PROFILE

""Since scientists had created the nuclear bomb, it was scientists who should try to prevent nuclear warfare"

-Russell-Einstein Manifesto

Sir Joseph Rotblat (1908-2005)
The 1995 Noble Peace Prize Winner
and Nuclear Disarmament Activist

By Prof. Talaat I. Farag

Who is Who?

Joseph Rotblat's personal sense of responsibility and commitment went well beyond his scrupulous withdrawal from the Manhattan Project and the creation of the Pugwash movement. He was a co-founder of the UK Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1958; the only parting of the ways was because the CND committed itself to unilateral disarmament, whereas Pugwash worked towards multilateral. 'In such a complex problem, the danger of nuclear war, one needs not one approach but many. The Aldermaston marches were a very important part of the whole effort to avert danger.' From 1966 to 1971 he was a co-founder and board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). He helped to establish a professorship of peace studies at Bradford University. He was largely responsible for two reports on the effects of nuclear war on health for the World Health Organisation in 1984 and 1987. And he has written hundreds of articles and books, dealing with control of nuclear weapons, disarmament, the Pugwash movement - and the social responsibility of scientists.

The nuclear physicist who gained his doctorate in physics from Warsaw University in 1938, then joined the Nobel Prize Laurate British physicist, James Chadwick at the University of Liverpool, where he was particularly interested in the physics laboratory's cyclotron. In 1995, Sir Joseph Rotblat, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to rid the world of atomic weapons. He was born in Warsaw, Poland's capital city, in November 1908, and died in London last August. In 1939, he joined Liverpool University, where he studied with Sir James Shadwick, the discoverer of the neutron. In 1955, he was the principle author of the manifesto that inspired the scientists from the East and West. That declaration had been signed by Albert Einstein, who died before the meeting and by Lord Bertrand Russell who could not attend because he was ill.

In September 1939 German troops invaded Poland when he was there visiting his family. When Joseph Rotblat returned to work in Liverpool, he had no idea that his train was one of the last to leave Poland. After the September invasion, which was followed by a brutal suppression of Polish resistance. It was the invasion of Poland that made Joseph Rotblat suggest to James Chadwick that they should start work on developing an atomic bomb. He now realised the extent of Germany's military strength and brutality. He was afraid that the handful of physicists who had stayed in Germany might already be developing such a bomb, which Hitler would then use to force Nazism on the world. 'It was a terrible time for me, perhaps the worst dilemma a scientist could experience. Working on a weapon of mass destruction was against all my ideas - all my ideas of what science should do - but those ideas were in danger of being eradicated if Hitler acquired the bomb.' It was the belief of Joseph Rotblat and many other scientists that the bomb would never be used. It would, they thought, be created for only one reason: to deter Germany. 'Later on, I realised that this concept of nuclear deterrence is flawed. For a start, it won't work with unreasonable people, and even reasonable people behave irrationally in war, especially if they face defeat.'

When the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then he began trying to convince his fellow scientists on the need for a moratorium on nuclear weapons. After the American test of a hydrogen bomb in Bikini Atoll in 1954, he met Lord Bertrand Russell, then decided to get scientists from around the world to join in issuing a statement on the dangers of nuclear war. They soon had the enthusiastic support of Albert Einstein, Brock Chisholm - director of the World Health Organization, Aleksandr Tobchiyev - VP of the Soviet Academy of Sciences along with 18 other international scientists.

He was banned from entering the US until 1951. He is the co-founder of an organization that helped in ending the Cold War. Its first meeting in July 1957 took place in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in Canada with only 22 people in attendance. He was convinced that the world could be safer only through dialogue. Historian credit the 22 scientists who met at Pugwash, for laying the groundwork for the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, the Non-proliferation Treaty of 1968, the Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972, the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972, and the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1973.

His view was that "scientists should stick to science." Some accused him of being a servant or unwitting tool of the Soviet Union or a Russian sympathizer, while others saw him as a symbol of resistance. The Nobel Committee said that his prize was partly against Chinese and French nuclear tests. During the last decade, he traveled the world, sometimes making three speeches a day on disarmament. He said, "once I get on this subject, I am always energized."

