Bikini Atoll is one of 29 atolls and five islands that make up the Marshall Islands (“A Short History”). Located in Micronesia, Bikini Atoll played a major role in World War II. Originally taken by the Japanese and used as a lookout point, it was later captured by U.S. forces in a battle that took place in its neighboring Kwajalein Atoll (“A Short History”). This would crush the Japanese hold on the Marshall Islands. After the war, President Truman recognized the importance of the Marshall Islands and its location in the Pacific. The Truman Administration wanted to enhance the countries knowledge on the effects of nuclear weapons on its ships and equipment. Until that point, nuclear testing was done on the behavior of nuclear weapons.
During the summer of 1946, a joint task force was given the mission to test the effects of nuclear radiation on ships, equipment and material. Formed in the winter of 1946, Joint Task Force 1 was made up of Navy, Army and civilian personnel (“Operation Crossroads, 1946”). The test was done using two atomic bombs, ABLE and BAKER. The target, was a fleet of 71 to 90 ships, depending on the source, and was made up of older U.S. ships and captured German and Japanese ships the first detonation in the series was named ABLE. ABLE was a 23 kt air burst that would fall short and to the left of its target resulting in only 5 ships being destroyed (“Operation Crossroads”). Experts determined the radiation was low enough to only require a couple of days before a crew could board the vessels and do their research. The BAKER detonation would be a similar weapon with only slight modifications to allow it to be suspended underwater. Anchored to the LSM-60, a landing ship, the BAKER detonation would test the effec...
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...(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bikiniatoll.com/
Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://robertstoneproductions.com/
Defense Nuclear Agency, (1984). Operation crossroads, 1946. Retrieved from U.S. Defense Nuclear Agency website: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq76-1.htm
John Smitherman. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/media-gallery/image/tredici/84.htm
Operation crossroads. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Crossrd.html
Stone, R. (Director), Rafferty, K. (Producer), Stone, S. (Producer), Weisgal, J. (Producer), & Rayter, J. (Videographer) (1987). Radio bikini [DVD].
The bikini atoll survey "operation crossroads", 1946-47. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mnh.si.edu/onehundredyears/expeditions/bikini.html
U.S.S. Allen M. Sumner DD-692 . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dd-692.com/atomic.htm
In May of 1942, Japanese Admiral Isorosku Yamamoto devised a plan to draw the US Pacific fleet into battle where he could completely destroy it. To accomplish this master plan of his, he sought out the invasion of Midway Island which would provide a base for the Japan troops to attack Hawaii. Unfortunately for Yamamoto, America decrypted Japanese radio transmissions and Admiral Chester Nimitz was able to establish a counter attack against this offensive. Nimitz sent three aircraft carriers, The USS Enterprise, The USS Hornet and The USS Yorktown to destroy the Japanese. This is just a short overview of The Battle of Midway, or as commonly referred to as, the battle that changed the war. People argue that it had no affect on the war, but those critics couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Battle of Midway was the turning point of the war because it fully enters America into the war, it kicked off the Pacific Campaign, and it had Japan on the defensive, thus preventing them from helping The Axis Forces.
The USS Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser. She did not have heavy armor which made her vulnerable to torpedo attacks. She had been ordered to sail on July 16, 1945, to deliver a bomb that would end the war. Unfortunately, it sank before it arrived.
Radio bikini was a documentary about an operation known as operation crossroads. After the atomic bombs were dropped on japan during world war two many questions arose such as what type of effects would a bomb of this magnitude have on a single battleship or an entire fleet? What would be the effects of an air explosion and an underwater explosion? What are the effects from the radiation? How would the underwater explosion affect the ships and the harbor? How long would the deadly affects linger? In this paper I will talk about Operation Crossroads and answer a lot of the major questions about the atomic bomb and the affects it would have. Also I will talk about the two test conducted on the island of bikini atoll known as Able and Baker.
In 1945, the United States was facing severe causalities in the war in the Pacific. Over 12,000 soldiers had already lost their lives, including 7,000 Army and Marine soldiers and 5,000 sailors (32). The United States was eager to end the war against Japan, and to prevent more American causalities (92). An invasion of Japan could result in hundreds of thousands killed, wounded and missing soldiers, and there was still no clear path to an unconditional surrender. President Truman sought advice from his cabinet members over how to approach the war in the Pacific. Although there were alternatives to the use of atomic weapons, the evidence, or lack thereof, shows that the bombs were created for the purpose of use in the war against Japan. Both the political members, such as Henry L. Stimson and James F. Byrnes, and military advisors George C. Marshall and George F. Kennan showed little objection to completely wiping out these Japanese cities with atomic weapons (92-97). The alternatives to this tactic included invading Japanese c...
What would have it been like without the nuclear test on the Bikini Atoll? Would it have been good or bad? Let’s find out! The test on Bikini Atoll contained two tests named “Able” which is the Airdrop. And “Baker” which is the underwater tests. Both were deadly, inflicting immense damage upon the environment of Bikini Atoll. So if It was without these two tests what would happen? The US could may have not found a way to defend from another country’s atomic bomb if It were to happen. But we may just elaborate another solution to defend against other countries from bombing our place. So It would be a great idea to never have bombed Bikini Atoll.
