Atomic Bomb

Powerful weapon of mass destruction that harnesses the energy created by nuclear fission (the splitting of the nucleus of an atom). The result creates an explosion of tremendous force.

Development of the Bomb

In December 1938, German physicist Otto Hahn became the first person to perfect the process of nuclear fission. In his experiments, Hahn bombarded uranium atoms with slow-moving neutrons, causing the uranium nuclei to split in two and release more neutrons. Physicists later discovered that the fission of one atom could cause a chain reaction by triggering the fission of surrounding atoms.

[Page 52]Pioneering theoretical physicists such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Robert Oppenheimer realized the enormous possibilities of this research and quickly alerted the British and American governments to the German discoveries. These physicists were aware that the fission of a single atom releases a million times more energy per pound than dynamite. A country that is able to harness such energy could produce an unimaginably powerful weapon. Many of these scientists were also European refugees who had fled to the United States because of the anti-Semitic policies of Nazi Germany. Terrified of the prospect of the Nazis possessing a workable atomic bomb, they were determined to develop one first.

By 1941, with Great Britain struggling to fight off the Nazis and prospects for Allied victory dim, the development and production of the atomic bomb was turned over to the Americans. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved a feasibility study in October 1941, and the project to build the bomb—code-named the Manhattan Project—was finally launched in December of that year. The scientists of the Manhattan Project developed a highly enriched form of uranium called U-235 for use in a working nuclear bomb. They also tested predictions about the capabilities of the newly discovered element plutonium for use in an atomic bomb.

Use of the Bomb

The motivation behind the American and British work on the atomic bomb was to develop it before the Nazis did, and they succeeded. In the end, however, Germany surrendered before the Allies had successfully tested their nuclear device. That first test, code-named Trinity, took place in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945. Originally designed for use against Germany, the bomb was ultimately used against the Japanese.

The first atomic weapon ever used against a live target was the enriched-uranium bomb named “Little Boy.” It was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, from a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay. The second (and, so far, last) atomic bomb dropped in anger was “Fat Man,” which used enriched plutonium as its power source. Three days after Little Boy destroyed Hiroshima, the bomber Bock's Car delivered Fat Man to the city of Nagasaki. Each atomic explosion incinerated everything within a half-mile radius, caused fires to break out in the area immediately outside that zone, and created radioactive rainfall. Together, the bombs killed about 150,000 people immediately, and many thousands more died of wounds and radiation sickness in the following weeks and months. The second atomic attack convinced the reluctant Japanese army to surrender, bringing an end to World War II.

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