Dec+21,+1938

December 21 1938

Dear Diary Today was a gloomy day. I’ve been very busy these few weeks because the work here at UC Berkeley is incredibly hard. My physic class students are too smart that I feel like I have to study harder to be able to teach them. Therefore, I am studying every night to explain concepts well to my students. I called my parents to tell them how hard my work is here and they told me that my brother is going to the military service now. I was so shocked to hear this announcement because it would be very dangerous for him to go into the military if we have a war with the Japanese. This made me desire to invent powerful weapons, so that my little brother is safe from the war. Today I was listening to the radio, and the interviews of normal people in America enticed me to write this on my lovely diary. Everyone said that their lives these days are very difficult. Because of the stock market crash in 1929, many people has suffered until now. The great depression impacted people in America very much. Many people has gone bankrupted and lost their jobs because of the great depression. It has raised the price of goods in America; therefore, more and more poor people are made. This has influenced me a lot because even I feel a lot of pressure using money. This has affected my daily life because I cannot go out for dinner often nowadays. This made me think about how the world would be like in the future. I am afraid more and more people will become poor. I think more jobs should be created for more people because there are many unemployed people out here in America. To improve the economy of the US, I will have to work harder to produce great weapons. If I do make powerful weapons, international trade of US will increase, which will lead to a improvement of the economy. Greater weapons will enhance US’s relationship with other countries because other countries will want to be allies with US if we have great weapons.I really hope that I will be able to survive after all these events. I will have to study hard here in California, and help my nation to strengthen the economy and win the war. Now I have to go back to studying for my class tomorrow early in the morning. Good bye

- Robert Oppenheimer