Travis Ching Mr. Perih World Civ 9(5) 7 May 2014 Bombs Away! Boom! As B-29 fighter planes are in the air, a bright flash quickly engulfs the city. Citizens look toward the flash but are deleted instantly. They don’t know what hit them. This is the power of the Atomic Bomb. The Atomic Bomb is one of the most powerful military weapons with a very strong destructive force. In World War II, the United States didn’t enter the war to preserve their isolation until an event occurred. In 1941, Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, was bombed by the Japan, which were the Axis power (enemies). This is when the United States enters the war. The bomb was created in 1945, during World War II, to force Japan to surrender. Japan’s surrender may have been from the progress the scientist made during the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was founded in 1942 by the United States government to create a fission (nuclear) bomb (Kroenig). The first idea of a fission bomb was during 1938 when two scientist named Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard discovered the power of fission in uranium (Astore). In 1939, there was a possibility that Germany had the same idea and started researching on making a fission type bomb in an Arms race competition. An Arms race is when a country battles another country for status by having stronger and better weapons. In this race, it was for the creation of the fission bomb. Albert Einstein was also one of the scientists working on fission type reaction. Something different about Einstein is that he is from Germany, a country from the Axis power, and is helping the United States. He is helping the United States instead of Germany because he moved to the United States before Hitler became leader. In 1944, the United States knew Ger... ... middle of paper ... ...knows the United States has the power to use fission bombs. “It was not the bomb itself that caused surrender but it was the experience of what an atomic bomb does” (Stimson). The Manhattan Project totaled to a cost of two billion dollars. They were able to create fission bombs that changed the look and destruction of war (Stimson). With Japan’s surrender, World War II was coming to an end. The emperor was looked down by a small groups but was later subdued. With this great power comes a great responsibility. An all out nuclear warfare could destroy humanity. To make sure a nuclear warfare doesn’t happen, treaties were made so no country would fire a nuclear weapon unless they wanted to strike first which would result in the start of a nuclear warfare. Now that most countries possess nuclear weapons, everyone must watch each other before another World War starts.
As long as there is love, there will be hatred; as long as there is peace, there will be war, and as long as there is a positive side, there is a negative side. During the Second World War, the Nazis were very powerful. Due to the fear of the Nazis, Americans started a project called “The Manhattan Project" in order to build a very deadly weapon that could even blow cities apart. The allied powers were so concerned with Nazi domination, that they never considered the outcomes of creating an atomic bomb which are also positive and negative. The development of the atomic bomb boosted the level of understanding in terms of physics and chemistry of that particular time period.
The atomic bomb created under the Manhattan Project set a new level of psychological panic. It influence media, government, and daily lives of those all around the world. The media was covering stories about protection from a nuclear attack and the government was right next to the reporters helping to further the creation of fear with their messages about preparation.
The United States of America’s use of the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has spurred much debate concerning the necessity, effectiveness, and morality of the decision since August 1945. After assessing a range of arguments about the importance of the atomic bomb in the termination of the Second World War, it can be concluded that the use of the atomic bomb served as the predominant factor in the end of the Second World War, as its use lowered the morale, industrial resources, and military strength of Japan. The Allied decision to use the atomic bomb not only caused irreparable physical damage to two major Japanese cities, but its use also minimized the Japanese will to continue fighting. These two factors along with the Japanese neglect of the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria, proved that the Allied use of the atomic bomb was the definitive factor in the Japanese decision to surrender.
The atomic policy against Japan was closely related to the fear of Soviet expansion in Asia. U.S. leaders were strongly conscious of Russia’s agreement at Yalta to join the war against Japan three months past Germany’s surrender on May 7, 1945 (Fogelman, 124). Among the U.S. invasion of Japan planned for November 1, 1945, U.S. officials were doubtful about the cooperative mission with Russia in which Russia would have power at the peace table. However, the successful detonation at Alamogordo had transformed everything. The bomb guaranteed that the U.S. no longer required Russian aid to win in the Pacific (Wainstock, 132).
