On August 6th 1945, the world stood still. War and life in general was given a terrifying new face with the idea of nuclear warfare being placed into the minds of the general public. This is something that comes as no surprise when after not one, but two living breathing cities were just completely blown off the map with only two bombs. Some see the dropping of the bombs a fitting retaliation against the Japanese and some see it as necessary for stopping the war. Regardless, the dropping of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an event that shook the entire world. It is estimated that more than 200,000 people died between the two cities with more than half of the deaths occurring due to radiation sickness and other injuries after the
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Some rapidly pursued this development as a means for a weapon to use against their enemies. A weapon to show a substantial amount of power that they may have had over any enemies. The original intention of the U.S. was to use the bombs as a sort of form of retaliation if the Germans had ever attacked the U.S. in a similar way. Hitler and the Nazis had made it very clear that they were a ruthless force that would stop it nothing to destroy their enemies, and the U.S. knew that they needed a weapon that would keep that from happening. So after speaking with a few of America’s greatest scientists such as Albert Einstein and after careful consideration, Roosevelt launched “The Manhattan Project”. The Manhattan Project began at a very slow process. The creation of a weapon of mass destruction such as this was not something to take lightly. Roosevelt did not want to just throw all of the United States time and resources into something that was not a sure fire plan. The research was done at a few universities such as Columbia University and The University of California at Berkeley, but in December of 1942 a breakthrough was made. Scientists led by Enrico Fermi in Chicago created the world’s first nuclear …show more content…
It was clear that this immediate development of this weapon was becoming more and more necessary as the war continued on. The challenging part of this endeavor though, was keeping its existence completely top secret. If the Germans or Japanese ever learned of the existence of the Manhattan Project it could alert them of the attack thus lessening the overall blow of the bomb when it was used. Keeping the project a secret was not a simple task when it was considered that the project employed more than 120,000 Americans. There also needed to be an initial test of the bomb making the mission of keeping the bomb top secret even more difficult. An explosion the size of a major city is not something that is easily kept from a nation already in fear of an attack. Even Vice President Truman did not know of the project until he had already been elected into office. On July 16, 1945 the world’s first ever nuclear bomb was tested in the Nevada desert and the results were something that scientists could have ever predicted. Even with the bomb detonating in the middle of the desert, hundreds of miles away from civilian homes, it managed to shatter the windows of suburban homes 100 miles plus out. The crater from the blast was more than 600 feet deep and the mushroom cloud produced by the blast was as tall as 40,000 feet. Project Manhattan was a complete
Some rapidly pursued this development as a means for a weapon to use against their enemies. A weapon to show a substantial amount of power that they may have had over any enemies. The original intention of the U.S. was to use the bombs as a sort of form of retaliation if the Germans had ever attacked the U.S. in a similar way. Hitler and the Nazis had made it very clear that they were a ruthless force that would stop it nothing to destroy their enemies, and the U.S. knew that they needed a weapon that would keep that from happening. So after speaking with a few of America’s greatest scientists such as Albert Einstein and after careful consideration, Roosevelt launched “The Manhattan Project”. The Manhattan Project began at a very slow process. The creation of a weapon of mass destruction such as this was not something to take lightly. Roosevelt did not want to just throw all of the United States time and resources into something that was not a sure fire plan. The research was done at a few universities such as Columbia University and The University of California at Berkeley, but in December of 1942 a breakthrough was made. Scientists led by Enrico Fermi in Chicago created the world’s first nuclear …show more content…
It was clear that this immediate development of this weapon was becoming more and more necessary as the war continued on. The challenging part of this endeavor though, was keeping its existence completely top secret. If the Germans or Japanese ever learned of the existence of the Manhattan Project it could alert them of the attack thus lessening the overall blow of the bomb when it was used. Keeping the project a secret was not a simple task when it was considered that the project employed more than 120,000 Americans. There also needed to be an initial test of the bomb making the mission of keeping the bomb top secret even more difficult. An explosion the size of a major city is not something that is easily kept from a nation already in fear of an attack. Even Vice President Truman did not know of the project until he had already been elected into office. On July 16, 1945 the world’s first ever nuclear bomb was tested in the Nevada desert and the results were something that scientists could have ever predicted. Even with the bomb detonating in the middle of the desert, hundreds of miles away from civilian homes, it managed to shatter the windows of suburban homes 100 miles plus out. The crater from the blast was more than 600 feet deep and the mushroom cloud produced by the blast was as tall as 40,000 feet. Project Manhattan was a complete