Atomic The Bomb
In the mid-1930s an Italian physicist named Enrico Fermi began bombarding nuclei with
neutrons, producing heavier radioactive version of these nuclei. Question started to grow among
scientists around world as no one could replicate these results. German scientists Otto Hahn and
Fritz Strassman thought that Fermi was wrong and they found that adding neutrons to uranium
actually made lighter familiar elements, but they could not explain why this occurred. For this
reason they wrote to a former colleague named Lise Meitner. Meitner explained that this was the
process of splitting the cells nuclei called fission, named after the process of cell division. On
September 1, 1939 Germany under Hitlers regime invaded Poland. This offensive was countered
by France and England who declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, officially starting
World War II. As these events unraveled, Hitler secretly had scientists working to create the first
atomic bomb. On August 2, 1939 Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt
warning that the U.S. must not fall behind Germany in the race to create the first atomic bomb.
This occurred after Germany recently had selling uranium from Czechoslovakian mine;
suggesting Germany was exploring the idea of nuclear fission. Combined pressure from
scientists across the board resulted in a $6,000 from the U.S. federal government to begin
research on nuclear fission. Although the United States started to make small attempts in the
nuclear race it wasnt until the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that the program began
to make a serious step in becoming the first nuclear power. In 1942 Robert Oppenheimer was
appointed to be in charge of the Manhattan Project, which was named for the uranium research
set up in Manhattan near Columbia University where fission testing had first began. During the
spring and summer months got together trusted associates to University of California at Berkeley
to examine the possibilities of an atomic bomb as chain reaction studies were moved to Chicago.
There Leslie Groves took over administrative supervision of the project. Later that year on
December 2, 1942 the worlds first controlled chain reaction had occurred in the laboratory in
Chicago. As a result of this success President Roosevelt approved a $400,000 project to create
the construction of an isotope separation plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and a plutonium
production plant in Hanford, Washington. During peak construction employment reached
125,000 people. Oppenheimer though decided the construction site of the actual bomb be Los
Alamos, New Mexico. On July 16, 1945 the United States became the first country to explode
the first atomic bomb in a test code-named Trinity in Alamogordo, New Mexico. After
completion of the bomb the U.S. intended to use it on Nazi Germany, but by the time of
completion Hitler and the rest of Germany had already fallen. This left Japan as the lonely target
and test for the new bomb. After Japan did not comply with the standards of the Potsdam
Conference condemning Japan to an unconditional surrender the United States responded with
force. Although this seems sudden, the Japanese people were warned about the U.S.s ability to
create massive destruction through pamphlets that U.S had dropped in July. These pamphlets
described the U.S.s ability to create total destruction and that this could only be avoided by
surrender. On August 6th the Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy on Hiroshima killing over an
estimated 100,000 people. On August 9th Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki killing an
estimated 40,000 people.
It is no mistaking that on 1968 that the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. sign the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty; this stated that they will work toward disarmament and wont transfer
nuclear weapons to states that dont have them. The devastation caused by Little Boy on
Hiroshima, left one of Japans largest industrial cities in ruins. This made the explosion of the
atomic bomb in Hiroshima very significant in terms of Japans eventual surrender.
On July 26 a declaration had been issued at Potsdam stating that the intentions of the
allied powers in concerns to Japan. It stated We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim
now the unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and
adequate assurance of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and
utter destruction. Four days later, Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki concluded that the document
contained no new information and decided to withhold a Japanese response. Americans took this
as outright rejection. President Truman was still not ready to totally destroy Japan. He knew that
the Japanese Cabinet had been split into two sections into how they felt about an unconditional
surrender and that Japanese leaders had made visits to Moscow asking for intervention. It wasnt
until Foreign Minister Togo stated that as long as Truman asked for unconditional surrender, the
whole country, as one man, will pit itself against him in accordance with the imperial will.
Truman then concluded he had no other option to employ the atomic bomb.
On August 6, 1945 the Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy on Hiroshima causing
ultimate destruction, whose power was estimated at 20,000 tons of TNT. A picture of the Little
Bomb can be seen in the appendix. Immediately after the explosion 70,000 people had died
instantly, where in a few weeks more had died an causing estimated death toll over 100,000. Also
the bomb had destroyed over 60% of the city, leveling key industrial factories. A picture of the
aftermath of Hiroshima can be seen in the appendix. This made Hiroshima a perfect target
as President Truman described the most desirable target would be a vital war plant employing a
large number of workers and closely surrounded by workers houses.
Although it wasnt until after the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan on August 8,
1945 and that the second atomic bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 that
Japan accepted an unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, the dropping of the atomic bomb
was a key factor that lead to Japans surrender. On 14, 1945 the American people received the
news that Japan had surrendered and that World War II had came to an end. Japan had accepted
the provisions set forth in the declaration issued by the heads of the Allied Forces at Potsdam,
meaning an unconditional surrender. President Truman then officially claimed August 15 V-J
Day. It wasnt until September 2, 1945 that Japans actual formal surrender took place, in which
took place on the USS Missouri.
The events preceding and following the dropping of the atomic bomb dropped on
Hiroshima and the bomb itself clearly forced Japan into an unconditional surrender in World War
II.
The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was clearly devastating for Japan and
was key factor in the process towards Japans surrender in World War II. It was stated The
impact of the bomb was so terrific that practically all living things, human and animals, literally
were seared to death by the tremendous heat and pressure engendered by the blast. This
description itself describes the hell like features that it had caused on Japan both literally and
figuratively. With the war coming to an end and Japan suffering major losses from the two
atomic bombs, it made it almost impossible for the Japanese not to conceive to defeat. Whereas
if Japan had refused surrender they would have risked the possibility of continued atomic attack,
which would of caused over hundreds of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in
destruction. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a major effect on Japans existence in
World War II, in which it lead to Japans ultimate surrender.
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