Atomic Bomb Essay

With tensions rising between the United States and Japan, the U.S. had to perform something to end the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and theoretical physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer developed an organization named the Manhattan project that would alter WWII. The creation of the atomic bomb had gone through numerous trials of transportation and rigorous testing. It left a mark when it was ultimately utilized against Japan with the intention of surrender. While it killed many people, how the atomic bomb was used in WWII will define nuclear warfare permanently.
Japan was a strong and tactical enemy of the U.S. and its allies during the war. As the war progressed tensions rose. Japan invaded Indo-China in hopes of acquiring oil-rich land.

To combat these concerns the U.S. had to retaliate with something big. On August 13, 1942, American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was commanded to be head of the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico along with Edward Teller, one of many scientists to be recruited. A month later Groves is appointed Temporary Brigadier General and Head of the project. Leslie wasn’t too pleased with the decision because he aspired to command troops, but he was prominent in his ability to guide the construction of the bomb. As it came to be, Groves was an excellent choice for the position and ultimately decreased the time needed to produce the bomb with his drive to complete goals. (Norris) Over the course of 1943 Groves selected sites within the U.S. that would contribute to the success of the bomb. The most important in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Oak Ridge, Tennessee (Site X), and Hanford, Washington (Site W). While in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, uranium was being enriched in special facilities, while nuclear reactors at Hanford produced plutonium. The 2 main sites chosen to synthesize these elements were exceedingly secure, and the only way a person could travel between these sites was via General Groves's

Scientists believed that the uranium-based “little boy” would detonate exceedingly; though, they didn't have much confidence in “fat man” the plutonium-based bomb. With uranium-based weapons scarce and having multiple plutonium bombs at hand, Oppenheimer decided to commence testing of “fat man”. Oppenheimer assigned the name “Trinity” to the operation. The day prior to the test, the bombs were raised into a 100-foot firing tower to then be dropped. The next day Oppenheimer, Groves, and multiple scientists prepared inside a bomb shelter 5 miles far from the tower. Three-thirty was the set time for the bomb detonation; though, due to heavy rain, they postponed until 5:30. After 2 hours of waiting and viewers betting on how the bomb would react, “at precisely 5:30 a.m. on Monday, July 16, 1945, the nuclear age began. While Manhattan Project staff members watched anxiously, the device exploded over the New Mexico desert, vaporizing the tower and turning the asphalt around the tower's base to green sand. Seconds after the explosion came a huge blast wave and heat searing out across the desert.” (Interactive History). When the bomb exploded the force exerted was so powerful that it produced the equivalent of 21,000 tons of TNT. Residents 180 miles away from Trinity reported an instance of shaking. As the project was to remain secret, the government announced that high-tech explosive rounds were in use