Atomic Bomb and the Manhattan Project: Hiroshima and Nagasaki - World War II

 

Who can not be familiar with the nuclear attacks happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a result of the World War 2. A war which has its effects till now. the war which didn't just killed a lot of people but somehow destroyed the whole world.

 The United States detonated bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, thereby ending the Second World War.

OVERVIEW

 

• In August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese Nagasaki and Hiroshima, killing 210,000 people, including kids, women, and men.

• In an effort to force Japan's surrender in World War II, President Truman authorised the deployment of atomic weapons. Japan surrendered within days following the attacks. 

• During World War II, the United States government's Manhattan Project created and manufactured the first atomic weapons. 

• The first nuclear bombs were detonated, heralding the start of a terrifying new era known as the Atomic Age.

What Was the Manhattan Project?

 

The Manhattan Project was a government-funded research and development project 

 

During World War II, the Manhattan Initiative was the codename for a secret US governmental science and engineering project that produced the world's first nuclear weapons. After receiving a letter from Nobel Prize- winner Albert Einstein in October 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt formed a committee to investigate the possibilities of manufacturing a nuclear weapon.

In his letters, Einstein informed President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Nazi Germany was very much likely already working on a nuclear weapon. The Manhattan Project was initiated in August 1942. 

 

By 1944, a team of 6,000 engineers and scientists from top universities and corporate research labs had begun work on the world's first nuclear weapon. The Manhattan Project's main research and development centre, Los Alamos National Lab, was led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer. The installation was in the middle of the desert Los Alamos, New Mexico, for security reasons. 

Maj. gen. Leslie Groves was in charge of the US government's Manhattan Project. DuPont, for example, assisted in the preparation of weapons-grade uranium as well as other components required for the bombs. Reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington, processed nuclear materials. The Manhattan Project employed 130,000 Americans at 37 locations around the country at its peak.

 

Nuclear Attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

 

In the early hours darkness of July 16, 1945, the first nuclear weapon was detonated at a military facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Following the extreme brilliance of the explosion's flare, a massive mushroom cloud rose from the sand surface. House windows broke greater than fifty miles away. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed by the United States.

  

Two months just before atomic bomb was completed, the Allies destroyed Germany in May 1945. However, the war with Japan persisted, and in August 1945, it appeared that an assault of Japan would be required to compel the Japanese to surrender. President Harry S.

Truman's military advisers warned that a military conflict would result in the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers in the US Armed Forces, as well as a large number of Japanese soldiers and civilians. Truman ordered the use of bomb on Japan after receiving no response to his threat of "prompt and complete destruction" if the Japanese did not withdraw unconditionally.

 

The day after the Hiroshima explosion, Truman again urged for surrender, but the Japanese government denied. On August 9, around 80,000 people were killed when the United States detonated a second bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. The two atomic bombs took the lives of 210,000 persons. (By comparison, during aerial bombardment on Tokyo in March 1945, the US managed to kill 120,000 Japanese innocent people with conventional bombs.)

The Japanese government signed a total surrender six days after the Soviet Union launched war on Japan. World War II has come to an end. 

The invention of the nuclear bomb had far-reaching consequences that would reverberate throughout the 20th century, especially during the Cold War. Spies working at Los Alamos' research and development facility—most notably, scientist Klaus Fuchs—leaked information to the Soviet Union regarding the nuclear programme, allowing the Soviets to create their own atomic weapon by 1949.

Was it necessary to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki? 

 

Truman's decision was based on his view that destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki could cut the war short, saving the lives of countless American soldiers and also multitudes of Japanese soldiers & residents. 

However, in the ensuing years of the war, and to this day, there have been supporters and opponents of the United States' use of atomic bombs against the innocent civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 

Was There No Way Other than Nuclear Attacks?

 

Many questions about the bomb's need and moral ramifications remain unanswered:

Would the US have used nuclear weapons against Germans as quickly as it did? Was prejudice against Japanese people a factor in the decision? Instead of killing two cities, could the US have dropped an atomic bomb on an isolated island to showcase the bomb's devastating power? Is it possible that the US could have gotten Japan's unconditional surrender through other means?

 

However, there was no doubt that the creation and the use of the atomic weapon irreversibly altered the essence of global conflict. Despite the fact that the strikes on Japan remain the only warfare use of nuclear weapons, the fear of nuclear war has hovered over international conflicts since 1945, offering a level of "prompt and total destruction" never seen before.

Written By: Ishaan Kumar

Edited By: Nidhi Jha