The Manhattan Project
“I am become death, the shatterer of worlds” remembered Robert Oppenheimer as he witnessed the spectacular explosion. The Manhattan Project had created several problems that impacted not just Japan and the U.S., but the whole world. Although the Manhattan Project may have ended WWII, it caused mass destruction, gave other countries the desire to create more powerful weapons of mass destruction, and was morally wrong.
In 1938, three chemists in Berlin had made a huge discovery: they split the Uranium atom. The tremendous amount of energy released, or fission, was enough to power a highly destructive bomb (¨Nuclear Arms Race¨). This was the basis for the research and creation of the atomic bomb. In the race for the atomic …show more content…
In our society, us Americans put a high value on life, or at least our own. We go to great lengths to preserve life of ourselves and even animals in our country, but what about other countries? Life is worth so much in our society, but we don’t apply that value to the other countries around us, especially when we dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I agree that military had a part in those cities, but what about the many innocent people the we caused suffering to, and ended their lives to preserve ours? America 's decision to use weapons of mass destruction can not be justified (Barnes). America could have chosen a more reasonable location to drop the bomb, and to minimize the amount of civilian deaths. The city of Hiroshima was a chosen target, because it had been preserved from conventional bombing during the war specifically to emphasize the power of the Atomic Bomb. It was ¨located in a much larger area subject to blast damage¨ and hoped to avoid looking bad if the bomb was off-target, like Nagasaki. Not to mention that they wanted the debut of the atomic bomb to be ¨sufficiently spectacular¨ and for the whole world to see America’s power (Wellerstein). This being the one of main reasons for targeting Hiroshima is not morally right, and the U.S. should’ve chosen an area that was strictly military and/or industry. …show more content…
Despite most American 's opposition towards the nuclear weapon, the government had used it anyways claiming that that Communism would spread unless the war came to a quick end. The Americans had been correct about the spreading of nuclear powers if the bomb was used, and the security of our world would be threatened in the future during the Arms Race, and the Cold War (Bradford). The Manhattan Project scientists had made a prediction about the future of nuclear weapons in a statement called The Preliminary Statement of the Association of Manhattan District Scientists. In the statement is is written that “we have been made strongly aware of the dangers inherent in the mishandling of this tremendous force by the peoples of this world. ...Scientists of other countries will be spurred on to develop atomic bombs of their own in self-defense. This in turn will lead to further emphasis on the military applications on our own part. The result will be an armaments race, with all its disastrous possibility.” (Physicists Predict a Nuclear Arms Race, 1945). These excerpts from the statement have been proven true in the future, and it is obvious how the Manhattan Project had essentially created the start of the Arms Race. The statement had given some precautionary measures that may have helped including intensive research and development of weapons for
“I am become death, the shatterer of worlds” remembered Robert Oppenheimer as he witnessed the spectacular explosion. The Manhattan Project had created several problems that impacted not just Japan and the U.S., but the whole world. Although the Manhattan Project may have ended WWII, it caused mass destruction, gave other countries the desire to create more powerful weapons of mass destruction, and was morally wrong.
In 1938, three chemists in Berlin had made a huge discovery: they split the Uranium atom. The tremendous amount of energy released, or fission, was enough to power a highly destructive bomb (¨Nuclear Arms Race¨). This was the basis for the research and creation of the atomic bomb. In the race for the atomic …show more content…
In our society, us Americans put a high value on life, or at least our own. We go to great lengths to preserve life of ourselves and even animals in our country, but what about other countries? Life is worth so much in our society, but we don’t apply that value to the other countries around us, especially when we dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I agree that military had a part in those cities, but what about the many innocent people the we caused suffering to, and ended their lives to preserve ours? America 's decision to use weapons of mass destruction can not be justified (Barnes). America could have chosen a more reasonable location to drop the bomb, and to minimize the amount of civilian deaths. The city of Hiroshima was a chosen target, because it had been preserved from conventional bombing during the war specifically to emphasize the power of the Atomic Bomb. It was ¨located in a much larger area subject to blast damage¨ and hoped to avoid looking bad if the bomb was off-target, like Nagasaki. Not to mention that they wanted the debut of the atomic bomb to be ¨sufficiently spectacular¨ and for the whole world to see America’s power (Wellerstein). This being the one of main reasons for targeting Hiroshima is not morally right, and the U.S. should’ve chosen an area that was strictly military and/or industry. …show more content…
Despite most American 's opposition towards the nuclear weapon, the government had used it anyways claiming that that Communism would spread unless the war came to a quick end. The Americans had been correct about the spreading of nuclear powers if the bomb was used, and the security of our world would be threatened in the future during the Arms Race, and the Cold War (Bradford). The Manhattan Project scientists had made a prediction about the future of nuclear weapons in a statement called The Preliminary Statement of the Association of Manhattan District Scientists. In the statement is is written that “we have been made strongly aware of the dangers inherent in the mishandling of this tremendous force by the peoples of this world. ...Scientists of other countries will be spurred on to develop atomic bombs of their own in self-defense. This in turn will lead to further emphasis on the military applications on our own part. The result will be an armaments race, with all its disastrous possibility.” (Physicists Predict a Nuclear Arms Race, 1945). These excerpts from the statement have been proven true in the future, and it is obvious how the Manhattan Project had essentially created the start of the Arms Race. The statement had given some precautionary measures that may have helped including intensive research and development of weapons for