weapons prior to and during World War II and fortunately they were not successful in their endeavor.

I agree with those who question countries like India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel having nuclear arsenals. Shouldn't they be working on more productive matters rather than mass destruction capabilities? And the same applies to Iran.

Nuclear weaponry can serve as a deterrent to outside aggression from hostile entities. That is why both India and Pakistan have them (courtesy of our former colonial benefactors Great Britain).

Israel has nuclear weapons to keep its Arabic and Middle Eastern enemies in check and the same applies to allies such as the United States, Great Britain, and France having them to keep Russia and the People's Republic of China under wraps.

Global hatred and fear is the logic behind having nuclear weaponry.

Thank you Mr. Teller and Mr Oppenheimer for providing the world with a safety net.

"Albert Einstein, Edward Teller, Robert Oppenheimer were gifted physicists of Jewish descent and so it should come as no surprise that Israel eventually gained access to nuclear weaponry."

These groundbreaking physicists of Jewish descent did not provide Israel with the technology required to manufacture nuclear weapons.

In the early 1950s, France assisted the Israelis with building their first nuclear reactor and things took off from there, no different than what has transpired in Iran.

If a country can build a nuclear reactor, creating a nuclear weapon is the next progression providing it has access to enriched plutonium.

As for the Rosenbergs, they breached American national security at a critical time in our history and were justly executed for their crime of conspiring with the Russians to sell atomic bomb secrets.

The Rosenbergs were offered $5000.00 by the Soviets to sell a-bomb technology.

Taking inflationary and wage factors into consideration, $5000.00 in the early 1950s would be the equivalent of roughly $48,000.00 today.

Not worth getting electrocuted over... let alone being branded as alleged traitors by most American historians.

A movie about the Rosenbergs would be interesting. Maybe after the Hollywood strike is over.

Of note:
(1) The Rosenbergs were both members of the American Communist Party and believed in socialist ideals. They reportedly espoused a strong belief in the Soviet system and saw it as a counterforce to the capitalist United States. Sharing information with the Soviet Union was seen by them as a way to level the playing field and prevent the United States from maintaining a monopoly on nuclear weapons.
(2) Julius Rosenberg had allegedly been involved in Soviet espionage activities since the 1ate 1930s.

Some argue that the Rosenbergs did not receive a fair trial due to the anti-Communist climate of the day. This is what would make for an interesting movie regardless of their guilt or innocence

Curious...

If the Rosenbergs who so devoted to the Soviet Union and its socialist agenda, why didn't they simply defect to the USSR and take their technological secrets with them rather than remain in the United States with the alleged cash?

And was Truman's decision to drop two atom bombs on Japan more reflective of American racism towards Japan rather than his justification of ending the war earlier and at the cost of fewer American servicemen lives?

Money and politics are always the bane of human existence.

It was Nikita Khruschev, Russia that provided the nuclear capabilities to Mao Zedong Dong, China.

I cannot think of one positive thing that Communism has contributed to humanity and to have given them secrets to building an atomic bomb is reprehensible.

It is interesting and ironic to note that both Communist ideology and atomic bomb technology were created by Jewish minds and the a-bomb secrets sold to the Russians by two Jewish-American dissidents.

> It was Nikita Khruschev, Russia that provided the nuclear capabilities to Mao Zedong Dong, China.

^ This is understandable as the USSR and Red China have always been anti-American allies. These two countries will NEVER be friends with the United States or legitimate democracies of their own.

The United States should be the only country with nuclear capabilities because Great Britain and France are incapable of defending their respective countries and have always depended on America for wartime interventions during the 20th century.

And countries like India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea have more pressing issues to deal with rather than being nuclear armed.

Thank you Teller and Oppenheimer for opening a Pandora's Box that could eventually lead to global annihilation.

It won't be due to climate change.

President Truman should never have dropped two atom bombs on civilian populations. If anything, he should have dropped them on Imperial military installations to demonstrate the destructive power of such weaponry.

Then again, Truman was only one of two U.S. presidents who never attended an American college or university (the other being Abraham Lincoln) and so chances are he wasn't a very enlightened POTUS.

Truman also recalled General MacArthur from Korea which eventually led to the emergence of Red China.

Report Card = F

There was karma after the first atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima. The bombardier of the Enola Gay had a nervous breakdown and the USS Indianapolis which transported the Little Boy bomb across the Pacific Ocean to the military airfield was later sunk by a Japanese submarine and most of the displaced crewmembers were eaten alive by sharks.

Horrible but just as horrible as what the bombing victims experienced.

After witnessing the destructive nature of atomic weapons, J. Robert Oppenheimer later expressed some regret and serious concern regarding the future use of such weaponry.

Edward Teller was more hawkish and a proponent of thermo-nuclear weapons as a means of ensuring national security.

