Reflections on the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Martin Sherwin: This is an interview with Hans Bethe in his office at Newman Hall, Cornell University, May 5, 1982. This is Martin Sherwin. Sherwin: I’m glad I caught this. Basically, you were surprised that Kyoto had been selected and at these meetings, that the Target Committee had been held in the Oppenheimer’s office. Hans […]

Richard Rhodes: You said [Richard] Courant’s work added realism? Ted Taylor: Yeah. Rhodes: How so? Taylor: By going over various tricks for dealing with the discontinuities, the singularities in the hydrodynamics. I had the impression that he was very helpful to people like Bob Richtmyer. I don’t know that Richard himself came up with anything […]

Reed Srere: Hi, I am Reed Srere – R-e-e-d S-r-e-r-e. I am recording this oral history for the Atomic Heritage Foundation on June 3 [2015] in Washington, DC. Please state your name. David Fox: I am David Fox. I live in Providence, Rhode Island. My father was a physicist on the Manhattan Project in Manhattan. […]

Mary Rockwell: My name is Mary Rockwell. Spell it? M-a-r-y R-o-c-k-w-e-l-l. Cindy Kelly: Very good. What was your maiden name? Rockwell: Compton. Kelly: And how is that spelled? Rockwell: C-o-m-p-t-o-n. Kelly: Okay. Is there a funny story attached with that? Rockwell: Yes. My sister, her husband having been head of the Y-12 Beta process, was […]

Richard Rhodes: Would you say your name and then spell it to start with? Jane Yantis: It’s Jane Yantis, J-A-N-E, Y-A-N-T-I-S. Rhodes: Good, thank you. Where were you born and when, if you want to tell me? Yantis: I was born in Center, Texas. Rhodes: When? Yantis: In 1920. Rhodes: Good. Yantis: March the 23rd, 1920. […]

Norman Brown: My name is Norman L. Brown. Brown is spelled as Brown is usually spelled, without an E. Cindy Kelly: Great, okay. Why don’t you start by telling us how you became part of the Manhattan Project? Brown: I was a sophomore at MIT. I was talked into enlisting in what was called then […]

[We would like to thank Robert S. Norris, author of the definitive biography of General Leslie R. Groves, Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project’s Indispensable Man, for taking the time to read over these transcripts for misspellings and other errors.] General Leslie R. Groves: All right now what else is there? […]

Stephane Groueff: Now it is recording Dr. Langsdorf. If you can tell me in a few words how you got connected with the project and where you came from. Alexander Langsdorf: Oh, in the first place, as soon as I got my PhD at MIT, I went out to Berkeley as a national research fellow […]

Kai Bird: Let us begin at the beginning and I think the viewers of this will want to know first about your own background. What year were you born? Bob Carter: I was born in 1920 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bird: On what day? Carter: February 3, 1920. Bird: 1920. Carter: Yes. Bird: Okay, 1920, what was sort of before modern physics, quantum […]

Jacob Beser:  The story which we could tell. And one point that Dr. Wittman, though, which I wish you would please keep in mind—and this is true not only in this situation, but any historical event  should be evaluated in the context in which it took place, the context and the times in which it […]