The island of Iwo Jima is just one of the many islands in the pacific that make up the island chain of Ogasawara. The Ogasawara chain of islands are located approximately 750 miles south of Tokyo. In comparison to most of the other islands in the pacific Iwo Jima is relatively small, in fact it is only four and a half miles long by two and a half miles wide. The geographic layout of Iwo Jima consists of a dormant volcano on the northern side called Mount Suribachi and a flat stretch of land to the south. So why is such a small island so important? After the surprise attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor America needed a place to stage aircraft for conducting bombing runs on Tokyo, Iwo Jima provided the best place to host our fleet of bombers.
Although nuclear technology can be used for good, it can also be used for destruction. One example of this was the bombing of 2 Japanese cities using the a...
The Americans came back to the island. They wanted to test the atomic bomb on the island. They forced the natives to move to an island south of Bikini. This did not make the natives happy, they didn't want to lose there island.
Iwo Jima Operation, February - March 1945. (n.d.). Iwo Jima Operation, February - March 1945. Retrieved February 5, 2014, from http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/wwii-pac/iwojima/iwojima.htm
On December 7th 1941, Japanese Planes and submarines attacked the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor. This event singlehandedly brought the U.S from its then neutral stance in World War Two to a fighting member of the “Allied Powers.” Pearl Harbor was the first of a long series of confrontations between the U.S and the Japanese in an effort to gain control of the Pacific. Unlike the “War in Europe” the Pacific strategy was dominated by naval and aerial battles, with the occasional land-based “Island Hopping” Campaign. As such, one of the most important factors in the war in the pacific was Fleet Size, the more ships a country could send to war, the better. Pearl Harbor was the Japanese’s way of trying to deal with the massive U.S Pacific fleet. However, Pearl Harbor was not the turning point of the war. After December 7th the United States began work on numerous technological developments which would ultimately help them in one of the most important battles of WWII, the largest naval confrontation of the war, The Battle of Midway. The battle, which took place from June 4th to June 7th , 1942 is widely considered the turning point of the Pacific Theater (James & Wells). Through the Post-Pearl Harbor desire for “Revenge” and various technological advantages including code breaking and radar, the U.S were able to outsmart the Japanese at Midway and ultimately win the battle, eventually leading to a victory in the Pacific.
It all started in December 1945, when the US president at the time Harry Truman gave the order for the army and navy officials that there would need to be nuclear joint testing of nuclear weapons, to determine the effect of the atomic bombs on American warships so they can be ready for anything that could happen to them. They went out looking for an area that was isolated enough from the rest of the world in order to be able to test their nuclear weapons without causing enough damage to start a crisis. They found the Bikini Atoll and Commodore Ben Wyatt, the military governor of the Marshall Islands, where Bikini is, went there in 1946 and asked the 167 Bikini islanders if it were okay for them to leave their atoll for a short amount of time so that the United States could begin testing their atomic bombs for the good of mankind and to end all world wars. The one in charge of the Bikini, King Juda, said after long discussions with his people that they will stand before the American delegation and they will believe that everything is in the hands of God.
At 5:30 AM July 16th 1945, the nuclear age had started. The world’s first atomic bomb was detonated. On August 6th 1942 at 8:15 AM, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped a perfected atomic bomb created by the Americans, over the city of Hiroshima hoping to end the war. Thousands of people died in the two cities in Japan. They were Hiroshima and Nagasaki “the Manhattan Project”. The research and development project that produced these atomic bombs during this time was known as “the Manhattan Project”.
United States. Defense Nuclear Agency. Operation Dominic I - 1962. Vol. DNA 6040F. L. Berkhouse, 1962. T24298. U.S. Department of Defense - Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. .
The United States’ decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima required extensive research leading to its production. The main goal of the American side was to damage the enemy’s confidence, while choosing a target with the highest military output in order to conclude the war (Robinson).The group in charge of developing the technology was known as the Manhattan Project, and was kept top-secret. Selection began in the spring of 1945, with assistance from the Commanding General, Army Air Forces, his Headquarters (Robinson).There was a variety of experts working on the project, including mathematicians, theoretical physicists, and specialists trained in weather and blast effects Headquarters (Robinson). In order to monitor all of the results, the city had to be untouched, meaning the target had to have no signs of previous bombings. Based on these requirements, the designation of Hiroshima for the bombing was not a simple determination. After a target was selected and the weapon was developed, testing was set to begin. On July 16, 1945, the first test in Alamogordo, New Mexico, proved that the bomb was prepared for release onto...
The nuclear bomb was the most devastating weapon ever created by man. It was developed between 1942 and 1945 during the second World War. The project to build the worlds first atomic weapon was called The Manhattan Project. The nuclear bomb was based on the idea of splitting an atom to create energy, this is called fission. Three bombs were created, “Trinity”, “Little Boy”, and “Fat Man”. “Trinity” was dropped on a test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, proving the theories, engineering and mathematics of the bomb to be correct. Shortly after that, not more than 2 months, the U.S. performed the first actual nuclear attack in the history of war. The bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on the town of Hiroshima, instantly killing thousands. “Fat Man” was dropped shortly after on the town of Nagasaki. After the bombing almost all scientist involved with the creation of the bomb regretted its construction and spoke out against the abolishment of nuclear weapons.