Building the atomic bomb in America
In 1942 it was agreed between the governments of Britain and America that work on developing the bomb should be combined, and carried out in America, far away from the theatre of war. At the beginning of 1944 Joseph Rotblat went to New Mexico to work - with deep feelings of unease - on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. The project, however, was run not by scientists but by the US army. As Rotblat said later, 'possibly the worst mistake we made was to trust the military'.

As soon as Joseph Rotblat heard confirmation, supplied by scientific intelligence reports towards the end of 1944, that the German scientists had abandoned their atomic bomb programme, he left the Manhattan Project and returned to Britain. As a fellow scientist said, this was 'to his everlasting credit'.

He had already tried to get his fellow scientists to think twice about pressing ahead with building a bomb. Some of them agreed with him, and tried to raise the matter with the President. But others couldn't resist seeing whether the bomb could be made and what was the extent of its power. And US physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific head of the Manhattan Project, wrote uncompromisingly to Groves in October 1944: 'the laboratory is acting under a directive to produce weapons; this directive has been and will be rigorously adhered to'.

Yet others, who had at first agreed with Joseph Rotblat, changed their minds when Japan entered World War 2 and news came of the cruel treatment of prisoners of war. 'It's the psychology of war,' said Joseph Rotblat. 'Once we enter war, our moral values are thrown overboard. We are encouraged to kill people. Even people who in the past had been friends became, in our minds, our mortal enemies.'

The Los Alamos military authority threatened Joseph Rotblat with arrest if he discussed with anyone his reasons for leaving. A condition of his departure was that he made no contact at all with his colleagues on the Project. And indeed he said nothing, either in the USA or when he got back to Liverpool early in 1945 (which was also the year he applied to become a British citizen).

But in August came the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and he could not remain silent then.

'I didn't know anything until I heard the BBC announcement on August 6. It came as a terrible shock. My idea had been to make the bomb to prevent it being used, and here it had been used immediately after it was made, and against civilian populations.'

Starting to speak out
Joseph Rotblat saw that atomic bombs were only the first step on a potentially terrible path. People would now look for even more powerful bombs - the idea of the hydrogen bomb had already been conceived; an arms race would begin. He at once began his life-long campaign against nuclear weapons - and against war.

He started by giving talks all over Britain, trying to persuade fellow physicists to halt nuclear research. In 1946 he co-founded the Atomic Scientists Association of Britain, whose members were opposed to the military use of nuclear power. It worked with the newly-formed Federation of Atomic Scientists (now the Federation of American Scientists) to introduce a world policy for nuclear energy and weapons. Influenced by scientists, the very first resolution of the United Nations General Assembly was to set up a commission to deal with this issue; sadly, the hostility between the USA and the USSR prevented any commission from being set up.

'When we failed at government level, I thought I'd go to the people.' In 1947 Joseph Rotblat organised the 'Atom Train' touring exhibition (two railway carriages filled with exhibits and demonstration experiments)) which aimed to educate the public about nuclear energy and its risks, whether used militarily as a weapon or peacefully as a power supply. 'Scientists like me, who believe in the proper development and application of science, felt that the great discovery of nuclear energy was first known to the public as something destructive, and that gave a bad name to science. At the beginning we worked hard to show the beneficial aspects of nuclear energy, and it was taken up by industrialists.'

As far as Joseph Rotblat's own work was concerned, he immediately changed direction. He began to study radiation and its application to health, and from 1950 to 1976 was the much-respected Professor of Physics at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Here his researches contributed to further understanding of nuclear hazards: he was able to show that the fallout from hydrogen bombs was in fact highly radioactive, and that radiation was a direct cause of cancers in fallout victims.

'Russell-Einstein Manifesto"
The first test explosion of a hydrogen bomb was carried out by the USA in 1952, the year Britain exploded its first test atomic bomb. The Soviet Union exploded its first hydrogen bomb in 1953.

Joseph Rotblat first met the mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1954, when they both appeared on one of the earliest BBC 'Panorama' programmes. It was about the hydrogen bomb. Bertrand Russell was very disturbed by the information Joseph Rotblat gave him, and at Christmas gave a radio broadcast called 'Man's Peril', about the consequences of nuclear war.

