| Efforts at World PeacePeople from various countries joined "Ban the Bomb" marches and demonstrations and signed petitions that were submitted to national and international leaders. Having experienced atomic weapons firsthand, the Japanese were frequently at the forefront of these efforts and actively spoke out against the spread of nuclear weapons. Victims of the atom bomb worked to personally promote the cause of peace. In 1949 the Reverend Kyoshi Tanimoto, a survivor of Hiroshima said,
a compelling responsibility their mission to help in preventing similar destruction anywhere in the world ... [They] earnestly desire that out of their experience there may develop some permanent contribution to the cause of world peace. Tanimoto urged the Japanese government to establish a world peace center in Hiroshima where programs devoted to peace education and research could be planned and carried out. As a part of this center, named the Hiroshima Peace Cultural Center, the Hiroshima Peace Park was built. The park includes a children's monument built in honor of young victims of the bomb. Japanese children led a fund-raising effort to construct this special memorial after a twelve-year-old girl named Sadako Sasaki died of radiation sickness in 1955. A memorial service for those who died in the bombing is held at the Hiroshima Peace Park each year on August 6. At 8:15 in the morning on this day, all public activities are halted for a moment of silence and rememberance. Memorials were also built in Nagasaki. A museum in that city contains a collection of photographs and other educational materials relating to the bombing.
Scientists Working for PeaceAlthough some of the Manhattan Project's scientists worked on new weapons after the war, many of the people who helped to make the first atomic bomb chose non-military pursuits. Some of them expressed horror at the thought that nuclear weapons might be used again and criticized the arms race that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union. To some scientists, it appeared that their work had not led to a stable peace. After the war ended, Albert Einstein said soberly, "The war is won but the peace is not". Speaking to a group in New York City in December 1945, Einstein expressed these concerns:
forging the most formidable and dangerous weapon of all times and harassed by an equal feeling of responsibility, not to say guilt ... We helped in creating this new weapon in order to prevent the enemies of mankind from achieving it ahead of us ... We delievered this weapon into the hands of the Americans and the British people as trustees of the whole of mankind, as fighters for peace and liberty. But so far we fail to see any guarantee of peace ... The great powers, united in fighting, are now divided over the peace settlements. The world was promised freedom from fear, but in fact fear has increased tremendously since the termination of the war. For the rest of his life, Einstein wrote and made speeches in support of peace and justice throughout the world. Arthur Compton also worked for the cause of world peace, saying, "It is, to a large extent, the new factors that atomic weapons have introduced that make it now imperative for nations to solve their differences without resorting to fighting". Compton led postwar belief efforts, including projects to help people displaced by the war, and he helped to form an organization called World Brotherhood, whose goal was to achieve justice, understanding and cooperation among the world's nations. Compton, who accepted a position as chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis in 1945, hoped that nuclear reactors would provide energy and help researchers find ways to diagnose and treat diseases but would never again be used in the manufacture of weapons. Still others believed that only by working together could nations prevent even more destructive wars than the one that had just ended. Niels Bohr had begun urging that nuclear weapons be controlled even before WWII ended. He had approached both President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill to discuss the need for international cooperation. In 1950 Bohr published an open letter addressed to the United Nations, in which he urged the UN to work for a world free of nuclear weapons. From his office in Copenhagen, Bohr led efforts to find constructive, peaceful uses for nuclear energy. He organized the first Atoms for Peace world conference, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1955. In 1957 he received the first U.S. Atoms for Peace Award. For several months after the war, Enrico Fermi served on a committee that advised President Truman on nuclear policies, including nuclear safety. Fermi then returned to teaching and research. In 1946 he received the U.S. Congressional Medal of Merit, the highest honor given to civilians. During the late 1940s Fermi joined Oppenheimer and other scientists who opposed development of the hydrogen bomb. In 1954 the AEC gave Fermi a special award, recognizing him as the person who contributed the most to the development, use, and control of atomic energy. When he died that same year, the AEC named this the Fermi Award, to be given in his honor each year to someone whose contributions in the field of nuclear energy are deemed worthy of recognition. The scientists themselves continued to debate the issues in the years after the bombings. For example, Oppenheimer later reflected, "I believe it was an error that Truman did not ask Stalin to carry on further talks with Japan, and also that the warning to Japan was completely inadequate". Oppenheimer noted that atomic energy held the potential for both good and evil and commented on the dilemmas posed by new discoveries. In 1946, when he received the Presidential Medal of Merit for his work on the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer told journalists, "I'm a little scared of what we built ... A scientist cannot hold back progress because he fears what the world will do with his discoveries". Some people stress that there is no way to change what happened, and humankind must try to learn from this shattering event and prevent such weapons from being used in the future. Biophysicist Alvin Weinberg, who worked on the Manhattan Project says,
the bomb was the proper thing to do because it was the only way to impress on humanity the terrible nature of nuclear weapons. We have to invest them with the force of religious taboos, which are the only things strong enough to last for millennia. The images of Hiroshima have that force. It's the only way to keep nuclear weapons from ever being used again. The bombings' survivors have urged people to learn from their tragic experience about the importance of settling differences without violence. One survivor said,
the purpose of writing off all future nuclear wars. We here are somewhat consoled by the fact that we may have sacrificed ourselves for the sake of the entire world.
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