Due to today’s sophisticated technologies and inventions we can do anything we want: starting from travelling without leaving our homes, communicating with people from different parts of the world and ending with destroying the humanity without blinking an eye. But there are a lot of inventions that may have devastating consequences while used or lead to mass destruction of the world’s population. And that is exactly what the atomic bomb invention is about, the most calamitous and devastating weapon ever known to a mankind.
German scientists were the first ones who made the attempt to discover the atomic bomb and succeeded in finding out how to split the uranium atom in a correct way. This case was of a real concern and a wake-up call to the whole world. It was Albert Einstein and other physicist who managed to persuade Franklin D. Roosevelt, the President of the USA at that time to start a research program in the field of Nuclear Physics in the USA.
Various scientific research on atomic bomb took place in 1920’s and 1930’s, but it’s only the Manhattan project that is considered to be a successful and winning the world’s recognition. The research took place between 1942-1945 and as a result, first atomic bombs were made and later used by the USA.
Manhattan project is a given codename for the US Allied effort to make the first atomic bomb during the Second World War. It was named for the Manhattan Engineer District of the US Army Corps of Engineers and was led by Leslie Groves, US army Major General. Initiated by the US scientist the project gathered a combined policy committee with the outstanding scientists from Great Britain and Canada by 1943.
Being not just unique, but a secret project as well, it required the involvement and help of over 200,000 people. It is estimated that it cost around 20 billion dollars and long years of studious investigation. As a result, two types of the atomic bomb were invented and tested for Operation Crossroads, mostly underwater.
The first atomic bomb was used in Hiroshima, Japan. It had caused 66,000 instant casualties and serious losses in Japan. Bomb named “Little Boy” was dropped by the US Air Force and destroyed everything on its way in a mile radius of where it hit the ground. Due to the fact that Japan refused to surrender, the USA dropped the second bomb on Nagasaki, Japan on the 9th of August, 1945. As a result, approximately one third of the city was completely destroyed and the bombing caused around 40,000 deaths. The Japanese had nothing to do, but to officially surrender on the 9th of August, 1945. Even the scientist working at the bomb creation didn’t know about its use against Japan, the fact that proves one more time its strict secrecy.
To sum up, the atomic bomb invention and Manhattan project on the whole helped the USA to win the battle in World War the Second and was created for military purposes. The bomb dropping had forever changed the US history and the course of World history as well.
- Atomicbombmuseum.org. (2012). AtomicBombMuseum.org – The Bombings. [online] Available at: http://www.atomicbombmuseum.org/2_firstbombs.shtml [Accessed 22 Oct. 2015].
- Nuclearfiles.org. (2015). Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: History: Pre Cold War: Manhattan Project. [online] Available at: http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/pre-cold-war/manhattan-project/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2015].
- World-nuclear.org. (2012). Nuclear Power Economics | Nuclear Energy Costs. [online] Available at: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Economic-Aspects/Economics-of-Nuclear-Power/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2015].
- AMNH. (2015). The Manhattan Project. [online] Available at: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/einstein/peace-and-war/the-manhattan-project [Accessed 20 Oct. 2015].
- Ushistory.org. (2015). The Manhattan Project [ushistory.org]. [online] Available at: http://www.ushistory.org/us/51f.asp [Accessed 21 Oct. 2015].
- Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog. (n.d.). The price of the Manhattan Project. [online] Available at: http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/05/17/the-price-of-the-manhattan-project/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2015].