Why Is The Atomic Bomb Important

The Atomic Bomb
Abigail Dockstader
Senior Division Research Paper
The Atomic Bomb
The Atomic Bomb is one of the deadliest weapons ever to be created. It has changed the history of the world. The atomic bomb would be the first weapon to bring together the world and shatter it altogether. In 1945, the only weapon that could destroy the world was built. This is the story of the history, creation, and innovation of the Atomic Bomb.

In 1905, Albert Einstein published his Theory of Relativity, or E=MC2. It states that energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared (Watson, para.1). This means that any mass is equal to a certain amount of energy. In 1921, two German scientists,
Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, with the help of Otto Frisch and Lise Meitner test with uranium (Roleff, pg.15). With their knowledge of the Theory of Relativity, they discovered a breakthrough. The theory of Fission. When a uranium atom is mixed with many neutrons, the atom actually splits. It’s more like taking a heavier element and splitting it into lighter elements. This means that it can release nuclear energy on an immense scale. These two theories will help with the creation of the atom bomb.
The Race for the bomb
During the discovery of these theories, many scientists were skeptical of the findings.
A handful of nations went to work developing the theory and soon it became a race to see who could build the bomb first. England, Germany and the United States all began projects to develop weapons of mass destruction. In 1939, Albert Einstein was afraid that Nazi Germany would create the Atom Bomb. Albert sent a letter to President Franklin D Roosevelt, stating that Germany was at work with Atom Bombs. He also stated in the letter that is was okay with the Americans to use his Theory of Relativity to be used in the making of the atom bomb. Part of the letter states "In the course of the last four months it has been made probable through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America-that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it appears this could be achieved in the immediate future". (Fromm. Par. 36). “The United States has only very poor ores of uranium in moderate quantities. There is some good ore in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia, while the most important source of uranium is the Belgian Congo (Einstein Para 5). This is implying Einstein is allowing America to use his theory of
relativity.
Later in Einstein’s life, he was being interviewed and said at this time, "I made one great mistake in my life... when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification - the danger that the Germans would make them." (Long, par. 11). Germany was about a year ahead with the atom bomb than America was. Great Britain was also ongoing with atom bomb research.
With the fear that Germany was creating atom bombs, President Roosevelt created the Manhattan Project. This was a project in which America started to build atom bombs. The scientists included Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Rudolf Peierls, Otto Frisch, Niels Bohr, Felix Bloch , James Franck , James Chadwick, Emilio Segre, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs ,and Edward Teller(Simkin Para. 6).The main person was Robert Oppenheimer, a Jewish born American, was elected in 1942 for the head, along with general Leslie R. Groves, for the Manhattan Project (Roleff pg. 17). In 1942, the theory of the atom bomb went from theory to fact. They would have an atom bomb by 1945.
On July 6th, 1945, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, near Alamogordo, the first test of the atom bomb would take place.
I.I Rabi, a physicist with the Manhattan Project stated, “We were lying there, very tense, in the early dawn, and there were just a few streaks of gold in the east, you could see your neighbor very dimly. Suddenly there was an enormous flash of light, the brightest light I have ever seen or that I think anyone has ever seen. It blasted; it pounced; it bored its way right through you. It was a vision in which was seen with more than the eye. It was seen to last forever. You wish it would stop; altogether it lasted two seconds. Finally it was over, diminishing, and we looked at the place where the bomb had been; there was an enormous ball of fire which grew and grew and it rolled as it grew; it went up into the air; in yellow flashes and into scarlet and green. It looked menacing. It seems to come toward one. A new thing had just been born; a new control; a new understanding of man, which man had acquired over nature” (Roleff, pg. 12). The atom bomb had tremendous energy, which would turn it into the world’s most dangerous
weapon.
Deployment of the weapon
The purpose of dropping the bombs was to bring to a swift end the bloodiest and most destructive conflict of the twentieth century, World War II. The war had been going on for over 6 years and was costing more and more lives every day as Japan was getting more desperate as the Allies closed in.
On August 6th, 1945, an American B-29 super fortress named “Enola Gay” took off from

the island of Tinian in the Marianas and headed for Japan. The weather was perfect. By 8:13

