After hearing that German scientists eared how to split a uranium atom, fears spread across the globe. Scientists including Enrico Fermi and Albert Einstein, fled from fascist Europe to the US after realizing the dangers of nuclear power in the hands of the Germans. They then received confirmation from the President to start am atomic research program. In December 1942, Fermi and a group of physicists produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago, After this major breakthrough, more funds were directed towards this program and progress skyrocketed. New facilities were built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. All together, the total cost of the Manhattan Project was around 2 billion, 90% had gone to research and 10% had gone to actually building the bombs. At its height, the Manhattan project had employed over 120,000 Americans.
Due to the stakes of this project, secrecy was of the highest priorities. The Germans and Japanese had to be kept in the dark about this, and even Roosevelt and Churchill agreed that Stalin would not know of the project. With 120,000 employees, only a small handful of scientist knew about the building of the atomic bomb. Even Vice President Truman didn't know an atomic bomb was being built until he became president.
The first successful test of an atomic bomb was on July 16, 1945 at the Trinity site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The bomb was released by a 100 foot tower in the middle of the desert. The flash of this bomb was visible from 200 miles away and the mushroom cloud reached a height of 40,00 feet. Incredibly, all house with in 100 miles away had their windows blown out. The cover-up story was quickly released stating that there was an accidental ammunition dump that had exploded in the middle of the desert.
With American forces occupying Okinawa and Iwo Jima, and 4 years of fighting, the US was weary from the battle in the Pacific. President Truman issued a demand to Japan for unconditional surrender. It stated that refusal to surrender would lead to total destruction, but there was no mention of the atomic bombs. Japan refused to surrender. On August 6, 1945, a plane called the Enola Gay dropped a 5 ton atomic bomb on Hiroshima killing over 170,00 people. Three days later on August 9th, the US dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki in which 80,000 people died. Five days after on August 14th, Japan surrendered. Though many historians argue that Truman's decision to drop the bomb was barbaric and unnecessary, it was the first step towards to arms race of the Cold War.
Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/51g.asp
It's really intriguing to look into the details of the Manhattan Project. I had known that this plan included nuclear weapons, but I never knew the details. I thought it was very interesting that the splitting of an uranium atom was the discovery that sparked the United States to try and attempt construction of nuclear weapons. I also found it interesting that not even the Vice President knew about the plan. A question I did have was that because Stalin wasn't included in the plan, did that increase tension between the US and Russia faster?
ReplyDeleteThis was interesting because while I knew there was a secret Manhattan Project and that it was the creation of the Atomic bomb, I never knew that a German discovery was what triggered this mentality of building such a weapon. I also didn't realize that they had had to come up with a cover story to the world about their test run because it was so noticeable, but they wanted to continue keeping it a secret.
ReplyDelete