Few inventions or scientific achievements have changed the course of history more than the atomic bomb. For the first time, mankind created a weapon that had the capability to destroy life as we know it. The Manhattan Project officially began on Aug. 13, 1941 but the roots of this project go a bit further back to 1938 when German scientists discovered nuclear fission.
Some of the best German scientists were Jewish and fled Germany and came to the United States. When news of this German discovery made its rounds, it led the scientific community to discuss and debate if nuclear fission could be used to create a new type of energy or a new type of weapon. When FDR was made aware by some of the greatest scientific minds like Albert Einstein that the Germans might try to make an atomic bomb, he created what became known as the Advisory Uranium committee. This committee was created in October of 1939, had both civilian and military representation and they researched the potential of using uranium as a weapon. Their findings led to the funding of research at Columbia University on how to enrich uranium and nuclear chain reactions. The Advisory Committee on Uranium got renamed and was known as Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). In 1942, The Army Corps of Engineers joined the OSRD. General Leslie R. Groves was appointed the Director of the Manhattan Engineer District otherwise known as The Manhattan Project. It was named after the location of the project's first official headquarters. At its peak, it employed almost 130,000 people and had a total price tag of 2 Billion dollars. To complete this project, sites were set up across the country. Each site having a different focus but with the same goal in mind – complete their work successfully to create a weapon that could bring an end to the war before the enemy could. Scientists at Columbia University in NY, University of California, Berkeley and University of Chicago were involved in the start of the project. The project would also have headquarters on the west coast. Los Alamos was an isolated area in the mountains. The army purchased 54,000 acres under the premise the land was going to be used as a demolition range. More land was needed to divide up the project and prevent enemy countries from finding out. 59,000 acres of land was purchased for the Oak Ridge, Tennessee site creating the 5th largest city in the state of Tennessee at the time. At its height, Oak Ridge was home to 75,000 people. The 3,000 residents of the once small farming community were forced off of their land with minimal compensation. Many simply found eviction notices on their door or if they had school aged children, they came home with notices stipulating that the government required their property for the war effort and that they would need to find somewhere else to live. The area was considered a military district and not subject to state control. It was surrounded by guard towers and a fence with 7 gates. The town was massive, it needed to be to serve the 75,000 residents that lived there. Prefabricated homes, apartments and dormitories were quickly set up. There were 10 schools built, 17 restaurants, 13 cafeterias, a library, sports complexes, religious services for the 17 denominations represented in the town and even a symphony orchestra. Its location in the south meant that this was a segregated town – from where people lived to the schools the children were educated in. The massive facility in Oak Ridge Tennessee was responsible for enriching uranium. There were three massive uranium enrichment facilities: Y-12 Electromagnetic Separation Plant; the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant; and the S-50 Liquid Thermal Diffusion Plant. They also had the world’s first Plutonium producing reactor which was operational there until 1963. Work at the facility was top secret, so secret in fact that many of the workers had no idea what they were working on. There is a great story of 10,000 women working at the facility, many of whom had only just graduated high school. They had no idea that the work that they were doing was to create a nuclear bomb. There were stories of people simply no longer working there because they had started to ask too many questions. These Calutron girls were better at operating the dials for the machines that were separating the uranium. Where the scientists would overthink things and try to fix it, the Calutron girls went about their work and would notify the scientists only when an issue arose. Today, the Department of Energy controls the Federal sites at Oak Ridge. The town is home to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Another lesser known Atomic bomb location is in Hanford, Washington. The site was established in 1943 and it is known for having the first Plutonium production reactor in the world. The site is large and encompasses the same amount of land as the state of Rhode Island. The Columbia river also flows through the Hanford site. Previous residents to the land were mostly farmers but a number of Native American tribes were also removed from the land such as the Nez Perce, Wanapum people, Yakima Nation just to name a few. Native American tribes turned down an offer of annual cash payments for the land. The land’s Columbia river was an important food source for the many tribes. Fish caught there would be salted and dried for use all winter long. At first the government gave passes for chiefs to come onto the land to fish but that was eventually stopped due to the high security of the area and the need for total secrecy.