A.M., Enola Gay had a clear straight attack run of approximately four miles. At 8:15 A.M., from

an altitude of 31,600 feet, Major Tom Ferebee pressed a switch to release "Little Boy" and

watched it fall toward Hiroshima. Less than sixty seconds later, there was a blinding flash of

light that grew into a purple fireball. Two shock waves hit the plane and a massive cloud, rolled

up more than 40,000 feet high forming a giant mushroom. They did not lose sight of the

enormous atomic mushroom cloud until they were 363 miles away. (Sullivan pg. 128)

On August 7th, 1945, President Truman told America about the bombing of Hiroshima. “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base…The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. And the end is not yet. With this bomb we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction to supplement the growing power of our armed forces” (ABC-CLIO. Para 2-3).
On August 9th 1945, an American B-29 named “Boxcar” dropped a second nuclear weapon on Nagasaki, Japan. The bomb that would be used would be called “Fat Man.” Fat man is a 9,750 uranium bomb (energy, par. 2). “America had two options, we could either send troops to invade Japan by foot, which would cause millions of death for both Japan and America, or we could use the newly invented atom bomb, which would save many lives on each part” (Miller).
“When little boy dropped the blast of radiation and heat killed over 140,000 people. It shook up Japan severely, but they weren’t going to give up so easily. Three days later, we bombed Nagasaki, with the bomb called “Fat Man,” killed about 80,000 people” (Roleff. Pg 12).
A third bomb was being prepared; it would take a two more weeks to complete. Its target was Tokyo. The production rate was planned to be three atomic bombs a month. However they were not needed, Japan accepted the unconditional surrender terms of the Allies and formally surrendered onboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. The Second World War was over.
On February 4th, 1945, the Cold War begins. The cold war was a nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the USA. It was fought for many reasons. “Propaganda, diplomatic haggling, economy, military clashes, deep-rooted ideological, economic and political differences” (Poon, par. 1).

The Cold War
1945 – 1991 “As soon as the second worlds war ended the cold war began. The causes were many, ranging from border disputes, to occupied countries, political ideologies, economic and military tensions eventually grew to the point of conflict. However, full scale “Hot war” never materialized and the world spent an uneasy 46 years in a virtual “cold war”. The cold war was fought in “proxy” wars in small countries with the effect of two puppet masters (the United States and the Soviet Union) both manipulating and coercing their side for a more viable outcome. Each pouring money and “advisors” into the fights” (Miller). The atomic bomb played a major role in this clash of the world’s two titans. “The fear of “mutual assured destruction” by either side kept the Soviet Union or the United States from firing. The theory of MAD (mutual assured destruction) was simple. The one who fired his nuclear tipped missiles first, was still going to catch enough nuclear tipped missiles in response that both sides will be destroyed” (Miller).
The Arms Race Both the United States and the Soviet Union began mass production of both nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles (missiles, bombers). “The arms race would rage, then detent and SALT I and SALT II treaties in which both sides agreed to reduce the size of their nuclear arms storage” (Miller). The arms race and cold war ended in 1991 after President Reagan announced the United States was going ahead and building “the “Strategic Defense Initiative” (SDI) or as it has been come to be called “Star Wars” In fact that is what it was, placing nuclear weapons in space where the Soviet Union could do little to nothing to defend against them” (Miller). The Soviet Union’s economy was already teetering on collapse and could no longer keep up with the United States in the arms race. Bankruptcy and a failed coup led to the disintegration of the Soviet Government. The cold war was over.
Post-Cold war The end of the cold war in no way lessened the fear of nuclear weapons. In fact in many instances it increased it. Rogue states with the ability to obtain material and nuclear devices has made the reality of waking up one day to find a nuclear weapon exploded somewhere in the world a growing possibility.

The Atom bomb Changed the world ultimately. It brought it together while at the same time tearing it apart. It helped America become allies with the Soviet Union, Japan, and Germany. Almost every major country in the world has the atom bomb in its grasps. The Atom Bomb helped countries all over the world with their military, keeping their selves safe, but also creating enemies and worldwide fear.