Though no one has 'pushed the button' since 1945, the thought of nine countries having nuclear arsenals is troubling, especially in podunk countries like India, Pakistan, and North Korea.

Dear Pacifists,

Before you condemn the United States for using the atomic bomb to stop Japan, just know that Japan and Germany were already conducting experiments with use of heavy water. Now, what do you think the Nazis or Japanese would have done had they had the ability to use that weapon? In fact, the Nazis and Japanese had planned to use an atomic bomb over San Francisco. Don't believe me?

After the likely victors of World War II had been determined, but before Japanese forces surrendered to the Allies, the Japanese military developed a desperate plan to attack America's west coast with biological weapons. It was one of the most controversial proposed missions of the war. But what about the Nazis?

Germany began its secret program, called Uranverein, or “uranium club," in April 1939, just months after German scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann had inadvertently discovered fission. Germany had a significant head start over the Manhattan Project as well as some of the best scientists, a strong industrial base, sufficient materials, and the interest of its military officers. Nevertheless, the reaction of Heisenberg illustrates just how far the German program came from actually developing a nuclear weapon.

The United States had every right to use that weapon. Japan attacked us, remember? And just as the British had every right the bomb the hell out of Germany.

It's called self-defense.

The movie Oppenheimer failed to credit the many gifted black physicists and technicians who also worked on the Manhattan Project including physical chemist William Jacob Knox Jr., chemist Lloyd Quarterman, physicist Carolyn Parker, physicist and mass spectrometrist Robert Johnson Omohundro, and physicist and mathematician Jesse Ernest Wilkins Jr.

They contributed to the theoretical understanding of nuclear physics (Wilkins), the extraction and processing of the fissionable uranium isotope, Uranium-235 (Knox, Quarterman), the use of polonium as an initiator (Parker), and the development of scientific instruments to detect radioactive materials and measure radiation (Omohundro).

Whether this was an intentional oversight or another example of negligent historical research, it reiterates a further need for wokeness and inclusion in our educational process and ideals.

White-washing the many contributions of black scientists involved in the Manhattan Project is yet another example of the pervasive racism that still exists in America today.

• White-washing the many contributions of black scientists involved in the Manhattan Project is yet another example of the pervasive racism that still exists in America today.

Thank you for your historical notations pertaining to the unsung contributions of African American scientists involved in the Manhattan Project.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise that the writers and producers of this movie would intentionally choose to exclude them.

In some ways it is no different than purposely excluding any Chinese laborers in the famous photograph that depicted the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah. Only white workers were allowed to be in the picture while robber barons Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Colis Huntington, and Mark Hopkins took all of the credit for the rail project.

There is definitely a need for more historical inclusion and wokeness in our educational system.

@Malcom Hex...though subject to speculation, I don't think the United States would have dropped two atomic bombs on Germany had Germany still been active during World War II.

And why? Because Germany is a predominantly white country while Japan was a country comprised of mostly non-white Asian citizens.

And let's not overlook the unlawful incarceration of loyal Japanese American citizens during World War II in the name of America's 'self defense.'

To justify and/or endorse the two atomic bombings of Japan and the internment of
Japanese Americans could be perceived as a racist gesture.

@Gilbert Wong
Correct me if I am mistaken but I do not recall Malcom Hex endorsing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War 2. He was approving having nuclear arsenals as a means of ensuring national security.

My parents and grandparents were interned at a relocation camp during the war while my two older male relatives (uncles) were serving in Europe with the 442nd. Only one came back.

Racist allegations are harmful especially if they are unfounded.

The Oppenheimer movie was kind of long and the allegory between Oppenheimer and his alleged Communist lover during questioning was kind of strange as was the earlier sex scene between him and her.

It appears that the Communists were very interested in acquiring the critical technology needed to create thermonuclear weapons.

The Rosenbergs learned this lesson the hard way.

@Gilbert Wong

Gilbert, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are a young man. I say this because, as Mr. Tamaki so eloquently stated, the use of an atomic bomb vs the interment of Japanese Americans are two different arguments. That being the case, let's focus on what you said about Germany being a white country and therefore spared from the destruction Japan incurred.

During the Second World War, Allied air forces dropped nearly two million tons of bombs on Germany, destroying some 60 cities, killing more than half a million German citizens, and leaving 80,000 pilots dead. Much of the bombing was carried out against the expressed demands of the Allied military leadership. Hundreds of thousands of people died needlessly. And guess what Mr. Wong, those folks that bombed Germany were all white. So much for your racist theory, eh?

In February 1945, over 1,200 Allied bombers of the RAF and the US Army Air Forces launched four aerial attacks against Dresden. It was the final months of the war in Europe, and would become one of the most controversial Allied attacks of the Second World War. The raids destroyed 75,000 homes and around 25,000 people were killed. However, at the start of the war, the bombing of civilians had been seen as unjustifiable. And once again, it was white American and British pilots who bombed other white people known as German. Still believe in your racist theory, Gilbert?

