Moulton nuclear test veteran signs open letter to Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan
A test veteran from Moulton has given his support to an open letter to the makers of film Oppenheimer, calling for them to raise awareness of the danger posed by nuclear weapons.
Douglas Hern has joined a coalition of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, victims of nuclear testing and youth activists in writing to director Christopher Nolan, director of the high profile biopic of the physicist who helped develop nuclear weapons.
They want the film makers to prompt a ‘debate of the contemporary threat nuclear weapons pose, as well as the current global efforts to abolish them’.
The letter Mr Hern has signed stated: “We recognise that for millions worldwide, your movie will be the most influential telling of the development of nuclear weapons, likely directly shaping their understanding of, and generating further interest in, nuclear weapons.”
They continue: “Crucially, this would involve recognizing that nuclear weapons are now illegal under international law thanks to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the TPNW”.
The letter was sent to Nolan in March and was made public on the eve of the film’s release at the weekend. They are still awaiting a response.
Robert Oppenheimer was a physicist who led the scientists who developed the first atomic bombs for the United States government’s Manhattan Project that were then used to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Mr Hern witnessed five thermonuclear explosions after going to Christmas Island in the South Pacific in the 1950s.
He suffered a series of medical complaints including diabetes and bone spurs since his service – and he lost a daughter at a young age to a rare cancer.
He’s fought for decades for justice and recognition for nuclear test veterans.