Donald James Hughes (April 2, 1915 – April 12, 1960) was an American

nuclear physicist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

, chiefly notable as one of the signers off the Franck Report in June, 1945, recommending that the United States not use the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

as a weapon to prompt the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was Hirohito surrender broadcast, announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally Japanese Instrument of Surrender, signed on 2 September 1945, End of World War II in Asia, ending ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.James Franck, et al
The "Franck Report": A Report to the Secretary of War
June 1945. Before the war Hughes worked at the

Naval Ordnance Laboratory The Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) was a facility in the White Oak, Maryland, White Oak area of Montgomery County, Maryland. The location is now used as the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Or ...

. By June 1945, the U.S. was deciding whether to use an atomic bomb against Japan, and a very few nuclear scientists knew about the weapon's potential. Some, including Hughes, were wary, and wanted to urge the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

to choose a different option.

Arthur Compton Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) was an American particle physicist who won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the Compton effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radiati ...

appointed a committee to meet in secret, in all-night sessions in a highly secure environment. This committee included Hughes, and was chaired by

James Franck James Franck (; 26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German-American physicist who received the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom". He completed hi ...

. The final report, largely written by committee-member Eugene Rabinowitch, recommended that the

nuclear bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

not be used, and proposed that either a demonstration of the "new weapon" be made before the eyes of representatives of all of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, on a barren island or

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

, or to try to keep the existence of the nuclear bomb secret for as long as possible.''Minority Report''
by Josh Schollmeyer
"Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists"
January/February 2005 (vol. 61, no. 1), pp. 38-39. The advice of the "Franck Report" was not followed, however, and the U.S. dropped nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war Hughes went to

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

and formed a group of physicists working on contemporary problems in nuclear science. His work centered on the

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...

. Many of his publications were translated into Russian; more copies of his work were printed in the USSR than in the USA. He also spent one year at Oxford teaching. He wrote a popular science book, ''The Neutron Story'', published 1959. He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1960. Other works: * Pile Neutron Research (1953) * Neutron Optics (1954) * Neutron Cross Sections (1957) * On nuclear energy: its potential for peacetime uses (1957) * Neutron Cross Sections (A compilation which the Government Printing Office published for the second Geneva conference.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Donald J 1915 births 1960 deaths 20th-century American physicists American nuclear physicists American experimental physicists Manhattan Project people Fellows of the American Physical Society