Convinced that since scientists had created the nuclear bomb, it was scientists who should try to prevent nuclear warfare, Russell got in touch with Albert Einstein, and asked for - and got - his support. Russell drafted the 'Statement on Nuclear Weapons'; and it was signed by Einstein only days before his death. It was also signed by ten other scientists, one of whom was Joseph Rotblat. The Statement was published in July 1955, and became known as the Russell-Einstein manifesto.

It was more than a commitment to abolish nuclear weapons. It recognised the 'titanic struggle between communism and anti-communism', and the risks of war that it carried. It recognised the tremendous destructive power of the H-bomb. It recognised the appalling and lasting effects of large amounts of radiation. It recognised that an arms race had already begun. The manifesto put the question: 'Shall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war?' and called on the world's scientists to 'assemble in conference to appraise the perils that have arisen as a result of the development of weapons of mass destruction'.

On July 9 1955 Bertrand Russell and Joseph Rotblat held a press conference in London to publicise the Manifesto, attended by press from around the world. 'Russell handled it beautifully,' said Joseph Rotblat, who chaired the conference at Russell's request. 'Gradually we could see that even hardened people became convinced that there was a point.' As Russell and Einstein had said, 'there can be no winners in a nuclear war'.

"Pugwash conferences"
That call to scientists to meet and talk constructively about the perils of nuclear weapons and war was answered. Indeed, one meeting was held in London less than a month after the press conference. The three-day conference went ahead, and completed its agenda of discussion subjects successfully.

But the future of such meetings was uncertain - until another answer came. A Canadian industrialist called Cyrus Eaton, who admired Bertrand Russell and supported global peace, came forward with an offer. He would provide the necessary funds for an international conference of scientists to discuss the nuclear issue. He asked one thing in return: that the conference should take place in the village of his ancestors and the site of his own summer home. That village was in Nova Scotia, it was called Pugwash, and it would give its name to what became a new and influential movement for peace.

The first of many Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs was held in July 1957. It was organised by Joseph Rotblat, who was the secretary-general of the Pugwash organisation until 1973; in 1988 he was appointed its president. He has described the Pugwash movement as 'an awareness of the social and moral duty of scientists to help prevent and overcome actual and potentially harmful effects of scientific and technological innovations', and added, 'We take this very seriously.' He was speaking in 1997, when he also said he believed that the past 40 years of the Pugwash Conferences had helped to avert the danger of nuclear war during those decades. [More information on the official website of Pugwash International: http://www.pugwash.org)

22 eminent scientists attended the first meeting: 7 from the USA, 3 from the Soviet Union, 3 from Japan, 2 from the UK, 2 from Canada, and one each from Australia, Austria, China, France and Poland. The Cold War was at its height, but the scientists were still able to discuss matters calmly: after all, 'as scientists we are trained to talk to each other in a manner based on reasoning, not on prejudices'.

Though the scientists themselves were able to meet in this civilised way, there were still problems in the outside world, which tried to influence the Pugwash programme politically. 'People would organise other conferences with, say, communist front organisations, and say "we're working for the same objectives, why not join us?" But if we did that, our credibility would have gone. Even so, we were suspect: at one time anybody who was willing to talk to the Soviets about peace was immediately branded as a communist fellow-traveller. Those scientists who agreed to come showed great courage - it could have affected their careers....Later Britain and America realised the importance of Pugwash, and tried to take over....But over the years we managed to establish ourselves as a truly and genuinely independent body, and people grew to understand and respect that.'

Pugwash meetings are informal and private, always held in an atmosphere in which people are able to speak freely. At the end, those attending agree on a summary of what has been achieved, and a statement is issued to the media. Then the scientists go home, and since they are eminent in their fields, people in their governments listen to what they have to say. Sometimes Pugwash delegates have been able to reach agreements ahead of official political negotiations. 'We felt, by talking to each other as scientists, that we were making a contribution to establishing some sort of peace in the world.'

This achievement didn't go unrecognised: in 1995 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Pugwash Conferences and Joseph Rotblat jointly. At the Nobel ceremony, the chairman praised Pugwash and Joseph Rotblat: 'While painting a clear picture of the great dangers, they have at the same time insisted that there was a way out. They have kept the vision of a nuclear-free world alive, while working unwearyingly for specific arms-limitation measures in the short term'. Characteristically, Joseph Rotblat shared his portion of the prize with the Pugwash organisation.

