Physics teaching Choices

Should physics teaching include military applications?

How could a a discussion of the Manhattan project contribute to the image of physics or physicists? 

Before, we answer these questions, let us take a brief look on how The Manhattan Project made a very unforgettable impact in Japan.

By looking at this video and the picture above, we realize that many died, poisoned, disfigured and blinded... 

Nuclear bomb victims are sheltered at the Hiroshima Second 
Military Hospital's tent relief center at the banks of the Ota River 

Mr. Yamaguchi survived the 2 atomic
bombs and tells us the devastating story. 

The slight 93-year-old with white hair, who is now largely confined to a wheelchair, was formally recognized as one of the tiny handful of people to have survived not one but both of the American atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 - bringing to an end to World War II. 

"I want the next generation and the children after that to know what happened to us," he said, convinced that the use of atomic weapons should be abandoned for ever.

Nuclear bomb victims are sheltered at the Hiroshima Second
Military Hospital's tent relief center at the banks of the Ota River 

"Having been granted that miracle of survival, it is my responsibility to pass on the truth to the people of the world."

... Then he returned to the refuge of his hometown, Nagasaki -
and survived this atomic bomb blast on August 9, 1945

No one, says Mr Yamaguchi, should be allowed to forget the devastation caused by those two atomic bombs - the only ones ever to have been used in warfare. 

An estimated 140,000 people were killed on the first morning in Hiroshima, and a further 70,000 died in Nagasaki.

Nor should the world forget the tragedy that it brought into the lives of every person who survived the deadly blasts. 

Hundreds of thousands more people died in the years after the explosions from illnesses, and particularly cancer, brought on by their exposure to radiation.

Mr. Yamaguchi's own family were desperately affected. 

His only son Katsutoshi, just a baby at the time of the blast, and his daughter Naoko - conceived after the blast - were ill for much of their lives as a result of the exposure to radiation, and his son died of cancer in 2005 aged 59. 

His wife died last year, at 88, from kidney and liver cancer.

American President Harry S. Truman's executive order to launch nuclear attacks on Japan in the summer of 1945 may have brought about a speedy resolution to the war.

But to this day, Mr. Yamaguchi maintains the price paid by the Japanese was too high.

So I suppose we have our answer for the first question. Personally speaking, physics teaching in military applications should be abolished because what happened in the past can happen in the future. As what others say, "History repeats itself." We have no certainty of what the future may bring. Another World War can happen and places can be bombarded by bombs! 

Although others say that the Japanese deserve it because of the cruelty and brutality of their ways of invading, it isn't really rational to drop atomic bombs on them! THE PRICE THEY PAID WAS TOO HIGH! J. Robert Opennheimer (click me!), the main person who gathered wise minds to create these atomic bombs later regret the actions he made. He said,"I have become death, the destroyer of worlds." 

For the second question, every time we hear the Manhattan Project, we often think of war, devastation, atomic bombs, etc. Physics was a very important prominent in the making of The Manhattan Project. Why, you ask? Mainly because it was physicists who made the idea of The Manhattan Project. And because of this reason, we typically stereotype them as mad scientists who can, with one click of a button, lead to the end of the world!