Workers were hired to complete the job under the premise that they would be working on a war construction project. The reactors were designed, built and operated by the DuPont company. DuPont also built the graphite reactor at Oak Ridge. The company made no profit on it as they didn’t want to be labeled a war profiteering company and they gave any patents over to the government. Workers were housed off site and like Oak Ridge, black and white workers were segregated. The work done at Hanford was instrumental in the creation of the atomic bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nuclear material was dumped into the Columbia river daily. Knowledge of this was kept secret but tests showed that nuclear material was present in the river more than 200 miles away. Fish were contaminated and Native American groups that relied on the river became sick in large numbers. Reports in the 1960s and again in the 1980s showed that exposure to this material caused cancer in those living down river.
The most famous of all three sites is Los Alamos, New Mexico. The site was chosen after meeting certain criteria. It was at least 200 miles from international boundaries, was west of the Mississippi river, was a remote location and away from the general public but it was accessible for those who needed to get there. In April of 1943, a research laboratory in the New Mexico mountains was created by the US Government. It was codenamed Project Y. The lab was linked to the University of California but even the President of the University didn’t know what its purpose was. General Leslie Groves was put in charge of the project and he selected University of California, Berkeley Physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer to direct the lab. Oppenheimer traveled across the country to the top universities and recruited the top minds of the age. Schools like Cornell, Princeton, MIT, the University of Chicago, and of course a number of his colleagues at Berkeley. The scientists at Los Alamos worked on calculations to figure out the correct amount of materials needed and how to construct the bomb. Scientists were expected to work 6 days a week for 8 hours a day, but many especially researchers worked longer hours. Los Alamos as it became known after the war was a community like no other. Its location was secret, its only address was a PO Box in Santa Fe. In fact, babies born at Los Alamos during the war, their birth location was listed as PO Box 1663. It was surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. Many personnel were not allowed contact with family members or friends outside of the community. Schools were opened for the children of the scientists and other people living there and some of the most gifted students were taught math and science by none other than Enrico Fermi and Hans Bethe. Many enjoyed the natural beauty New Mexico had to offer, hiking, horseback riding, ice skating and skiing and people attended movies and even played golf. Security was of the utmost importance to prevent leaks. 9 and a half foot fences with barbed wire, flood lights, security clearances, mail was censored and phones were not easily found. Additional security checkpoints at different facilities throughout the site limited access to information and aspects of the project to only those cleared for it. When phones were available, calls were listened to. Even with all of this security, 2 scientists did pass information along to the Soviets.
The secret city was built in a matter of weeks and 6,000 scientists, technicians, engineers and military personnel moved to Los Alamos. The best scientists, mathematicians and engineers were recruited to use their talents to build the bomb before the Germans.
Two bomb models were developed: A gun-type bomb, named Little Boy, used enriched uranium from Oak Ridge. Fat Man, which was an implosion-type weapon, it used plutonium produced at Hanford. Field tests on the gun type bomb, Little boy were deemed accurate and didn’t require a test. Fat Man was more problematic and officials successfully tested the implosion method at the Trinity site.
In just 28 months the work would be complete and scientists would detonate a successful bomb in the New Mexico desert.
On July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated. The bomb was placed on top of a 100-foot steel tower that was designated Zero. Equipment, instruments, and observation points were established at varying distances from Ground Zero. The wooden observation shelters were protected by concrete and earthen barricades to protect those watching from the force of the bomb and the radiation. Observers watched through dark glasses to protect their eyes from the light of the explosion. Within 7 minutes a 38,000 foot cloud surged into the air. At Ground Zero was a crater one-half mile across and eight feet deep. The sand in the crater had turned to jade colored green glass which the scientists named trinitite. Hence the name Trinity site. The site itself was covered with fencing and signs warning people of the radioactivity. After just 28 months, the scientists had met their goal. The weapon was ready and it worked.
