Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a project to create the first atomic bomb during WWII. This project was being done by the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Canada. This project began becuase in 1939 it was rumored that the Nazis were developing an atomic bomb so the U.S. had to build a bomb before they did. Many people thought that Germany was building a bomb becuase a German scientist had split the uranium atom. Many German scientists left Germany becuase they were jew and came to the U.S. and one of those scientists was Albert Einstein. Einstein urged FDR to develop an atomic bomb before Hitler did. Roosevelt finally agreed to create the bomb and the project was called the Manhattan Project. When Roosevelt passed away Truman became president and he learned about the Manhattan Project which he never knew about even though he was the vice president. The Manhattan Project was a very top secret project and by 1945 they had nearly 40 labratories which had around 200,000 thousand people. Then on July 16, 1945 in a desert of New Mexico the world's first nuclear test was made which was named "Trinity" and becuase of its success 2 more bombs were created that were going to be dropped on Japan. The 2 bombs that were dropped on Japan were named "Little Boy" which was dropped in Hiroshima and "Fat Man" which was dropped on Nagasaki. The explosions of both bombs created many long term impacts on the people and their children that survived the explosions. Rain the followed the explosions of the atomic bombs had a lot of radioactivity which caused many to die from radiation poison. The surivors also suffered severe burns, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, diarrhea, and hair loss and many other symtons are being studies until now. One discovery was how Leukemia is passed to the new borns of survivors.

This picture shows the result of the "Trinity Test" and it shows how powerful the atomic bomb is and how much destruction it could cause. This pictures tells us that almost nobody could survive a blast this big.

This picture was found here.
This is a picture of Albert Einstein who was involved in creating the atomic bomb. This tells us that the creation of the bomb involved some of the greatest scientists that have lived.

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This is the atomic bomb named "Little Boy" and is the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and it weighed 9,000 pounds.

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This is a picture of the explosion after "Little Boy" was dropped and this explosion killed about 66 thousand people instantanously. This shows how devastating a bomb could be when dropped on a city.
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This is Nagasaki after the bomb was dropped. From this we can see that the Atomic bombs cause a lot of damage and deaths in less than a second. This shows how powerful an atomic bomb is when dropped on a city.

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This is a letter from Albert Einstein to the President, Roosevelt. In this letter Einstein is warning the President that Germans are making an atomic bomb. Einstein also tells the president to take action immediately.
This letter was found here.

"...now I am become Death [Shiva], the destroyer of worlds..."

This is a quote from Physicist Robert Oppenheimer who was the supervising scientist of the Manhattan Project.

This quote was found here.

"Q Dr. Szilard, what was your attitude in 1945 toward the question of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan?
A I opposed it with all my power, but I'm afraid not as effectively as I should have wished."

This is part of an interview that talks about the manhattan project with one of the scientists involved with making the bomb. Dr. Szilard tells the interviewer that he opposed dropping the bomb on Japan.

To read the rest of the interview click here.

This is a video showing an atomic bomb being dropped as a test in Bikini lagoon in the Marshall Islands and this bomb is very similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki. This video shows how powerful the atomic bombs could be when dropped.
To see the video go here.

"Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima...The force from which the sun draws its powers has been loosed against those who brought the war in the Far East."

"It is part of my responsibility as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces to see to it that our country is able to defend itself against any possible aggressor. Accordingly, I have directed the Atomic Energy Commission to continue its work on all forms of atomic weapons, including the so-called hydrogen or super-bomb."

These are 2 quotes from President Truman. In the first quote he explains that the Atomic bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima. In the second quote he allows the scientist to continue their work on the hydrogen bomb which is also known as a super-bomb.

To read more quote from President Truman go here.