As far as Japanese internment goes, I believe it was wrong then as it would be wrong now. And to think that Japanese Americans who fought for this country while their families were interred is insulting. Hopefully, we are in agreement on this.

@Harrison Tamaki

Mr. Tamaki, God bless your family and thank you for the sacrifice they made.

"Racist allegations are harmful especially if they are unfounded."

@H. Tamaki and M. Hex...
Why whitewash reality? The U.S. armed forces were fully segregated until President Truman ended the practice following World War II. Discrimination and racism go hand in hand.

My grandfather served in the U.S. Navy in an all-black unit, first as a kitchen helper and then as a sailor loading ordinance at Port Chicago. Remember Port Chicago? The black sailors were given that highly dangerous job because they were considered expendable by their white superiors. And when they revolted, all were court-martialed.

Mr. Tamaki...as I recall, the 442nd was an all-Japanese unit commanded by white officers. They were not integrated and given far more dangerous missions than their white counterparts. Remember the Lost Battalion from Texas? They were rescued by the 442nd who suffered 2/3 losses during the mission. And what was the first things that one of the soldiers from Texas said upon being rescued? "Did the J-s win the war?" And didn't discrimination towards Japanese-Americans continue even after the war?

If this is not racist, then perhaps we have different definitions for the term.

Malcom Hex...there is no justification for any kind of mass civilian murders via aerial bombings whether it be in Dresden, Cologne, Hamburg or Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bomb the airfields, fuel depots, and other military installations instead.

Targeted terrorism against civilians comes in many forms and it is easy for pots to call other kettles black.

The Oppenheimer film was interesting but not as entertaining as Barbie.

Times have changed. The military is now fully desegregated although there is still some reluctance pertaining to the full disclosure of LGBTQ+ service members.

The U.S. military has broadened its horizons and also covers gender-affirming surgery so that our servicemen and women can proudly participate in our nation's defense as non-binary personnel. This is a step in the right direction despite Senator Tommy Tuberville's (R-AL) efforts to curtail various medical benefits and options for American military personnel.

The Oppenheimer film is both historical and a period piece when racism was an accepted practice in America. As another poster noted, why weren't the contributions of black physicists also represented in the film? They were also segregated and faced discrimination at Los Alamos.

The Los Alamos research led by Oppenheimer and Teller was groundbreaking though the results led to a crime against humanity.

I have often wondered why the Japanese-Anericans do not take a concerted stand alongside their black bothers and sisters to condemn racism and discrimination in America.

Is it because they received a token reparation and a formal apology from President Reagan?

African Americans also deserve reparations and a full apology from Congress for systemic discrimination and America's dark history of slavery.

It is the moral responsibility of the United States government to make amends for these wrongs by approving the proposed $5 million reparations for all African American descendents of wrongful slavery.

Governor Newsom is also doing his best to encourage this effort and has created a reparations task force which proposes $1.2 million reparations for all California resident African Americans regardless of slavery.

Governor Newsom will get my vote if he decides to run for president in 2028.

As I recall, the surviving internees of Japanese American descent received reparations of $20,000.00 apiece during the Reagan administration.

While I understand that inflation has increased over the past decades and under the current Biden administration, isn't a reparation of $5,000,000.00 per African American descendent of slavery a bit steep? And when you add Gov. Newsom's proposed CA reparations, the figure now comes to $6,200,000.00 per African American individual.

This is a lot of taxpayer money to dole out with an estimated impact of -$114 trillion on the federal budget and -$800 billion on the state budget.

Can the country and state afford such an undertaking?

Regarding reparations:

Everyone gets in line behind Native American Indians!

Doing the math...the post $20,000 World War II reparations came to about $6,000.00 (in 1980s dollars) per year of internment.

African were enslaved in America beginning in 1619 until 1865 which accounts for 246 years of wrongful servitude.

Using the $6K figure as a reference point and to allow for inflation + past Jim Crow era discriminations, about $1.5M per African American sounds about right but any reparations for African Americans will be hotly contested in Congress by both the Freedom and Progressive Caucuses.

As for the Native Americans, perhaps they should be given one of the 50 states to be governed as a sovereign nation of their own. Since a large portion of their native lands are in red states, no loss to America.

Columbus enslaved Native Americans 1492. He kidnapped and enslaved Native American Indians, took them back to his homeland. The entire North American Continent was Native American lands.

As Mr. Hunt noted, Oppenheimer is a very long movie.

In some ways I wish it had been streamed on Netflix because at age 80, my enlarged prostate has been acting up and I had to go to the restroom about three times during the movie.

