The Polonium Project

On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay flew over the industrial city of Hiroshima, Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb ever. The city went up in flames caused by the immense power equal to about 20,000 tons of TNT. The project was a success. They were an unprecedented assemblage of civilian, and military scientific brain power-brilliant, intense, and young, the people that helped develop the bomb. Unknowingly they came to an isolated mountain setting, known as Los Alamos, New Mexico, to design and build the bomb that would end World War 2, but begin serious controversies concerning its sheer power and destruction. I became interested in this topic because of my interest in science and history. It seemed an

First, the bombs had a huge effect on the Japanese people, the countries that surrounded Japan such as Korea, and World War Two as a whole. The two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Little Boy and Fat Man, killed at least 129,000 people in total. It ended up causing other issues, such as child birth defects and a boost in illness. In the year following the bombs dropped, 1946, there were an astounding 1900 deaths from cancer. This is said to come from the bombs radiation fallout. One good result that came from all the tragedy of the war, is that Japan ended up surrendering to the Allies. This was around the same time that Germany surrendered, so the allies took the win.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 Bomber that was names Enola Gay had flew over the City of Hiroshima Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb to have ever been made. The motive for the creation and research of the bomb was a direct result of the Japanese bombing on Pearl Harbor. When the bomb was finalized after all the research of splitting atoms and combining plutonium and uranium and knowing what to use, many tests were done and the bomb was presumed ready. But no one could have guessed the magnitude of this bomb. The city was engulfed in flames as the power of the bomb being equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT being dropped exploded. There was much work that went into making this project a success amongst all others. There was a wide variety of scientific brain knowledge, civilian knowledge and much military knowledge and assembly to make this project happen.

The bombings killed more than 200,000 Japanese civilians [https://qz.com/472146/its-clear-the-us-should-not-have- bombed-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/ ]. There were still many more after the bomb was dropped. Many adults pass the radiation poisoning down to their kids. Most of these kids got leukemia and died.

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.

On Monday July 2nd, 1945, General Groves called Dr. Oppenheimer to discuss testing the bomb itself. In there phone conversation

The primary bomb, dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, lost around 135,000 lives. The second bomb hit Nagasaki three days later and killed from 50,000 up to 74,000 deaths. In the article The View from Under the

The Hiroshima bomb detonated at 8:15 am, and released a fireball 1200 feet in diameter and traveled around 30-40 miles per hour. The temperature underneath the fireball reached up to 6000 degrees celsius. Everything within a 1 mile radius was incinerated, and nearly everything within a 4.4 mile radius was set on fire or destroyed. Around 80,000 people were killed instantly, and 70,000 were injured. Many of those that survived the bombs impact were covered in gamma radiation and later died from their wounds. To complicate things for the survivors, 270 out of 298 of the doctors in Hiroshima died of the blasts along with 18 of the 21 hospitals.

In Hiroshima, the bomb left 66,000 dead and a staggering 69,000 injured. Additionally, in the city of Nagasaki, 39,000 were killed and 25,000 injured. One survivor Yoshitaka Kawamoto, who was only thirteen years old at the Hiroshima bombing recounts his horrifying experience, “ All I can remember was a pale lightning flash for two or three seconds. Then, I collapsed. I crawled over the debris … Then, I found one of my classmates lying alive. ... It is hard to tell, his skull was cracked open, his flesh was dangling out from his head. These bombings targeted innocent civilians and killed indiscriminately, killing the young and the old all at once. As well as instantaneously killing civilians, atomic weapons were unique in the sense that they continued killing many from the side effects of

More than thousands of Japanese perished from the tremendous impulse of the bomb, in addition to the people who perished from the radiation effects. The article U.S History stated that “Instantly, 70,000 Japanese citizens were vaporized. In the months and years that followed, and additional 100,000 perished from burns and radiation sickness” . President Truman vital decision concerning the usage of the atomic bombs, lead to massive destruction, awful sickness, and a high number of deaths in Japan. Also, the physical health and mental health of the few Japanese who survived the impact of the bomb were very devastating. It is recorded in History “The first western scientists, servicemen and journalists to arrive on the scene produced vivid and heartrending reports describing a charred landscape populated by hideously burnt people, coughing up and urinating blood and waiting to die” . The atomic bomb left an unforgettable scar in the Japanese

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.

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

This Atomic Bomb also known as the Ultimate weapon was first used in WWII. The research and development of the weapon cost United States around the 2 billion dollars. US called this investment/project the Manhattan Project. The main goal of this project to build a bomb that was enough to make Japan surrender in World War II. With the help of United Kingdom and Canada, US built the world’s first Atomic Bomb and tested it in Alamogordo, New Mexico. At his point, US was quite happy with the result but the result they collected didn’t show a lot of radiation.

When the bomb was dropped it immediately killed 80,000 people. However the bomb did not stop there. After the drop thousands of people died due to wounds and nuclear radiation poisinging. Three days after the original bomb was dropped, a second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. This bomb ended up killing about 40,000 more people and causing even more harmful radiation poisioning. A few days later, Japan announced its surrender (Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima). Japan would never fully recover from the devastating effects of the bomb. This attack became a major political and ethical issue for all of the nations. Because of the impact of this bomb, no nation has used nuclear weapons sense.

The atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan killed many innocent people. About 140,000 people died because of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. About 80,000 more died from the 2nd atomic bomb