Justifying the Manhattan Project:
The Manhattan Project was the American program for researching and developing the first atomic bombs. The weapons produced were based solely upon the principles of nuclear fission of uranium 235 and plutonium 239, The project as a whole cost approximately 2 billion dollars of taxpayer’s money and employed over 120,000 people . It was a massive undertaking to say the least. A project of this size needed justification and it seemingly came in the form of attacking the Japanese . The President's chief of staff Admiral Leahy The democrats would have suffered a political death blow if they were not able to justify the investment.
It is my belief that an arms race would always have ensued, no matter when the first bomb was developed. If the atomic weapons were not dropped on Japan it would have been a logical conclusion that the USSR or
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The estimates ranged from 268,000 to 4 million . The effect of the atomic weapons was felt in the short and long term. The death toll was 66,000 in Hiroshima and 39,000 in Nagasaki initially, but many of the casualties that initially survived died very soon due to the radiation poisoning . Large numbers developed. A myriad of people died in the first and second weeks after the bombs were dropped. In December of 1945 the death count rose to 160,000 from Hiroshima and 80,000 as a result of the Nagasaki attack . The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in addition, theoretically saved many Japanese lives. The economic and social situation in Japan was atrocious at the time. The Japanese were in the middle of a heated war with the United States and their lack of resources was beginning to become an insurmountable problem. Food rationing had become so extreme that one Japanese professor had the following to
In fact, the majority of deaths were civilians. “I crawled over the debris, trying to find someone still alive. Then, I found one of my classmates lying alive. I held him up in my arms. It is hard to tell, his skull was cracked open, his flesh was dangling from his head. He only had one eye left…” (Document F) A student describing his tragedy, while sitting in class and out of nowhere he saw “a pale lightning flash for two or three seconds.” Before he knew it, the majority of his class was lying dead. And those who were still alive would be dying due to radiation and other causes. A classroom full of innocent children was taken in a matter of seconds due to Harry Truman's decision to use an atomic bomb against Japan. Over two hundred thousand were dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, due to burns falling debris, flying glass, radiation, and a number of other causes. Before the bomb struck, there were over five hundred thousand people in these two cities alone, not counting the surrounding cities with even more casualties. (Document J) The tragic ways that these people died are very slow and painful in some cases, and very inhumane. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there were no survivors, which means everybody died in these aching ways. Pregnant woman, babies, children, Elderly, and crippled people. “Hiroshima was no longer a city but a burned-over prairie. To the east and to the west everything was flattened. The distant
According to the “Atomic Bomb” slideshow, slide 26, around 200,000 people were brutally killed as a result of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This started when America disagreed with Japan’s cruel actions during the Rape of Nanking, which led them to impose a ban on trade with Japan. This triggered Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor by surprise on December 7th, 1941. America wanted revenge, which caused them to begin island-hopping, bombing Japan with non-atomic bombs, and cutting off Japan’s access to outside resources and supplies; however, Japan continued to fight back. Both sides had been at war against one another with high mortality rates for around 4 years with no end in sight.
It became known that the German knew how to create an atomic bomb and FDR created a committee to study and create atomic bombs, named the Manhattan Project.The Manhattan Project was significant to the war because it led to the end of World War II and caused the Japanese to surrender to the Americans. The amount of people working together along with the cost and time which led to advancements in technology that was far ahead of any enemy. The creation of the bombs delivered a push in the advancement of science, innovation, designing, military and the entire of society into another age. It drew out the powerhouse that we consider today to be the United States of
Throughout the Roosevelt administration and later through the Truman administration, it became clear that both had the distinct focus of ending World War II at the earliest possible time. This is a common theme identified throughout J. Samuel Walker’s Prompt and Utter Destruction. While some countries had put moderate effort into researching atomic power and how it could affect the war, the United States was the only country capable of putting full effort into researching and creating an atomic bomb that could be utilized during the war. Following warnings from scientists that informed Roosevelt of the possibility of the Germans making progress on their knowledge of nuclear energy, Roosevelt assigned a lofty and difficult project to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This project soon became known as “the Manhattan Project” due to the engineer district that was formed to design and build this bomb being originally headquartered in New York. The Manhattan Project was established at a time in the war when the United States was uncertain of its outcome. After the first successful, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction took place in a squash court at the University of Chicago, the idea of an atomic bomb became more feasible. However, while the idea became more feasible, the transition from experimental knowledge to designing an actual bomb was a huge step that involved many uncertainties and troubles. Although the Manhattan Project was formed during a period of uncertainty, the government had high hopes of the newly formed project, but despite these high hopes, the Manhattan Project faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles as it moved from experimental knowledge to designing the bomb, the most prominent being the design for the new technology and the role the bomb would play in the realm of global diplomacy.
