atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki summary

Three days later, with still no surrender declared, on August 9th, the “Fat Man” bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, the site of a torpedo-building plant, destroying more than three square miles of the city.

With no surrender agreement in place, on August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay bomber plane dropped the as-yet untested “Little Boy” bomb some 1,900 feet above Hiroshima, causing unprecedented destruction and death over an area of five square miles. A forceful demonstration of the technology developed in New Mexico was deemed necessary to encourage the Japanese to surrender. Meanwhile, the military leaders of the Manhattan Project had identified Hiroshima, Japan, as an ideal target for an atomic bomb, given its size and the fact that there were no known American prisoners of war in the area. delivered an ultimatum to Japan-surrender under the terms outlined in the Potsdam Declaration (which, among other provisions, called for the Japanese to form a new, democratic and peaceful government) or face “prompt and utter destruction.”Īs the Potsdam Declaration provided no role for the emperor in Japan’s future, the ruler of the island nation was unwilling to accept its terms. On July 26, 1945, at the Potsdam Conference in the Allied-occupied city of Potsdam, Germany, the U.S. military leaders in 1945 was that the Japanese would fight to the bitter end and force a full-scale invasion of the island nation, resulting in significant casualties on both sides. With the Germans sustaining heavy losses in Europe and nearing surrender, the consensus among U.S. strategy aimed at bringing an end to World War II. Scientists working under Oppenheimer had developed two distinct types of bombs: a uranium-based design called “the Little Boy” and a plutonium-based weapon called “the Fat Man.” With both designs in the works at Los Alamos, they became an important part of U.S. On July 16, 1945, in a remote desert location near Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated-the Trinity Test-creating an enormous mushroom cloud some 40,000 feet high and ushering in the Atomic Age. The complex is where the first Manhattan Project bombs were built and tested. Los Alamos Laboratory-the creation of which was known as Project Y-was formally established on January 1, 1943. Robert Oppenheimer was already working on the concept of nuclear fission (along with Edward Teller and others) when he was named director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in northern New Mexico in 1943.

Atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki summary