The Atomic Bomb: should we promote catastrophe because we can?

1. The Atomic Bomb: should we promote catastrophe because we can?

2. The Manhattan Project • United states top secret program to develop nuclear weapons technology • Started because Einstein tipped off FDR about Nazi Germany’s efforts to purify Uranium • Atomic research first based at: University of Chicago, Colombia and The University of California-Berkley • First breakthrough: December 1942 in Chicago, Ill under the grandstands at Stagg Field @ the University of Chicago; a group of physicists led by Enrico Fermi produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. This fast tracked the program. • Nuclear Facilities were built at Oak Ridge, TN; and Hanford, WA. The main assembly plant was built in Los Alamos, NM • J Robert Oppenheimer(The Father of The Atomic Bomb) was put in charge of assembly in Los Alamos • The entire program for research and development cost around $2 Billion dollars and employed over 120,000

3. Manhattan project(cont.) • The program had to be kept secret from the Germans, Japanese, and the Russians. No public knowledge in the US about it, only a small inner circle of scientists knew about the development; Vice President Harry Truman had no clue about it until he was elected President. • Despite a Russian spy, Klaus Fuchs, gaining access to the inner circle of scientists; the Axis powers still had no clue about the work in Los Alamos

4. The Test • July 16th, 1945 at the Trinity site in Alamogordo, New Mexico; the world’s first atomic bomb was affixed to a 100ft tower and shortly after dawn, it was detonated. The group of scientists in attendance viewing their work were unprepared for the results. • A 200mile flash of blinding light lit up the morning sky, along with a mushroom cloud that towered 40,000ft into the sky. • Also; homes of residents up 100miles away from the site had their windows blown out as the shockwave ripped through them. The blast left a half mile wide crater in the desert and the heat from the blast turned sand into glass.

5. Photos from the Trinity Test The Trinity Test

6. Post Test Cover Up • Shortly after the test at the Trinity Site, President Harry Truman was in Potsdam, Germany when he was notified of the success in New Mexico. • The cover up story that was released explained that a huge ammunition dump had exploded in the desert(I wouldn’t of bought that)

7. Hiroshima, Japan • On August 6th 1945 at 8:15am local time, the city of Hiroshima, Japan was destroyed with an atomic bomb equal to 20,000 tons of TNT. • When Little Boy was released at 8:15am and it exploded 1,900ft above the city and missed its target of the Aioi Bridge by 800ft. • 2/3 of the city was destroyed within 3miles of the explosion; or 60,000 of the 90,000 buildings the city contained. The population of Hiroshima was estimated to be 350,000; approximately 70,000 died immediately after the explosion and another 70,000 died within the next 5 years. Clay roof tiles melted together; metal and stone also melted due to the extreme heat. Shadows of objects and people had imprinted on buildings, sidewalks and other hard surfaces. • “Little Boy” was the name of the nuclear bomb that was dropped by the B-29 Superfortress Bomber named the Enola Gay; which the US never tested before and also never tested dropping a bomb from a plane, departed from the North Pacific island of Tinian 1,500miles from Japan. The Enola Gay was specially modified with new propellers, stronger engines and faster opening bomb bay doors.

8. Hiroshima(cont) • The goal for this bombing raid was unlike any other, it wasn’t intended for a military installation; it was intended for the city itself. The target committee picked Hiroshima and Nagasaki(also Kokura and Niigata) because they were untouched during the war and they wanted the first bomb to be “Sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognized when publicity on it was released.

9. Hiroshima(Photos)

10. Nagasaki, Japan • 3 days passed between the bombing of Hiroshima and what lied ahead for the city of Nagasaki. The wait wasn’t to give time for Japan to surrender; but for the US to accumulate enough Plutonium-239 for the bomb “Fat Man” • August 9th 1945 the plane named Bock’s Car, left from the exactly same place that the Enola Gay took off from just 3 days before hand. The first location that Bock’s Car was going to drop the next atomic bomb on was Kokura, but fortunately for the city, due to the weather; there was a haze over the city and the weaponeer couldn’t see the target. The next city on the list was Nagasaki. • At 11:02am Fat Man exploded over the city at 1,650ft. 40% of Nagasaki was destroyed; even though Fat Man was considered much stronger than Little Boy, the terrain of Nagasaki prevented the bomb from doing as much damage as originally planned. • Nagasaki had a population of 270,000 people; 70,000 of which died by the end of year after the explosion.

11. Nagasaki(Photos)

12. Sources • http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki • Google Images