Nuclear threats and incurable scars in the Hiroshima that Oppenheimer did not visit

In September 1960, 15 years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear catastrophes, Robert Oppenheimer traveled to Japan.. The father of the atomic bomb did not set foot in either of the two cities bombed by the United States. He stayed in Tokyo and Osaka, where he had been invited to give lectures.. But what the physicist did do was hold a press conference for a small group of Japanese journalists, knowing that they were not going to be easy to answer the questions that would fall to him.

– “I would like to ask you, although the question may be a bit naive, to say a few words about your feelings on coming to Japan as the man responsible for the development of the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

(Dressed in a suit and smoking his usual pipe, Oppenheimer smiled at the journalist, quickly answered that it was by no means a naive question and took a few seconds to reflect) “I don't think coming to Japan has changed my sense of anguish over my role in this whole part of the story. It's not that I don't feel bad. It's just that today I don't feel worse than last night.

The 78th anniversary of the atomic bomb that the Enola Gay dropped on Hiroshima, leaving 140,000 dead, has coincided with the worldwide boom in Christopher Nolan's film that addresses the figure of the American scientist who directed the Manhattan Project, the research and development plan of the first nuclear weapons, including Little boy and Fat Man, the bombs that fell on Japan, where Oppenheimer's film curiously continues without a release date.

Too sensitive a film for Japanese audiences? You don't think so Peter C. Another film that received many awards was Shhei Imamura's Black Rain (1989), which refers to the color of the acid rain that followed the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima,” explains Pugsley.. “The anime has also directly shown the damage caused by Oppenheimer's device,” he adds.

Analysts such as Gearoid Reidy, from the chain specializing in Asia CNA, think it would be important for Japan to give the green light to Oppenheimer's projection to reopen a much-needed debate in society.. “As long as the public can have a say in the film, it may spark a debate about Japan's ambiguous, if not contradictory, stance toward nuclear weapons, a technology it publicly opposes but relies on. simultaneously for their survival in an increasingly hostile world. As the country prepares for a historic shift in defense spending, now is the time for that debate.”

Specifically, Reidy refers to the historic rearmament that Tokyo has announced this year, which little by little is breaking with its pacifist policy inherited from the postwar period, at a time of special geopolitical upheaval (and nuclear fear) at a global level.. Russia threatens to use its tactical nukes in Ukraine and China expands its nuclear weapons; North Korea is advancing its atomic program and US nuclear submarines are docking for the first time in 40 years in the ports of neighboring South Korea.

“The only guarantee against the use of nuclear weapons is their complete abolition. However, the world's powers continue to expand and modernize their arsenals and reaffirm the role of nuclear weapons in their security planning,” said former Irish President Mary Robinson, who currently heads an international influence group, The Elders, which It was founded by Nelson Mandela and has long advocated an agenda for nuclear disarmament.

“The risk of using nuclear weapons is higher than at any time since the Cold War.. The big picture is that we have had more than 30 years of declining numbers of nuclear warheads, and we see that process now coming to an end,” said Dan Smith, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). ), during the presentation of a recent study that indicated that the United States and Russia continue to account for almost 90% of all nuclear weapons. “The world is adrift in one of the most dangerous periods in human history,” insisted Smith.

“While there are good reasons to be alarmed by the current dangers, we must not fall into despair. History shows us that progress can be made to reduce nuclear risks through international cooperation, as Oppenheimer hoped,” says Robinson, trying to lower the ominous forecasts of many experts a little.. “The number of nuclear weapons has decreased from about 65,000 in the mid-1980s to about 12,500 today thanks to the historic Non-Proliferation Treaty drafted 50 years ago.”

Last May a very symbolic G7 summit was held precisely in Hiroshima. In one of the meeting breaks, the leaders of the world's most advanced democracies took a half-hour walk through the Peace Museum, where thousands of photos and items are kept, including burned and tattered clothing, charred backpacks and remains. human hair. There they had a luxury guide, Keiko Ogura, an 85-year-old woman who is one of the survivors of an explosion that had its epicenter exactly 2.4 kilometers from her home.. Ogura, a direct witness to the first atomic bomb in history, pleaded with leaders to do everything possible so that humanity will never experience a nuclear disaster again.