The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, causing massive devastation. Despite the destruction, Japan did not immediately surrender. On August 9, 1945, another atomic bomb “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki, leading to Japan’s eventual surrender and the end of World War II.
However, the events leading up to the dropping of these atomic bombs are more complex and rooted in a secret project initiated in 1942. At that time, Nazi Germany controlled much of Europe. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, 130,000 people, including scientists, engineers, and construction workers, were engaged in a secret project with a 2-billion-dollar budget. This project, known as the Manhattan Project, aimed to develop the first nuclear weapons.
Most workers were unaware of the project’s ultimate goal due to high secrecy. From 1942 to 1946, the project was led by Major General Leslie Groves, while physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer directed the Los Alamos Laboratory, where the atomic bombs were designed.
Initially, they worked on a plutonium-based gun-type weapon, Thin Man. By April 1944, they realized it would not work due to spontaneous fission. They then focused on an implosion-type weapon, Fat Man, and a uranium-235 gun-type weapon, Little Boy.
On July 16, 1945, the first nuclear test, named Trinity, took place. The successful test influenced President Truman’s decisions at the Potsdam Conference. Japan was given an ultimatum to surrender or face “Prompt and utter destruction”.
Sources:
Los Alamos National Laboratory: https://www.lanl.gov/
https://www.youtube.com/@LosAlamosNationalLab
U.S. Department of Energy: https://www.energy.gov/
https://catalog.archives.gov/
https://www.defense.gov/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki
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