Census data shows that about half a million people lived within a 150 mile radius from the test site. Some people even lived as close as 12 miles from the test site. Measurements taken by scientists after the explosion of the bomb showed that the amount of radiation was multiple times higher than they had thought. The government didn’t issue any evacuation orders, warn people of the risks or educate people living in the area that they had been exposed to something potentially dangerous. Years later, communities near the test site had high cancer rates among the population.
Now that they knew the bomb worked, it was time to get it to Japan. The U.S.S. Indianapolis was in California for repair. It was tasked with the mission of bringing components of the bomb Little Boy to Tinian Island in the Pacific. Just a few hours after the test at the Trinity Site, The USS Indianapolis set off for Tinian Island. None of the crew knew what was in the crate. Two members of the team from the Manhattan Project accompanied the package to Tinian Island. On July 26th, the bomb arrived on the Island. The USS Indianapolis continued on to Guam and then towards the Philippines. A Japanese submarine attacked the Indianapolis and 4 days after bringing Little Boy to Tinian Island it sank. 879 crew members died, mostly in the water from either drowning or from shark attacks. It wasn’t until after the bombing of Hiroshima that the 317 survivors learned what their mission had been about.
With the successful testing of the bomb, Billions of dollars spent on the project and the opportunity to demonstrate the might of the US military power and intimidate the soviets the stage was set to cement the position of the United States as the dominant superpower and to bring an end to the war. President Truman had a few options. He could continue to have Japanese cities bombed with conventional weapons which had been done for years at this point and killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens and there was no surrendering. There was an option of a ground invasion of the Japanese homeland. In the battles of Iwo Jima & Okinawa, one out of every 3 US soldiers were killed or wounded. The human cost of this option was considerable for the United States and for the Japanese who had sworn to fight to the last person. Another option was to drop the bomb on an unpopulated area. President Truman ultimately chose to use the bomb on a populated area. The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen for a number of reasons. The cities had to have suffered minimal damage. They wanted it clear that it was this specific bomb that did the damage. It had to have ties to the military machine of Japan and the cities could not hold cultural significance. The population of Hiroshima in 1945 was between 300,000 – 420,000 people and was a manufacturing center of Japan. It was also where the Army headquarters were as well as being an important shipping city and a communications center. The man who would bring the bomb to Hiroshima was Colonel Paul Tibbets. He had earned himself the reputation of being one of the best pilots in the air force and flew over 40 combat missions. He had helped to develop the B29 Superfortress. He was briefed on the Manhattan Project and helped to redesign the plane so that it could hold the 10,000 pound bomb. On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945 Tibbets and his crew dropped the bomb on the city at 8:15 in the morning. Tibbets named the plane Enola Gay after his mother. Once Little boy was released from the plane, Tibbets immediately turned the plane. He knew he only had about 40 seconds to turn the plane away from the city in the hopes that he and the crew would be able to survive the blast. After 43 seconds, the bomb detonated at 2,000 feet. The ground temperature in Hiroshima reached 7,000 degrees in less than a minute. People were instantly vaporized up to a mile away from Ground Zero. It’s believed about 80,000 people died instantly. Almost every building in the city had been leveled by the bomb. Survivors recounted seeing an almost blinding flash of light which was followed by a large boom. People were thrown across rooms, glass completely shattered and their skin burned beyond belief. Many survivors would die in the days and weeks following the bombing due to what became known as radiation sickness. One of the few buildings in the city that remained standing was the Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall which today is known as the A bomb dome or the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.
