Manhattan Project free essay sample

The Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project This operation began in 1942 and its sole mission was to create a weapon so powerful it could wipe out cities in an instant. The Manhattan Project was created by the U. S. military in fear of such power being first discovered by the Nazis, their enemy. The base site was stationed in Manhattan, New York but eventually branched out across the country. The head directors of this project were U. S. physicist Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director, and General Leslie R. Groves, military head of the project; they had recruited many of the best mathematicians and engineers within the nation. A number of European scientists participated in this project as well, such as Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard. A few years of non-stop testing and experimenting in the science of splitting atoms and creating atomic energy the scientists had finally made it work. Once their Trinity test proved successful the U. We will write a custom essay sample on Manhattan Project or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page S. began developing more atomic bombs to be used on Japan. This project was top secret but infiltrations of Soviet atomic spies still happened and they were able to leak vital information to the axis powers. The Fat Man and the Little Boy were dropped and Japan surrendered. This controversial decision closed the gap and hastened the ending of the war. The bombs had to be dropped! Japan wouldnt have surrendered and Germany would have eventually developed their own atomic bombs. It would have taken a lot of time, effort and money to do it more peacefully. The Manhattan Project won the war for the Allies and saved the world from a potential dictatorship. The discovery of nuclear fission in 1939 opened up the scientific world to the possibility of atomic energy. Thoughts on atomic energy were released to the public through newspapers and magazines however many scientists didnt believe it could be done. Leo Szilard, a highly intelligent physicist and close friend of Einstein, a genius in mathematics and physics, was shocked at how the U. S. wasnt taking any action in this field of research. He had gotten word that the Nazis discovered nuclear fission and were trying to build a terrifying weapon from it. Szilard wanted to do something about it. He wanted to send a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt explaining the potential discovery of an atomic bomb and how the U. S. should invest in a program to further the research and development. This letter was constructed by Albert Einstein on the 2nd of August 1939 which explained the importance of atomic research with uranium and how the U. S. needs to implement it into its scientific community. He also stated that Germany had been shutting down uranium mines in Czechoslovakia and were being taken over. â€Å"I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium from the Czechoslovakian mines which one has taken over. †(dannen). The letter did not have much effect and didn’t reach the president until October 11th of that year. The president created a â€Å"Uranium Committee† however it only put forward $6,000 to purchase graphite and uranium for the necessary experiments. The country still was skeptic of the project up until 1941 approximately one day before the tragedy at Pearl Harbor. The project was formally named â€Å"The Manhattan Project† a year later in August of 1942. This was the largest secret ever kept from the public in U. S. government history. The Manhattan Project consisted of over 30 different sites across the country. It also employed many thousands of Americans to work in all of the sites. This helped the people with helpful skills to get pay and to help out their country. Most of the workers however never really knew what the purpose was for what they were doing. The most prominent of them were Hanford, Washington, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. Oak Ridge was one of the three secret cities chosen by General Leslie Groves. The area only had 60,000 acres of farmland right near the Appalachian Mountains and was completely evacuated of all citizens. It was then developed into a site where their main goal was to produce an atomic bomb. The men and women from the area, back then known as Clinton Engineering Works, helped out by providing materials for the construction of the bomb. In the facilities they created enriched uranium which was not very easy to make. This substance would eventually be put into the â€Å"Little boy† atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima. Hanford was another one of the three secret cities used in the production of nuclear bombs. It was established in 1943 and housed the first B Reactor ever made. The B Reactor is a plutonium production reactor which produced plutonium to be put inside of the bombs. The plutonium from Hanford was used inside the test bomb at the Trinity site as well as the Fat Man which was used on Nagasaki. This area was strictly for production of plutonium which made the land very uninhabitable. The town of Hanford did not have many people living in it; the closest habitable town near the site was no less than twenty miles away. Los Alamos is the final one of the three secret cities the Manhattan Project chose, this area was for testing nuclear explosives. Los Alamos was a small town in New Mexico and the scientists selected for the completing and testing of the bombs all thought it was a good area. They all decided that the Ranch School Buildings would suffice in housing for the duration of the project. Many different scientists from all fields came together at Los Alamos to perfect the nuclear energy, physicists, chemists, metallurgists, explosive experts and military personnel. Humongous laboratories were hurriedly built in order for work to be started right away. Everybody questioned if they would be able to actually harness the power of nuclear energy, if it was actually attainable. They were worrying if the energy would be controllable or if it could be thermally stable. Many scientists feared of the ignition of the atmosphere, thus ending the world or would they be able to attain this powerful weapon before the Nazis. It took two years of hard labor by scientists to come up with an actual test bomb, the gadget. They experimented highly