The Manhattan Project was one of the most notorious and catastrophic projects in United State history. A bomb that took years to perfect and made the U.S. gamble millions of dollars on new technology that wasn't certain to work. All the secretive facilities scattered all over the U.S. contributed to the creation of a futuristic weapon of mass destruction beyond anyone’s imagination. The atomic bomb caused thousands to die and left years of remnant radiations. The Manhattan Project will forever remain as one of the greatest “successful” catastrophic discoveries in human history.
Thesis Statement: The Manhattan Project was the American program for researching and developing the first atomic bombs because of the project it cost a lot of people their lives.
Over the next four to six months the effects of the atomic bombing killed 90,000 to 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000 in Nagasaki.
The consequences of the atomic bomb were stunning. According to the US, 60,000 to 80,000 people were instantly killed when the bomb hit Hiroshima. The people that were killed were either Korean, Japanese, or American prisoners. The total number of people died was around 135,000. Many more people died
Everyone has secrets, even the U.S. Government. The Manhattan project was one of the many secrets the Government kept from the United States until after the damage was done. What was the Manhattan Project? The manhattan project was a multi-billion dollar enterprise, 2.2 billion to be exact, that provided U.S. Military forces with the single most destructive weapon known to man; the atomic bomb. The project was to be a kept at high secrecy from Germany, Japan, and Russia. But what is strange is that not only was the bomb to kept from foreign countries, but also some parts of the Executive government which is how it adapted the code name that
The total amount of people that died from the dropping of the atomic bomb was immense. Here are the statistics. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day.
As the last shots of World War II were fired in Europe, the U.S. had a plan for their new advanced weapons of mass destruction. The atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in early August of 1946 (Kennedy). These bombs and their short-lived history have had a huge impact on modern warfare and the essence of power surrounding a country. The Manhattan Project began in a frantic effort to end World War II before the Germans got their hands on the technology. As a result of this project, countries could now interact differently in terms of warfare and how they handle hostile foreign affairs.
The first bomb in Hiroshima killed 140,000 people by the end of 1945. The explosion its self killed 80,000 people instantly. The other major toll the bomb took on the city was the fact that it had killed 60,000 people in the next five years due to sickness from radiation from the bomb. The second bomb Fat Man killed 70,000 people by the end of 1945. Fat man killed 39,000 people instantly but left 25,000 people injured from the blast. If people who had cancer from the radiation that adds close to another 100,000 people who died from the second bombs. In the next five years 140,000 people died from sickness due to the bomb. In total in the five years after the bombs exploded 210,000 people died from effects from the bomb.
“In 1957, with the arms race in full swing, the Department of Defense had decided it was just a matter of time before an airplane transporting an atomic bomb would crash on American soil, unleashing a radioactive disaster the likes of which the world had never seem.” On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, killing 20,000 soldiers and 70,000 – 126,000 civilians. On August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 39,000 – 80,000. A total of 129,000 – 226,000 people were killed in combining both bomb droppings. Dropping both atomic bombs on Japan was necessary to end the war because the military needed to end the war, the Japanese were given fair warnings
The operation introduced the world to one of the most potent and destructive weapons mankind had ever seen, and later led to the use of the bomb on thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians in Japan. Because of the tremendous number of civilian casualties, many question Truman's morality. Some argue that Truman's administration had substantial evidence that the Japanese would have surrendered if they were able to keep their emperor. They also point out that civilians-despite being in the general area of Japanese military bases- were the primary targets. Others argue that the bombings actually saved the lives of thousands of American and Japanese lives because it prevented an invasion of Japan by the United States, seeing that it was Truman's alternative choice to the bombings. The Manhattan Project was also a direct correlation with the introduction of nuclear warfare to humankind and the beginning of a nuclear arms race against the Soviet Union, who, after receiving the blueprints from their spies in the U.S, began to build up their own nuclear arsenal and posed a threat to the United
Germany’s attempt to take over the world meant if they succeeded in doing so, United States would be next. Germany was not strong enough to take on the world by their selves, but with their allies by their side they might have been able to. If Germany had not surrendered then they would have been the first to see what the atomic bomb could do. Japan would be the first to experience what kind of power the atomic bomb has.