James
Franck was born in Hamburg, Germany, on
26th August, 1882. He studied at the University of Heildelberg before
obtaining his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1906.
Franck
stayed in Berlin and with Gustav Hertz
carried out experiments where they bombarded mercury atoms with electrons
and traced the energy changes that resulted from the collisions. Their
experiments helped to substantiate they theory put forward by Nils
Bohr that an atom can absorb internal energy only in precise and
definite amounts.
During
the First World War Franck served in the German
Army and
after the war he became professor of experimental physics at Gottingen.
A
strong opponent of Adolf Hitler Franck
left Nazi Germany in 1933. He emigrated
to the United States where he became professor
of the University of Chicago in 1938.
In
1943 Franck
joined the
Manhattan
Project
at Los Alamos. Over the next few years he worked with Robert
Oppenheimer,
Edward Teller, Enrico
Fermi, Rudolf
Peierls,
Felix
Bloch,
David Bohm, Otto
Frisch,
James Chadwick,
Emilio
Segre,
Eugene Wigner, Leo
Szilard and Klaus Fuchs in developing
the atom bombs.
By
the time the atom bomb was ready to be used Germany had surrendered.
Franck and Leo Szilard circulated a petition
among the scientists opposing the use of the bomb on moral grounds.
However, the advice was ignored by Harry S.
Truman, the USA's new president, and it was dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
After the
Second World War Franck researched in the area
of photosynthesis. James
Franck
died in Gottingen, West Germany on 21st May, 1964.
(1)
James
Franck
was against dropping
the atom bomb on Japan. He sent his views to President Harry
S. Truman
on 11th June, 1945.
The military advantages
and the saving of American lives achieved
by the sudden use of atomic bombs against Japan may be
outweighed by the ensuing loss of confidence and by a wave of horror
and repulsion sweeping over the rest of the world and perhaps
even dividing public opinion at home.
From this point of view,
a demonstration of the new weapon might best be made, before the yes
of representatives of all the United Nations, on the desert or a barren
island. The best possible atmosphere for the achievement of an international
agreement could be achieved if America could say to the world, "You
see what sort of a weapon we
had but did not use. We are ready to renounce its use in the future
if other nations join us-in this renunciation and agree to the establishment
of an efficient international control.
(2)
Philip Morrison, a scientist, worked on the Manhattan
Project
at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Studs Terkel interviewed Morrison
about his experiences during the Second World War
for his book, The Good War (1985)
James Franck, a truly wonderful
man, produced the Franck Report: Don't drop the bomb on a city. Drop
it as a demonstration and offer a warning. This was about a month
before Hiroshima. The movement against the bomb was beginning among
the physicists, but with little hope. It was strong at Chicago, but
it didn't affect Los Alamos.
We heard the news of Hiroshima
from the airplane itself, a coded message. When they returned, we
didn't see them. The generals had them. But then the people came back
with photographs. I remember looking at them with awe and terror.
We knew a terrible thing had been unleashed. The men had a great party
that night to celebrate, but we didn't go. Almost no physicists went
to it. We obviously killed a hundred thousand people and that was
nothing to have a party about.
The reality confronts you with things you could never anticipate.
Before I went to Wendover,
an English physicist. Bill Penney, held a seminar five days after
the test at Los Alamos. He applied his calculations. He predicted
that this would reduce a city of three or four hundred thousand people
to nothing but a sink for disaster relief, bandages, and hospitals.
He made it absolutely clear in numbers. It was reality. We knew it,
but we didn't see it. As soon as the bombs were dropped, the scientists,
with few exceptions, felt the time had come to end all wars.
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