...or both sides; casualties were increasing. This was what mostly led to the U.S to drop the atomic bomb. The Japanese surrender did not occur until after the first bomb dropped of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and a second on Nagasaki. The atomic bomb was the result of a top secret experiment called the Manhattan Project (The Americans. Reconstruction to the 21st Century) the war was finally over when Japan surrendered on August 14th.
Atomic Bomb The use of the atomic bombs on Japan was necessary for the revenge of the Americans. These bombs took years to make due to a problematic equation. The impact of the bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people and the radiation is still killing people today. People today still wonder why the bombs were dropped. If these bombs weren’t dropped on the Japanese the history of the world would have been changed forever. The Atomic bomb took 6 years to develop (1939-1945) for scientists to work on a equation to make the U-235 into a bomb. The most complicated process in this was trying to produce enough uranium to sustain a chain reaction. The bombs used on the cities cost about $2 billion to develop, this also making the U.S. wanting to use them against Japan. “Hiroshima was a major military target and we have spent 2 billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history- and won.” (3) The bomb dropped on Hiroshima weighted 4.5 tons and the bomb used on Nagasaki weighted 10 kilotons. On July 16, 1945, the first ever atomic bomb was tested in the Jamez Mountains in Northern New Mexico, code named “Gadget.” The single weapon ultimately dropped on Hiroshima, nicknamed “Little Boy,” produced the amount of approximately twenty- thousand tons of TNT, which is roughly seven times greater than all of the bombs dropped by all the allies on all of Germany in 1942. The first Japanese City bomb was Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. An American B-29 bomber, named Enola Gay, flown by the pilot Paul W. Tibbets, dropped the “Little Boy” uranium atomic bomb. Three days later a second bomb named ”Fat Boy,” made of plutonium was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. After being released, it took approximately one minute for Little Boy to reach the point of explosion, which was about 2,000 feet. The impact of the bombs on the cities and people was massive. Black rain containing large amounts of nuclear fallout fell as much as 30km from the original blast site. A mushroom cloud rose to twenty thousand feet in the air, and sixty percent of the city was destroyed. The shock wave and its reverse effect reached speeds close to those of the speed of sound. The wind generated by the bombs destroyed most of the houses and buildings within a 1.
When President Truman authorized the use of two nuclear weapons in 1945 against the Japanese in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, the nature of international security was changed irreversibly. At that time, the United States had what was said to have a monopoly of atomic bombs. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union began working on atomic weaponry. In 1949, it had already detonated it first atomic bomb and tensions began to heat up between the two countries. With the information that the Soviets had tested their first bomb, the United States began work on more powerful weapons1, and a fight for nuclear superiority had begun.
The strongest among the Allies, the United States was the initiator of the plan of the atomic bomb. During World War II, Japan bombed the navy base of the United States known as Pearl Harbor(Depression & WWII). Fueled by the motivation to take revenge on Japan after the Pearl Harbor Incident, the United States decided to enter World War II. In order to defeat Japan as rapidly as possible, the United States initiated the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb (Chen). The two atomic bombs that were dropped on the two major cities of Japan led to the unconditional surrender of Japan. According to President, Truman the dropping of the “atomic bomb was the greatest thing in history.”(Wright) Therefore, even after seeing the devastating effects of the atomic bomb the United States showed no regrets of the plan of the atomic bomb. The United States government believed that it was a necessary act to drop the atomic bomb for the sake of ending the war as soon as possible.
In today’s society, many countries and even citizens of the United States question the U.S. government’s decision to get involved in nuclear warfare. These people deemed it unnecessary and stated that the U.S. is a hypocrite that preaches peace, but causes destruction and death. Before and during World War II the U.S. was presented with a difficult decision on whether or not to develop and use the atomic bomb. The U.S. decided to develop the atomic bomb based on the fear they had for the safety of the nation. In August 1939 nuclear physicists sent manuscripts to Albert Einstein in fear the Germany might use the new knowledge of fission on the uranium nucleus as way to construct weapons.