The Japanese Government learned about what happened in Hiroshima in stages. The radio station in the city stopped broadcasting, the telegraph line in the city stopped transmitting information, and news of an explosion in the city began to circulate. An army pilot was sent to see what was happening in Hiroshima and report back. His report of smoke covering the city along with the news of President Truman’s announcement hours later, the Japanese learned that the city had been completely destroyed by a new weapon. The Japanese government wanted to launch an investigation to prove it had been an atomic bomb. They too had tried to create an atomic bomb. They knew it was possible but they found it hard to believe the Americans had been successful. The military leaders known as the Supreme War Direction Council, agreed to meet again on Aug. 9th. When the Japanese didn’t immediately surrender, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima on Aug. 9, 1945. Nagasaki wasn’t the original second target. The city of Kokura was. Nagasaki had a larger population, was filled with factories, military facilities and was a port city. Needing to stay ahead of projected bad weather and the thought that if the US used two atomic bombs in a short span of time it would convince the Japanese that the US had more of the bombs and were willing to keep using them until they surrendered. In the early morning hours of Aug. 9th, Major Charles Sweeney piloted a B29 named Bock’s Car from Tinian Island carrying Fat Man. Visibility over the island of Kokura forced the pilot to switch targets and head to Nagasaki. Fat man detonated over Nagasaki at 11:02 am. Fat man was 40% more powerful than Little Man had been. Like Hiroshima a mile radius around Ground Zero was vaporized, 14,000 homes were burned, and 40,000 people were killed instantly. Between burns and radiation poisoning in the days, weeks, months and years that followed about 100,000 people were killed. The second atomic bomb coupled with the Soviet Union declaring war on Japan and invading Manchuria proved to be enough to convince most people in the War Council that surrender was inevitable, there were still holdouts but Emperor Hirohito pushed for an end to the war. The impending food crises and likelihood of famine within Japan was also a motivating factor. Some members of the council hoped to secure conditional surrender with the following terms: 1) Japan would disarm her own forces; 2) Japan would conduct any “so-called” war crimes trials of her own nationals; and 3) there would be no occupation of Japan. This last term would assure the continuance of the Imperial system and Hirohito’s seat on the throne.
Emperor Hirohito became emperor of Japan in 1926 at the age of 25 after the death of his father. He became emperor at a time of rising militarism and an alarming number of political assassinations. He himself had survived an assassination attempt. A number of Prime Ministers were assassinated and from the early 1930s, Japan’s Prime Minister was chosen from the military. As emperor, he was thought to be the highest spiritual authority for Shinto and was also the commander in chief of the armed forces.
As Commander of the armed forces, he held weekly military briefings and a memo from before Pearl Harbor shows the emperor’s approval for the attack. His role in the viciousness of the Japanese military's actions is still debated today. How much did he know? How much did he approve? Mussolini and Hitler, had they not died before they could be held accountable for their actions, would have been tried for war crimes, found guilty and executed. Hirohito didn’t suffer the same fate.
The US didn’t agree to Japan’s conditions. It was made clear that the emperor would be subordinate to General MacArthur. Emperor Hirohito agreed to the terms saying Japan must bear the unbearable. The history of noncompliance of military generals made not only the Allies concerned but also the emperor that Japanese Generals across the empire wouldn’t adhere to it. They did. On August 13th and 14th B29 planes dropped leaflets over Japan explaining the peace terms. With no response, the US resumed bombings, over 400 B29s bombed Japan. The Japanese destroyed materials that would link officials to war crimes. At noon on Aug. 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito addressed the Japanese people in a radio address explaining that Japan had accepted the terms. It was the first known time the average Japanese citizen had heard the voice of the emperor. It became known as the Jewel voice broadcast. The address was given in classical Japanese which most people couldn’t understand. Another message was given afterwards to clear confusion and to explain that Japan had surrendered to the Allies.
The formal surrender occurred on September 2nd, to allow for representatives from the major Allied countries to arrive in Tokyo Bay. There were 250 warships, including ships that had been damaged during the attack at Pearl Harbor. The signing took place aboard the USS Missouri. There was a significant amount of symbolism in the ceremony. Tokyo Bay for example was where Commodore Matthew Perry’s ships had been when he brought a letter from President Millard Filmore requesting which was more of a demand that the Japanese open a port to trade. The 1853 banner flown by Perry was also aboard the USS Missouri. The Missouri had seen action in both Okinawa and Iwo Jima and was named after President Truman’s home state. General MacArthur was in charge of the day’s proceedings. Japanese delegates signed the surrender documents as did the American Generals present. Signatures of the representatives from the Soviet Union, China, Great Britain, France, Australia, and other Allied nations were added to the documents. The war was over. Now, the job of rebuilding the world in the post WWII era had begun.