with different metals and explosives to find the best equation of materials for a stable product. The crew worked relentlessly day and night for six days a week trying to win the nuclear energy race. The core of â€Å"The Gadget† was assembled at the McDonald Ranch farmhouse and completed on July 12th 1945. Two days later it arrived at the testing site where it was completely assembled in a tent right at the base of the tower. Later that day it was hoisted up the 100-foot tower without the detonators installed. That next day the detonators were installed on The Gadget and last minute checks being performed to make the test run smoothly. On July 16th 1945 5:29 A. M. the first nuclear explosion in history was created at the Trinity Site Zero, the Alamogordo Test Range. The detonation proved successful creating a massive fireball that lit up the land brighter than the sun. This was the beginning of the Atomic age. The news spread to President Truman and eventually Joseph Stalin. This humongous breakthrough reverberated within the scientific community as well. â€Å"The scientists have a very strong feeling of responsibility to society regarding the use of the new powers they have released. † (â€Å"The Manhattan Project† pg. 287) The creators of this new power believed it was necessary to win the war even when Germany was growing weaker. The great news was then followed by what bombs they were going to detonate over Japan. No more than three weeks later the U. S. would be dropping these powerful explosives on the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The â€Å"Little boy† was constructed to where all of its power would be from the nuclear fission of uranium 235. It was detonated over the city of Hiroshima on August 6th 1945 by a B-29 Enola Gay. The explosive energy that came from it was between 13 and 18 kilotons of TNT. The death toll was well over 100,000 people and even more by the end of the year. It was the first uranium-based detonation and a rare one because of the difficulty and time it took to get the amount of enriched uranium 235. This bombing on Japan was still not enough for them to surrender which ends up with another bombing doing more extensive damage. The Fat Man† was dropped on Nagasaki just a few days later on August 9th by a B-29 Bockscar. This bomb was created with a plutonium core, similar to that of The Gadget. The original target wasn’t always Nagasaki. It was supposed to be detonated over Kokura; however the clouds obscured the pilot’s view of the land. This made it inaccurate a nd risky because it was an expensive weapon that had to have ideal conditions. The blast of the Fat Man was far greater than its counterpart but it caused less deaths. It was detonated at an altitude of 1,650 feet and had the explosive power of 21 kilotons of TNT. It killed just fewer than 50,000 people in an instant and a further 25,000 injured. Japan had just endured two of the most powerful explosions on earth with over 200,000 people wiped out. On the 15th of August Emperor Hirohito surrendered to the U. S. via radio broadcast. The surrender ceremony was held on board the U. S. battleship Missouri on the 2nd of September in which Japanese officials signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender thus ending the war. The Manhattan Project was extremely expensive, costing the government around $20 billion (est. today $307 billion). Oak Ridge was the costliest expense topping out at $1,188,352,000 ($13,565,662,000 today). The total cost of World War II was an unbelievable $3. 3 trillion! It was the most ever spent on a war in all of U. S. history. Ever since the days when the U. S. dropped atomic bombs on Japan these actions have been involved in major controversy. Many people saying over the years that it’s an act of terrorism and was not necessary to end World War II. There have been countless amounts of debates between scholars and historians about whether Japan would have surrendered with the bombs or not. I would have to disagree with it being wrong. Japan harmed our country with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and was sided with Nazi Germany the most feared country in the world. If the U. S. had not gone ahead with dropping the â€Å"Little boy† and the â€Å"Fat Man Japan may have never surrendered to us. If they could withstand one atomic bomb explosion and not back down what really could the U. S. have done? It took force to make them stop; no fancy treaty was going to lead Hirohito to sign it. They wanted power just like the rest of the Axis powers. The U. S. needed to end the war and needed to test out their creation. They worked magnificently but were disregarded as very dangerous and never again to be used in warfare. It was experimentation, if we hadn’t created it first then Germany would most likely have. Today would be much different if Nazi Germany had gotten a hold of the powerful weapon and used it against us. Hitler was the kind of guy who wouldn’t hesitate on that kind of decision. We were overseas plenty far away for him not to be affected by it. This technology had to be developed in order to win the war. The Manhattan Project completed its mission and saved the whole world from a potential dictatorship. The Second World War was a victory for the Allies because of The Manhattan Project. The smartest minds in science and mathematics came together to come up with a formula to harness the energy in atoms by splitting them. This discovery changed the course of history and has led to very messy and very proud situations. This was the first war to include nuclear warfare and so far it is still the only one. People are afraid of this technology because it can decimate entire cities and kill thousands of people at once in an instant. It is something that needs to be used strategically and as a last resort. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unfortunately needed to force Japan to surrender to the Allies but it most likely saved the planet from a much different and worse future. These bombings were justified. It may not be supported by many others but who really knows what the outcome could have been. I would take my chances and have the war end as quickly as possible considering the rate at which Germany was taking control of the battlefield. Military officials, Scientists and other creators of the new weapon within the project believed that the bombs were meant for Japan.