Scientists and responsibility
He has always been clear about the responsibility of the scientist. The natural exhilaration that scientists feel when exploring new ideas led a group of them to take part in making weapons of mass destruction which put the whole world in danger. In 1997 Joseph Rotblat retired at the great age of 89. He said, '"Many scientists are still not willing to face reality. Many discourage or actively hamper young scientists from being concerned with the social impact of science. We scientists have to realise that what we are doing has an impact not only on the life of every individual, but also on the whole destiny of humankind. All of us who want to preserve the human race owe an allegiance to humanity; and it's particularly the job of scientists, because most of the dangers to the world result from the work of scientists."

The main purpose of the Pugwash Conferences is 'to make sure that scientists' work isn't causing damage to human society and the environment'. But because of the way Pugwash works, there are only about 3,000 'Pugwashites' out of the world's several million scientists. 'How many of the rest have we imbued with our ideas? How many of them are now conscious of their social responsibility? My feeling is that the answer would be: not a lot.'

Yet ;scientists are well-qualified to take the lead in education for world citizenship. The ethics and logic of science are universal. They transcend geographic frontiers and ideological divides. Respect for facts and abhorrence of prejudices are inherent in the scientist's morality. All this makes the scientific community a model for a world community of nations.'

Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and Robert Oppenheimer

A world without war
'A task not just for scientists but for everybody.' That is how Joseph Rotblat described the struggle for peace, in a public lecture in 1997. He had been explaining how even the elimination of nuclear weapons was not the whole answer. 'We can't erase from our memories how to make them. It would not take a nation long to rebuild nuclear arsenals.' But, he said, there is a long-term solution: never creating a situation in which even conventional weapons are used. In short, eliminating war altogether.

'Throughout the centuries we prepared for war, and what we had was war, not peace. We've got to do something about it. A war-free world is not such a crazy idea. We are already getting to it gradually. Look at the situation in Europe, its countries at war for centuries.'

'We are gradually realising the futility of war.... Now we must begin to think about security in global, rather than national, terms. We must get used to the idea that we are members of a world community... We have to develop in each of us a sense of loyalty to humankind that will be an extension of our present loyalties to family, city, nation.' And science - 'the same human activity that can bring the whole of humankind to an end' - can help; indeed, scientists, who are already citizens of the world, can lead our effort to learn to live without war. Technology, communication, transport can and often do bring the world together. 'If you want peace, prepare for peace.'

This is how Joseph Rotblat ended his talk, with words he had used when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize:

"The quest for a war-free world has a basic purpose: survival. But if in the process we learn to achieve it by love rather than fear, by kindness rather than compulsion; if in the process we learn to combine the essential with the enjoyable, the expedient with the benevolent, the practical with the beautiful, this will be an excellent incentive to embark on this great task. But above all, remember your humanity."

The Rotblat-El-Baradei Connection

A decade after Sir Joseph Rotblat became a Nobel Peace Laureate, Dr. Mohamed El Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used as safely as possible in the 21st century.

Six decades after the United States obliterated two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the world's first atomic bombs, the peace prize committee bluntly cited lack of progress in panning the apocalyptic weapons as justification for awarding this 2005 prize to El Baradei and the IAEA. In 1985, the award went to a U.S.-Soviet group of doctors, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. In 1995, British scientist and nuclear-weapons critic, Joseph Rotblat won, along with his anti-nuclear organization. An anti-nuclear prize in 2005 would seem to confirm a trend on major anniversaries of Hiroshima.

The prize might shine the spotlight of international attention on the growing dangers of the proliferation of nuclear weapons. El Baradei mentioned, "verification and diplomacy used together can work." The IAEA has no coercive powers; it cannot discipline those countries that don't accede to its treaties.

Prof. Talaat I. Farag, MD,FRCP,FACP,FACMG is a former adjunct professor at Dalhousie University in Canada. He is the founder of The Ambassadors Research Foundation in 1998. Email: tfarag@dal.ca.