Fat Man Research Paper

Nearly seventy years later, there is still controversy amongst the atomic bombs that were developed and dropped during World War Two. These atomic bombs would unleash a force of destruction that the world has never yet seen. The Manhattan Project developed these bombs under their distinct codenames, Little Boy and Fat Man. Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945, resulting in approximately 140,000 Japanese casualties. Three days later after the event occurred, Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, which resulted in approximately 70,000 casualties. Historians can argue that the atomic bombs were a necessity to win the war. Others can argue that the war was already over and dropping the bombs was completely unnecessary. Although there are many solid points to both arguments, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan was justified.

Part of the city was virtually leveled by the time the dust had settled. Thousands more people died months and years after from injuries and radiation poisoning. The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan just 3 days later on August 9th, 1945. The original target for the second bomb, codenamed "fat man", was the city kokura but the target was obscured by clouds over it. This time, over 3.5 square miles of the city was destroyed and over 60,000 people were killed instantly. Also like last time, thousands more people died years after from injuries and radiation poisoning. These two bombs brought about the end of WW2, but they also brought the beginning of the nuclear arms race.

The casualties due to the atomic bomb launched by the United States in 1945 were recorded at a horrifying high body count in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima was known as “Little Boy” and the one that struck Nagasaki was known as “Fat Man.” Several dozens of thousands of people died from these two carcinogenic, lethal bombs.

The B-29, an aircraft designed to fly long distances without refueling, began to systematically bomb Japan. It was the B-29 that flew the atomic bombs to Japan. This aircraft took "the war home to Japan."(Garvey 45)

This however, was clearly not the case. The second bomb, named “Fat Man”, was dropped on August ninth at 11:02 AM. It exploded 1,650 feet above ground. The force it exploded with was equal to 22,000 tons of TNT. The bombing of Nagasaki would add another 70,000 deaths to the total count. Another 140,000 would die from after effects in later years.1 At noon on August 15, 1945, the Emperor of Japan announced to Japan’s cease of resistance via radio broadcast. The formal agreement was signed on the United States main battleship on September 2 in Tokyo Bay. Japan had tried many times to surrender before the bombs had been dropped, however the United States turned down these offers of surrender because it was not unconditional surrender, as stated in the Potsdam Declaration.5

Sweeney. The main target for Fat Man was the Japanese city Kokura with Nagasaki as the secondary once Sweeney got to Kokura he realized that the city was completely obscured by smoke and fire from the major firebombing that took place from the 224 b-29’s which then Sweeney attempted to make a few bombing runs until he noticed that the anti-aircraft gun were getting closer he then turned around to go to Nagasaki which was surrounded by smoke too till the bombardier Commander Frederick L. Ashworth pointed out a whole in the smoke so they could drop Fat Man. It was estimated that up to 40,000 people were killed instantly while around 80,000 died from long term health

The B-29 made its maiden flight on September 21, 1942. B-29s carried eight .50-cal. machine guns in remote controlled turrets, two .50-cal. machine guns, and up to 20,000 pounds of bombs (Boeing B-29 Superfortress). This was the most expensive weapon of World War II, costing $3 billion, which was more than the development of the atomic bomb at $2 billion. It was a justified cost that essentially ended the Pacific War. On August 6, 1945, the B-29 dropped the atomic bomb, Little Boy, on Hiroshima, killing 80,000 people. Another B-29 dropped the second atomic bomb, Fat Man, on Nagasaki on August 8 killing 40,000 (Parker, 339). On August 15 the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II, but hundreds of Japanese were awaiting horrendous deaths of burnt skin, urinating blood, and

Towards the end of the war, it was clear that Japan wasn't giving up anytime soon. This began the manhatton project, which started the research and development of the Trinity, Little Boy, and Fat Man nuclear bombs. The Trinity was the first nuclear device made, and was used for testing. After the confirmed test of Trinity, Little Boy and Fat Man were cleared for use on Japan. Both were dropped successfully on Nagasaki and Hiroshima Japan. They killed tens of thousands of people both initial and post blast.

In 1945 America committed an act that some consider to be one of the most destructive acts in the world. It has been questioned why America would execute the devastating dropping of the bombs, nicknamed fat man and little boy, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War two.

On July 7, 1944 the U.S. 8th Air Force conducted one of its largest bombing mission of the war. The 8th Air Force sent over 1100 bombers and 750 fighter escorts from bases in England to strike synthetic oil plants, aircraft factories, marshalling yards and other targets in Germany.

Bomb to be dropped was called Fat Man, a plutonium bomb more complex than the one dropped on Hiroshima

Little Boy was an atomic made out of Uranium, it contained 140 lbs. of pure uranium.Its explosive force was equivalent as 15,000 tons of TNT. Little Boy was tested during World War II on Hiroshima in August 6, 1945.The “Fat Man” was a Plutonium bomb. Its explosive force was 10x stronger than Little Boy. Fat Man contained about 13.6lbs. of plutonium,it had the size of a soft ball! It was used against Nagasaki in August 9, 1945.

Even though the Little Boy bomb kill tens of thousands of people and devastated the entire city of Hiroshima, it failed to get Japan to surrender. However the U.S was ready to drop their second, more efficient and complex, atom bomb on Kokura. The Fat Man nuclear bomb was an implosion-type weapon consisting of a sphere of U-235 to act as a tamper and had a subcritical plutonium-239 core that was was surrounded by high explosives. To activate the chain reaction to trigger the bomb, the explosives surrounding the fissile material are ignited, which then creates a shock wave which causes the core to rapidly compress. The core density then increases, the mass becomes critical, then supercritical. The initiator is shortly released producing many

Paul Tibbets was chosen to fly over Hiroshima and drop “Little Boy.” Tibbets named the B-29 that he flew during the mission after his mother’s maiden name, “Enola Gay.” Well before the planned

On August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb, "little boy" on Hiroshima, Japan. Hiroshima had been almost eradicated with an estimated 70-80,000 people killed. Three days later, a second, more powerful bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing over 100,000 people. Since Japan was economically and militarily devastated by the late summer of 1945, the use of the atomic bombs on an already overcome Japan was unnecessary and unwarranted in bringing about a conclusion to the war in the Pacific.