The Creation of Nuclear Weapons Changed the World Forever

With the new working bomb, during World War II American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first atomic bomb called the little boy weighing 9,000 pounds on Hiroshima, Japan instantly killing eighty-thousand people then killing over tens of thousands of people after due to radiation exposure. Three days later another bomb

On August 6th, 1945, the Japanese woke up to their hometowns and country filled with flames and radioactive material. This event changed warfare as we know it, and will forever have an effect on the Japanese and American culture. These two bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man, killed thousands of people and in total, took a huge toll on the world then and today.

The Manhattan project was an organization that was formed to make mass weapons of war. It was formed in fear of the Germans, and we used the project to make first atomic bomb. The first atomic was done “under the direction of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.” His research “ushered in the atomic age”, and his group helped us make the first atomic bombs

During World War II, the U.S., Germany, and Japan we’re all at war. Germany expanding, Hitler rising in power, Japan fighting, and the U.S. At the start of the war, the bomb was not yet invented. People realized that one of the only ways to defeat the others in war was by large explosions, but nobody had that kind of technology yet. There was a task set for scientists. With the approval of president Franklin D. Roosevelt, they began the Manhattan project. This was the creation of the Atomic Bomb.

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.

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.

Bombs exploding, rifles firing one terrorizing bullet after another, gases filled the air with the stuff of your nightmares. Military innovations changed warfare forever, but for better or for worse? It seems impossible to decide whether these weapons were justified or not, since they took many lives, both civilian and soldier.

August 6, 1941, the day that forever changed history. A nuclear bomb by the name of “Little Boy” was dropped over Hiroshima, wiping out the city and killing thousands of innocent people without warning. Three days later another bomb dubbed the name “Fatman” was dropped over top of Nagasaki, with the same result. These bombs were dropped as a response to the attack on Pearl Harbor and wreaked havoc on both cities wiping out almost everything in its path. While this saved the lives of American soldiers, it killed countless of innocent Japanese citizens. With the help of this new technology, a war could be won or lost in the blink of an eye. By being the first to use these bombs, the United States set the bar for nuclear war to be justifiable.

In July 1945 in a remote location by Alamogordo, the first bomb was successfully tested causing a mushroom cloud 40,000 feethigh and showing that the United States would now be a force in the power race. The other sites being in Tennessee, Washington, and even in Canada all working on the best possible delivery system for the new weapon that was been created. When the bombs had been made, bomb number one was a uranium basednamed Little Boy and bomb number two was a plutonium based and called the Fat Man. The bombs were loaded on panes and would be sent to overseas bases were they would be prepped for one final flight for Japan the first one would be dropped on Nagasaki (Fat Boy) and the other on Hiroshima (Little Boy)causing the Japanese to with draw form the war. The United States would then move in to Japan and help rebuild their infrastructure. At this point in the war the Army Engineers would now be in Europe, Japan, Russia, and home in the U.S.With the full force of the military being put on display for the world to see this would bring WWII to a end. With the war over even more work could begin on the studies of nuclear weapons and the capabilities that could be used by understand uranium, plutonium, and the separation of atoms. The project would move to the privately owned organization and making

On August 6th, 1945 the United States dropped a nuclear bomb called Little Boy in the town of Hiroshima. The Little Boy was the heaviest bomb at the time weighing 9,700 pounds and with a length of 10 feet. The task of dropping the first atomic bomb was carried out by the 509th Composite Group ("Little Boy and Fat Man" Web). However the dropping of Little Boy caused major casualties, the bombing of Hiroshima killed 180,000 people (Kennedy, Chapter 36). Three days later, on August 9th, 1945 the second and final atomic bomb that would ever be dropped on a city was called Fat Man which destroyed Nagasaki casing 80,000 deaths (Kennedy Chapter 36). The Manhattan Project was eventually absorbed into the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). After the bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki other nations scrambled to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction. This would eventually lead up to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Even though the Manhattan Project is now gone, the terrible consequences of its invention of the atomic bomb still linger today (“Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: History: Pre Cold War: Manhattan Project” Web; “Little Boy and Fat Man” Web).

On August 2, 1939, Einstein proposed an interesting to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This idea, called the atomic bomb, would change the lives of everyone. Making it was easier said than done, though. They needed a team of scientists: Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Felix Bloch, Otto Prisch, Rudolf Peierls, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs, and Edward Teller. Then they had to find U-235, which looked exactly like U-238, a useless material. The process was hard, especially since only mechanical methods worked. Finally, after an extraction system, a magnetic separation, and a gas centrifuge, all that was needed to be done was to test the entire concept in the deserts of Jornada del Muerto (about money).

It was the morning of July 16, 1945, a countdown for the detonation of the first atomic bomb took place near Los Alamos, New Mexico. The atomic bomb testing would forever change the meaning of war. However, the atomic bomb was detonated and it sent shock-waves all over the world. There was much research to be done on the bomb in the United States. The research was called “The Manhattan Engineer District Project” but it was known as "The Manhattan Project."

In early 1900’s scientist of the world discovered that a few German physicists had learned the secret of splitting atoms, and they would be able to utilize energy to produce a bomb that would cause total destruction. Albert Einstein, who fled Nazi Germany and fled to United States, informed President Roosevelt about the capability of splitting atoms. Along with Einstein fellow scientist Fermi convinced Roosevelt to develop an atomic research program. In 1941 United Stated begin to design and build the atomic bomb which coded the Manhattan project. In 1942 Fermi had produced nuclear chain reaction. The development of the atomic bomb took place in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Oppenheimer was the leading scientist in putting all the pieces together. There were over a hundred thousand people involved in preparing the bomb to be tested. December of 1945 the testing for the first atomic bomb took place in New Mexico.

On the sixth of August 1945 the atomic bomb Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima in Japan. Following three days later the second atomic bomb Fat Boy was dropped on Nagasaki. These two bombs imprint our countries record with the only two nuclear weapons to- ever- be used during war. The ethical, political and military point of views are vastly different among the people involved in making the decision but all lead to dropping the bombs.

The Nuclear Bomb was an event that would change the world forever. Merl Resler, a 91 year old Pearl Harbor Survivor said, the world is a safer place because of the Nuclear bomb. He believed that the Bomb was the only answer to ending WWII. (Merl Resler- An American Hero). The nuclear bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki created the major turning point of the 20th century. The atomic bomb ended up affecting political and military policies for all of the nations by introducing a new weapon that could wipe out countries in the blink of an eye. This mass weapon of destruction set a completely new set of policies and organizations that would deal with a new issue nations would have to face when dealing with a nuclear weapon.