Atomic Bombs And Its Effects On The World 's Top Scientists

This committee decided that the United States should retain nuclear superiority, in the event that international relations deteriorated following World War II (US Department of Energy). This decision is a foreshadowing of the Cold War, and nuclear arms race which followed the dropping of nuclear weapons on Japan. The interim committee also decreed that a regulatory system should be created to control the development of nuclear weapons, since other nations would inevitably obtain the technology needed to develop weapons. Possibly, the most influential decision made by the interim committee was to keep the details of the atomic bomb a secret, to maintain the shock effect, until after it had been dropped on Japan. Two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first bomb dropped was a uranium bomb, nick-named Little Boy, was untested before its detonation (US Department of Energy). The second, dropped after the Japanese did not surrender, was a plutonium bomb, nick-named Fat Man. The dropping of these bombs propelled the United States to a seat of world power, as they were the only country to obtain a weapon of mass destruction. The Manhattan Project became scientific and engineering feat, employing over 100,000 individuals. The exceptional organizational model the Manhattan Project provided, allowed for great scientific achievements in the later part of

“We believe that . . . an early unannounced attack against Japan inadvisable. If the United States were to be the first to release this new means of indiscriminate destruction upon mankind, she would sacrifice public support throughout the world, precipitate the race for armaments, and prejudice the possibility of reaching an international agreement on the future control of such weapons. Much more favorable conditions could be created if nuclear bombs were first revealed to the world by a demonstration in an appropriately selected uninhabited area.” The initial test for the atomic bomb was dropped in Alamogordo, Mexico with experts observing more than 20 miles away. The explosion was estimated to be a blast of about 10,000 tons of TNT. The Atomic bomb’s intense and destructive power frightened many scientists who were working on the Manhattan Project (Knebel 78). Including the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer felt as if he had created something that would bring forth destruction to the world, instead of using his brilliant scientific mind to improve and usher the world into an era of peace like he intended to. In fact, many scientists within the Manhattan Project were shocked and against using such a powerful weapon as the atomic bomb against other humans, so much that a group of scientists and

The United States dropped their first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. The explosion was tragic, “90 percent of the city was wiped out and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens and thousand more would later die to radiation exposure” (Lemay and Paul). Innocent children and citizens would die.

Well known scientist Albert Einstein, who fled from Nazi persecution, and Enrico Fermi who escaped Fascist Italy, were now living in the United States, on which they both agreed that the President should be enlightened of the vulnerability of atomic technology that was in the hands of Axis power. Fermi made an attempt and travelled to Washington in March to express his involvement with the government officials, who showed little to no concern. Einstein who as well shared a great concern in this topic; penned a letter to President Roosevelt imploring the development of an atomic research program later that year. Roosevelt saw neither prerequisite nor adequacy for such a project, but agreed to proceed gradually. In late 1941, the American effort to scheme and build an atomic bomb which received the code name as the Manhattan Project. The very first research was placed at only a few universities such as Columbia University, University of Chicago, and the University in California at Berkeley. The

1942: The Manhattan Project: The Manhattan Project was a military project that created the Unites States’ first atomic bomb. The project that was researched, put together, and tested was used as a threat to Japan so that they would surrender. The Japanese military refused to surrender

Finally, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was unjustified because of the lack of testing. Although the project to design the first atomic bomb, codenamed the Manhattan Project, began in 1941, the first bomb was not ready to be tested until the month before it would be used in 1945. When it was tested at Trinity Site in New Mexico, the detonation caused unexpected results (“The Manhattan Project”). It caused “A blinding flash visible for 200 miles lit up the morning sky. A mushroom cloud reached 40,000 feet, blowing out windows of civilian homes up to 100 miles away. When the cloud returned to earth it created a half-mile wide crater metamorphosing sand into glass” (“The

According to an article on History.com, in 1939 a group of American scientists started to get

I tried to estimate its strength by dropping from six feet small pieces of paper before, during, and after the passage of the blast wave. Since, at the time, there was no wind I could observe very distinctly and actually measure the displacement of the pieces of paper that were in the process of falling while the blast was passing. The shift was about 2 ½ meters, which, at the time, I estimated to correspond to the blast that would be produced by ten thousand tons of T.N.T.” The explosion created a blast equivalent to twenty tons of TNT. Both bombs harnessed their destructive energy from nuclear with uranium and plutonium. Nuclear fission is a small process yet it yields enormous amounts of heat and nuclear energy by splitting atoms of a radioactive substance. The advantage of the atomic bomb was its size relation to its destruction ratio. By using nuclear fission, the bomb created a large nuclear explosion without the heavy load of TNT. This aloud for a more accurate placement and detonation. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima harnessed the energy of nuclear fission, was projectile based, used radioactive uranium, and was nicknamed “Little Boy.” The bomb dropped on Nagasaki harnessed nuclear fission, was detonator based, used radioactive plutonium, and was nicknamed “Fat

