Oscar's Best Picture and Best Mensch
This year's harvest of Oscar nominations included a bushel of biopics of real-life characters. Two of them, "Oppenheimer" and "Maestro", were nominated for Best Picture. The best Mensch in real life, by far, was Leonard Bernstein, who, unlike the unrepentant "father of the atomic bomb", had the moral fortitude and peace commitment to sign the World Peace Appeal calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. So did over 273 million world denizens, which included millions of Americans thanks to the heroic work of the NYC-based Peace Information Center headed by the unsung hero of the anti-nuke movement in the USA, W.E.B. Du Bois.
The text of the WPA, created five years after the atomic annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by an international peacemaker delegation in Stockholm, was succinct and straightforward:
We demand the outlawing of atomic weapons as instruments of
intimidation and mass murder of people. We demand strict international
control to enforce this measure. We believe that any country which first
uses atomic weapons against any other country whatsoever will be
committing a crime against humanity and should be dealt with as a
war criminal. We call on all men and women of good will throughout
the world to sign this appeal.
Those unwilling or unable to sign this petition, according to Du Bois, hold something more important than indiscriminate murder of helpless and innocent persons. The US government had other ideas. According to the U.S. State Department, it was "Moscow's 'Signature for Peace' Campaign" and according to the American delegation to the United Nations, those signing it were "traitors to their country", an accusation that targeted Du Bois with particular ferocity and vengeance. In February 1951, shortly before a grand celebration for his 83rd birthday was planned. Du Bois along with his associates at the Peace Information Center were charged by the U.S. Government of being unregistered agents of a foreign power. If convicted, the venerable octogenarian faced at least five years in prison. Shortly before his federal trial in November 1951, which included none other than Albert Einstein as a character witness for the defense, the poet Langston Hughes put the whole sordid affair into proper context:
Somebody in Washington wants to put Dr. Du Bois in jail.
Somebody in France wanted to put Voltaire in jail.
Somebody in Franco's Spain sent Lorca, their greatest poet,
to death before a firing squad. Somebody in German under Hitler
burned the books, and drove Thomas Mann into exile, and led
their leading Jewish scholars to the gas chambers.
Somebody in Greece long ago gave Socrates the hemlock to drink.
Somebody at Golgatha erected a cross and somebody drove the nails
into the hands of Christ. Somebody spat upon his garments.
No one remembers their names.
The indictment was obviously not intended to destroy the Peace Information Center; slanderous attacks upon the World Peace Appeal and incessant demands for registration as an agent of a foreign power as well as financial difficulties, had already accomplished that nefarious goal by October 1950. It was, as Du Bois' major defense committee contended in its publications, designed to permanently silence this elderly voice of peace by death while serving his prison sentence. That contention gains credence when considering the fate of three other victims of government attacks. On April 5, three days after DuBois' trial was originally set to open, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death and Morton Sobell to 30 years in prison for allegedly sharing atomic secrets with the Soviet Union. Du Bois, however, was acquitted of all charges, registering the first victory in court against McCarthyism.
Nevertheless, the McCarthyite witch hunt did not relent. One of his victims was even J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was falsely accused of being a Soviet spy during his contentious security clearing hearing, the central focus of this overrated film biopic. Not only does this nomination for 13 Oscars totally fail to evoke any opposition, let alone revulsion, to the atomic weaponry Oppenheimer helped create and used to instantly annihilate tens of thousands innocent civilians as well as cruelly burn the bodies of thousands more, it actually perpetuates the self-serving lie that dropping the A-bomb on Japan was necessary to save lives and end the war. The film totally avoided the depiction of any destruction of Japan caused by The Bomb. No survivors with massive radioactive burns were ever shown, only a vapid verbal description of the human carnage appeared while Oppenheimer stoically sat watching a film about the bombing's aftermath. The scene depicting successful detonation of Trinity at Los Alamos had soldiers wildly cheering the sight as if it were part of a Fourth of July fireworks show. Oppenheimer was warmly greeted as a conquering hero or some kind of rock star during his victory speech by enthusiastic fans filling a high school gym. The only hint of remorse came from a scene in the Oval Office when Oppenheimer says to Truman "I feel like I have blood on my hands", whereupon the President who ordered use of the A-bomb allegedly hands its main creator a handkerchief.
Contrast those subtle and not-so-subtle pro-nuke scenes in "Oppenheimer" with the content of "Einstein and The Bomb", released in early 2024 and in which the graphic horrors of atomic radiation are liberally depicted. Unlike Oppenheimer, Einstein the pacifist was not given security clearance to work on the Manhattan Project and not invited to do so. In fact, as he clearly stated in the film (as well as the book, Einstein on Peace, p.519) he had absolutely no role in the creation of the atomic bomb other that his 1905 publication establishing a pioneering relationship between mass and energy. This film, which will hopefully be nominated for Best Picture next year, ends with at powerful prophetic statement from Einstein to posterity:
If you don't become fairer, more peaceful and generally more reasonable
than we are, or have been, then the devil take you.
Interestingly enough, Einstein and Oppenheimer, did collaborate on one postwar project, creation of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in the late 1945. Neither biopic, both released within months of each other, mentions this important collaborative effort at educating the general public about the reality and horrors of atomic weapons. Within two years, the Union of Atomic Scientists developed the iconic Doomsday Clock and initially set the time as 7 minutes to midnight (apocalypse). In January 2023 and again in January 2024, the Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight. Clearly, humanity has not evolved to the level Einstein wished for, and we are indeed threatened closer than ever to be taken by diabolical forces. It may be late to correct course, but hopefully not too late. Dona nobis pacem.