And when I got back the second time, a late theater attendee had taken my seat.

@Akisha Jordan

You apparently don't listen well. The Nazis and Japanese were already researching material to make an atomic bomb. Do you think the Nazis and Japanese would no have used such a weapon had they not got their hands on it first? I find it ironic how you purposely left out Nazi bombing of Great Britain. What were the Brits supposed to do? Not fight back? The Brits fought back and helped bring Germany to its knees. And how about those Russians, eh?

I guess the Russians should have simply allowed the Nazis to take Stalingrad, right? Nada. The Russians fought back and brought their war to Berlin. Oh, and by the way, The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths. The largest portion of military dead were 5.7 million ethnic Russians, followed by 1.3 million ethnic Ukrainians. A quarter of the people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed.

Now, let's compare the casualty rate between the Russian lives lost vs the lives lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, shall we? The first atomic explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.

Still want to compare? 27 million dead Russians vs an estimated 3 million dead Japanese. And by the way, the Russian fully intended to use an atomic weapon on Germany had they had the ability to do so. And guess what? They would have had ever right to do so. 27 Million.

At least I now know why you liked Barbie over Oppenheimer. Fiction over reality feels better.

@Michael Austin...you are 100% correct.
Columbus enslaved the native Tairo tribes of the Caribbean islands and after they died out due to the harsh work conditions, African slaves were brought in.

In addition to the United States, Great Britain, France, Spain, and The Netherlands should also be held accountable for African slavery reparations.

Enslaved blacks built Washington DC as did the enslaved Jews who built the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

Slavery has existed throughout history and just about everywhere in the world. If you are captured, slavery is always a possibility.

I am also a slave...to my wife's questionable spending habits and to two self-entitled Gen X children.

When the opportunity presents itself, always run from slavery and try to escape it if you can.

Malcom Hex: you seem to rely on headcounts as a qualifier, no different than what General Westmorland did in Viet Nam.

To some, life is cheap and expendable.

When it comes to Germany and Japan 'hypothetically' using atomic weaponry against the United States, you failed to cover one very important base.

Just how would Germany and/or Japan deliver these bombs? In those days, airplanes were the only method as ICBMs had not yet been perfected...just ask North Korea.

The United States military went 'island hopping' to ensure an airfield close enough to Japan and within range of a B-29.

Where would Germany have launched a bomber carrying nuclear armament targeted for America, some island off Nova Scotia?

And the same applies to Imperial Japan as Hawaii was no longer an option, only Catalina or the Channel Islands.

In all fairness to your insights, you overlooked the delivery process of the times.

@Calvin Ross...an enlarged prostate can create many inconveniences, whether watching Oppenheimer or piloting a plane.

This is probably one reason why most U.S. Navy, USAF TAC and SAC pilots (as well as ATP pilots) are not allowed to fly complex aircraft past 65 years of age.

The late retired General Chuck Yeager was an exception.

I am more concerned about bio-weapons being used in modern day warfare than some nuclear warhead created by Oppenheimer and Teller.

COVID and anthrax are but two examples as both are easily spread by those who wish to destroy the free world and its global economy.

Racism will always be with us no matter what as everyone has a right to their own private thoughts and opinions. The key is to keep those thoughts PRIVATE.

@Kane

You stated the following: "To some, life is cheap and expendable." You said that I didn't. A slight of hand way of saying that because I gave you cold hard numbers, it must mean those deaths are trivial. I never said that, nor did I infer what you are attempting to get across.

The number of deaths, as stated in my last post, was a number, a fact. A cold hard fact. But while we are on the subject of facts, I'm going to destroy a point you attempted to make. Here goes... FACT: The Germans and Japanese wanted to deliver a dirty bomb on the west coast.

The Germans were farther along in their atomic research and the Japanese proposed the bomb could be carried on their plane attached to one of their submarines. Once their submarine was withing striking distance of the west coast - namely San Francisco, the Japanese sea plane would be lowered into the water and take off to drop the bomb. And by the way, the submarine obviously would not have been able to submerge during the voyage. It was a suicide mission for the pilot. If you think this couldn't have been done, guess again.

At The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, also called the Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum at the Washington Dulles International Airport, you will find a Japanese zero with attached water pontoons. That plane was attached to a submarine which was enroute to the west coast. Why? Because the mission of that pilot was to drop a conventional bomb one of the Panama Canal locks, which would have prevented shipping access. The only reason that mission never came to fruition is because we dropped the bomb on Japan.

So much for your "theory" about how the Germans could not bomb the US. Maybe you forgot the Japanese and Germans were Axis allies? By the way, San Diego did have some close calls. Japanese submarines lurked offshore where they menaced American ships, and one covertly landed at Point Loma in early 1942.

In all fairness to your insights, you overlooked facts.