How Did The Manhattan Project Affect Society

On August 7th, 1945, the world changed for the worse. The Manhattan Project had been put into motion in efforts to stop the war with Japan. This was the use of the first ever atomic bomb which hit the city of Hiroshima in Japan. This caused mass destruction and death to those in the city and surrounding areas. Not only did this affect Japan, but it affected every other country in the world. From this day forward, it became an arms race for the deadliest and most destructive weapon. There was pressure to use the weapon from United States staff who were highly educated on the Manhattan Project which possibly influenced newly appointed President Truman to make the decision of dropping the bomb. The devastation that was brought to Japan from the Manhattan Project was avoidable if we had communicated with the Japanese

Nationalism involves people who are devoted to something, in this case, a country. People from these countries tend to only have one side of the story. Americans think of Pearl Harbour and how we need to take revenge on Japan. It is understandable that there are drastic measures taken during times of war, but it is morally wrong to choose cities that will cause the most casualties. An unofficial American source speculates that “Japanese dead and wounded might exceed 100,000” (William). Along with the 100,000 people who were killed, “60 percent of the built-up areas of Hiroshima vanished” (William).The beliefs of the American people should not be to use weapons of this caliber. Originally the United States believed that “ Hitler was well ahead of us”( Morrison) but “by December ‘44, we learned the unmistakably… that the Germans were not a threat” (Morrison). Because the United States was the first country use an atomic weapon, it created an arms race between every country in the world. Countries were nervous that the United States had more bombs and wanted to prepare for a nuclear war if the time