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Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb. The Manhattan Project. The U.S., working with the UK and Canada, sought out to design and build the first atomic bombs. This was known as the Manhattan Project.
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The Manhattan Project The U.S., working with the UK and Canada, sought out to design and build the first atomic bombs. This was known as the Manhattan Project. The research was done by American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, and the overall project was supervised by General Leslie Groves. The first research began in 1939 with fear that Nazi Germany would develop one first.
The Hiroshima Bomb The Hiroshima bomb, known as “Little Boy”, was a gun-type bomb made mostly of uranium-235, extracted from factories in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It was first tested at Trinity site of July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The Nagasaki Bomb The Nagasaki bomb, known as “Fat Man”, was an implosion-type bomb made of Plutonium-239. This bomb weighed 10,800 pounds. It was 10 feet, 8 inches long with a diameter of 60 inches.
Planning the attacks The U.S. had 3 criteria when choosing the targets The target had to be larger than 3 miles in diameter and had to be in a large urban area. The blast had to create effective damage. The target had to be unlikely to be attacked by August 1945.
Hiroshima Hiroshima was the primary target . A B-29 named Enola Gay, commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbets, launched the bomb. At 8:15 the bomb was released from 31,016 ft. 43 seconds later, it exploded.
Hiroshima post-bombing The BCJ control operator suddenly noticed that the Hiroshima station had gone off the air. About 20 minutes later, the railroad telegraph center noticed that the main telegraph line had stopped working. A Japanese officer was sent to survey the damage and come report it.
Nagasaki On August 9, 1945, the plane Bockscar, commanded by Charles Sweeny,carried the nuclear bomb, which was code- named “Fat Man”. Observers on weather planes reported the target clear. They were delayed by a plane failing to meet up with them. Already 30 minutes behind schedule, he went on.
Nagasaki cont. By the time they reached Kokura, a 70% cloud cover had come over the city. After circling 3 times, fuel running low, they headed to the secondary target, Nagasaki. At 11:01, the bomb “Fat Man” was dropped over the city’s industrial area.
Casualties 70,000 to 80,000 people, or 30% of the population of Hiroshima were immediately killed by the blast, and 70,000 were injured. Over 90% of the doctors and 93% of the nurses were killed. Estimation range from 90,000 to 166,000 for post-bombing casualties. Nagasaki casualties range from 40,000 to 75,000.
My opinion I think that the atomic bomb was the right thing to do, however, I don’t like that innocent Japanese citizens were killed. If we hadn’t dropped it though, we would have had to send everyone to invade Japan costing the U.S. millions of lives. The bomb was also necessary because Japan wasn’t surrendering.