Oppenheimer’s Full Statement “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Oppenheimer was a scientist, but also understood the broader context of his work, the implications not only for the scientific community, but for mankind. In a video of the NBC news interview, Oppenheimer, in a close-up and with a haunted look in his eyes, describes the atmosphere at Los Alamos after the first atomic bomb test. The passage has become synonymous with Oppenheimer and the Los Alamos atomic research. “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture., the ‘Bhagavad-Gita.‘ Krishna is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become death: the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.’