Fat Man and Little Boy over Nagasaki and Hiroshima
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Fat Man and Little Boy over Nagasaki and Hiroshima
The droppings of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan in August of 1945 were the most destructive attacks in human history. They also ended the most devastating war in human history. The bombs that killed tens of thousands of people ended a war that resulted in the deaths of 60 million people (1). A minority of people have contested that the use of nuclear weapons on Japan was a crime against humanity. However, most believe it was completely necessary to end a war with a country that was defeated, yet refused to surrender.
For President Harry S. Truman and the United States government is was the only option. There would not be an invasion of Japan that would have resulted in an unknown thousands of deaths. Instead, they would rely on a new form of weapons technology that would force the Empire of Japan into utter submission (1). In 1939, even before the United States entered the war, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt voicing his suspicions that the Nazis were possibly trying to develop nuclear weapons. The United States government would start a research group called the Manhattan Engineer District. What started out as a small assembly of researchers, eventually grew into a project that employed over 130,000 people and cost what would be equivalent to $22 billion today. The research would be done in over 30 locations across the United States, Canada, and The United Kingdom. The results of the mass amount of research and testing were two bombs; one Uranium bomb, codename: “Little Boy”, and one plutonium, codename: “Fat Man” (5). The bomb codenamed Little Boy would be dropped over Hiroshima, Japan 1 on 6 August 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, The Enola Gay. The massive power if Little Boy came from the nuclear fission of uranium 235. It would be the first ever explosion of a uranium bomb and the second nuclear explosion after the Trinity
Fat Man and Little Boy over Nagasaki and Hiroshima
The droppings of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan in August of 1945 were the most destructive attacks in human history. They also ended the most devastating war in human history. The bombs that killed tens of thousands of people ended a war that resulted in the deaths of 60 million people (1). A minority of people have contested that the use of nuclear weapons on Japan was a crime against humanity. However, most believe it was completely necessary to end a war with a country that was defeated, yet refused to surrender.
For President Harry S. Truman and the United States government is was the only option. There would not be an invasion of Japan that would have resulted in an unknown thousands of deaths. Instead, they would rely on a new form of weapons technology that would force the Empire of Japan into utter submission (1). In 1939, even before the United States entered the war, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt voicing his suspicions that the Nazis were possibly trying to develop nuclear weapons. The United States government would start a research group called the Manhattan Engineer District. What started out as a small assembly of researchers, eventually grew into a project that employed over 130,000 people and cost what would be equivalent to $22 billion today. The research would be done in over 30 locations across the United States, Canada, and The United Kingdom. The results of the mass amount of research and testing were two bombs; one Uranium bomb, codename: “Little Boy”, and one plutonium, codename: “Fat Man” (5). The bomb codenamed Little Boy would be dropped over Hiroshima, Japan 1 on 6 August 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, The Enola Gay. The massive power if Little Boy came from the nuclear fission of uranium 235. It would be the first ever explosion of a uranium bomb and the second nuclear explosion after the Trinity
References: 1. "Dropping the Bomb & the End of WWII ." https://cacpeaceday. com/The+end+of+World+War+Two+and+the+decision+to+drop+the+bo mb (accessed September 12, 2010). 2. "Emperor Hirohito, Accepting the Potsdam Declaration, Radio Broadcast. ." http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/hirohito.htm (accessed September 12, 2010). 3. Rosenburg, Jennifer. "Hiroshima and Nagasaki." http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/hiroshima.htm (accessed September 14, 2010). 4. Sekimori,Gaynor. Hibakusga: Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tokyo: Kosei Publishing Co., 1986. 5. The Engineer District,The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki . BookSurge Classics, 2004. 6. "Target Committee, Los Alamos, May 10-11, 1945." http://www.dannen.com/decision/targets.html (accessed September 12, 2010). 11