The Manhattan Project was composed of a top secret group of scientists who worked diligently to produce the atomic bomb. After hours of research on plutonium and uranium 235, the scientists had the ability to produce the bomb. When the Japanese refused to surrender, the Americans dropped two bombs on Japan, destroying the two cities. The entire world was shocked because no one even knew about the bombs that the United States created. Americans found out about the bombs after President Truman made the announcement to the United States. Overall, the Manhattan Project was necessary for the United States to gain victory in World War II.
The war was coming to a victorious conclusion for the Allies. Germany had fallen, and it was only a matter of time until Japan would fall as well. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson was at the forefront of the American war effort, and saw atomic weaponry as a way out of the most monumental war ever. As discussed in Cabell Phillips’ book, The Truman Presidency: The History of a Triumphant Succession, Stimson was once quoted as saying that the atomic bomb has “more effect on human affairs than the theory of Copernicus and the Law of Gravity” (55). Stimson, a defendant of dropping the bomb on Japan, felt that the world would never be the same. If the world would change after using atomic weapons, could it possibly have changed for the better? One would think not. However, that person might be weary of the biased opinion of White House personnel. He or she should care more for the in depth analytical studies done by experts who know best as to why America should or should not have dropped the atomic bomb. As more and more evidence has been presented to researchers, expert opinion on whether or not the United States should have dropped the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has also changed. More and more researchers seem to feel that the atomic bomb should never have been used (Alperovitz 16). Despite several officials’ claims to enormous death estimations, an invasion of Japan would have cost fewer total lives. In addition, post atomic bomb repercussions that occurred, such as the Arms Race, were far too great a price to pay for the two atomic drops. However, possibly the most compelling argument is that Japan would have surrendered with or without the United States using the atomic bomb. In defiance of top...
On August 6, 1945, America changed ancient warfare. It was now about mass destruction using nuclear warfare, as seen by the Japanese that fateful day the atomic bomb struck their land. The bombing of Hiroshima killed thousands, America soon tried to mend their ways with those affected. In America's Hiroshima by Peter Schwenger, it tells of the many different ways the bombing affected those here in America and how the bombing is looked at today.
Admittedly, dropping the atomic bomb was a major factor in Japan's decision to accept the terms laid out at the Potsdam agreement otherwise known as unconditional surrender. The fact must be pointed out, however, that Japan had already been virtually defeated. (McInnis, 1945) Though the public did not know this, the allies, in fact, did. Through spies, they had learned that both Japan's foreign minister, Shigenori Togo and Emperor Hirohito both supported an end to the war (Grant, 1998). Even if they believed such reports to be false or inaccurate, the leaders of the United States also knew Japan's situation to be hopeless. Their casualties in defending the doomed island of Okinawa were a staggering 110,000 and the naval blockade which the allies had enforced whittled trade down to almost nothing. Japan was quickly on the path to destruction. (Grant, 1998). Of course, the Allies ignored this for the reason that dropping the atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would intimidate Russia. Had they truly been considering saving more lives and bringing a quick end to the war in Japan, they would have simply waited them out without the major loss of life seen at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In the years between 1944 and 1973, America underwent an incredible amount of change from various international events. Although many influential events occurred, the particular event that stands out is the development and use of the first atomic bomb. The atomic bomb can be seen as the most important development because not only did it stop the war in the pacific, it impacted the entire world and its politics because of the imminent threat of immediate destruction.
When nuclear weapons were first discovered back in the 1940's, no one knew the force they were going to have on the world. Many lives were taken when the United States of America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These lives could have been saved if the communication between the United States and Japan were better. Those bombs should never have been dropped. Even the scientists, who were part of the Manhattan Project thought this. Ever since the start of nuclear exploration people have feared the out comes that came from nuclear development.