J. Robert Oppenheimer stated, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.” J. Robert Oppenheimer, in the Manhattan Project, was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory and was responsible for the research and design of the atomic bomb. In the summer of 1945, the first atomic bomb was made and tested, and on August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb killed nearly seventy-thousand people instantly, which is miniscule in comparison to the thousands more that would have died if the war would have continued. Dropping the atomic bomb was a just decision because it saved American lives by avoiding a recreation of D-Day, was necessary to end the war swiftly by forcing Japan to surrender.

The machines and processes designed during the 1940’s had adverse consequences as well. The first nuclear reactor was built by Enrico Fermi in 1942. The Chicago Pile 1 was the “world’s first man-made controlled nuclear chain reaction”. This caused the creation of other nuclear reactors and the atomic bomb (CP-1). The atomic bomb was developed and successfully tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico in July 16, 1945. In August 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima and killing an estimated 340,000 people (Sherrow 88).

While the belligerents of World War Two fought one another openly on the battlefield, the race to develop nuclear weapons raged on in secrecy. Both sides continued to make advancements get ever closer to a nuclear bomb. However, on May 8, 1945 Nazi Germany surrendered, ending any chance that a nuclear bomb would be used against the U.S. in war. Even though, the original intent of the Manhattan Project was over research continued. Then it happened, "At 5:29.45 mountain wartime on July 16, [1945] on a desert artillery range designated Trinity, near Alamogordo, New Mexico, the world's first nuclear explosive was tested successfully," (Lanouette 272). The ramifications of this were immense; the United States of America now had access to the most powerful weapons ever created by man. The United States – still mad about Pearl Harbor, and looking to bring the war to an end – used two such weapons. The first of which was dropped on August 6, 1945 over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing 100,000 people instantly, and the second bomb was dropped on August 9, 1945 over the Japanese city of Nagasaki instantly killing 35,000 people (Beevor 774). The U.S. uses of nuclear booms lead to the Japanese surrender, and the end of World War Two on September 2,

Hungarian Physicist Leo Szilard feared that Hitler would use this newly discovered science, and use it to expand on his many enormities. He went to consult with Scientist Albert Einstein. Since Albert Einstein was a well known colleague to Roosevelt, Szilard knew, that Einstein would get the point across. However, it would ultimately be up to the president’s discretion.

The press release on Hiroshima account is the American plane dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and destroyed its usefulness. The bomb had more than 20,000 tons of TNT it had more than 2,000 times the power than the British Grand Slam. The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They state that with this bomb they've added more powerful forms of defense. They said the atom bomb harnesses basic powers of the universe the same power the sun draws its energy from which is called atomic energy. In the interview with Saeki she describes the blast as it being very strange to see a plane flying alone and no anti aircraft guns being shot. She says then all of a sudden she saw a flash of light and Phelps felt huge amount of heat she remembers

Atomic bombs are made up of uranium, that has an isotope that creates a nuclear chain reaction. The immediate energy release per atom is about 180 million electron volts. It is caused by a sudden release of energy produced by splitting the nuclei of the fissile elements making up the bombs' core.

The first test of a fission bomb was done on Monday, July 16, 1945, in the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico, at 5:29:45 A.M., Mountain War Time. This was the test of a plutonium bomb that was given the code name Trinity. The need to avoid sending more ground troops further into Japan was a priority because it was becoming clear that the Japanese forces were fighting more fiercely the closer American forces got to the home islands. Invading and seizing Japanese territories was not easily accomplished because of the 1941 Code of the Japanese Soldier that required victory or death. Hence, the public became aware of the true story about what the bright light and tremor of shock waves that encompassed a 160-mile radius of the Trinity test site truly was when President Harry S. Truman ordered the drop of its second nuclear bomb that detonated over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. The second nuclear bomb was the second design that the LAL, under the direction of Oppenheimer, had been working on. The