2. HOW IT BEGAN
We have all heard the story before, so I will not repeat all the details. Physicist Leo Szilard and other scientists had been pursuing theoretical research into nuclear physics, a new field in the 1930s, and they were beginning to understand the mechanisms of nuclear decay, when it became apparent that atomic fission released potentially huge amounts of energy. The possibility of controlling this process to produce great heat, and subsequent electrical and motive power, and equally powerful, but destructive, explosions, was a shocking realization. Albert Einstein agreed, and after agonizing over whether or not to share these insights outside the scientific community, they approached President Roosevelt with a persuasive argument. At that time, there were scientists in several countries, including Nazi Germany, doing similar work in nuclear physics, and they were sharing their results and ideas, as is natural among scientists always. The two physicists assured the president that sooner or later, somebody would discover a method for starting a chain reaction of nuclear fission, accelerating and controlling the process to produce enormously destructive explosives. Such weapons would confer overwhelming military advantage on whichever nation first developed them, and at the time it was feared that if Germany succeeded first, the growing power of Hitler’s army would be unstoppable. In 1939, when the scientists met with the president, the US was not yet at war, but fearful of becoming involved, so his response was to authorize more research, but not start any production yet.
By the time that the US entered the war, after Pearl Harbor, research was well underway, many of the theoretical problems had been solved, and plans for building nuclear reactors and bombs were ready to be implemented. Also, by then, the fear of Germany’s nuclear efforts was reaching hysteria. The Manhattan Engineering District, the government program to build and deploy the atomic bomb, led by General Leslie Groves and Dr J Robert Oppenheimer, was officially authorized in August 1942. That same year, Enrico Fermi’s team at Chicago assembled and started the first nuclear reactor, proving the technology of controlled nuclear fission, and providing the means to produce fissile fuel. Industrial nuclear reactors were quickly built in Oak Ridge Tennessee and Hanford Washington, and began producing U235 and Plutonium. A top secret laboratory complex, complete with a town to support it, was built to assemble and test the bomb, at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The Manhattan Project employed the best physicists in the US, including many who had worked previously in Europe. Engineers and technicians were recruited from US industry and military to support their work, and build the laboratories, the testing facilities, power plants, and weapons that brought the scientific work to military production. By July 1945, with sufficient quantities of weapon grade fuel, the mechanical components for 2 different types of bombs were assembled at Los Alamos. Simultaneously a fleet of B-29s had been outfitted and staffed, and were waiting on their Pacific island base ready to deliver the bombs.
The war, and international political environment, had changed a great deal while the bomb was being developed. President Roosevelt had died in April, 1945, and the new president, Harry Truman was still learning about the bomb. Nazi Germany surrendered in May, thus ending the European war, and any threat of a German atomic bomb program, which was soon discovered to have been abandoned years earlier. The motivation for building the bomb in the first place had centered on the fear of a German atomic bomb that never existed. And in the Pacific War, the US firebombing of major Japanese cities had killed hundreds of thousands of people; the small islands offshore had all been taken; Japan’s navy and air force were nearly wiped out. Most importantly, the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, and the Red Army was poised to attack the Japanese mainland. It was known to the US government that Japan was defeated and ready to surrender, but the momentum to build and use the atomic bomb had developed a life of its own. It rolled on relentlessly to its ultimate horrific climax.
July 16, 1945, at Alamagordo, New Mexico, Trinity, the first test of the new atomic bomb took place. It was an implosion type bomb, fueled by conventional explosives and plutonium, roughly spherical in shape, about 5 ft by 8 ft, weighing about 5 tons, and perched atop a steel tower, 100 feet above the sandy desert floor. It was called, among other nicknames, the Gadget. Theoretically, it would produce an explosion more powerful than any weapon ever made or even conceived of before, but none of the scientists were really sure just what would happen. It was bigger than they expected. When it exploded, it released a burst of energy with the destructive equivalent of 18,000 tons of TNT. The brilliant flash of light was seen over a hundred miles away, and the shockwave shook houses and broke windows that far away as well. The mushroom shaped cloud of fire, dust, and smoke rose 7 miles into the sky. The steel tower, test buildings, and many of the instruments at the site, were incinerated and vaporized, and the sand in the bottom of the blast crater had been fused into radioactive glass. Radioactive fallout spread out sixty miles or more, and drifted a hundred miles downwind as it settled to the ground. The most destructive force ever dreamed of by human beings had just been unleashed, and all of the participants were in awe of what they had done. More, and much worse destruction was to come.
August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by a single atomic bomb. Whether or not the dropping of this bomb was necessary to end the war, and this debate will never be settled, over 100,000 human beings were shattered, incinerated and poisoned that morning.
Three days later, because the Japanese Emperor failed to surrender quickly enough, the same gruesome destruction was visited upon Nagasaki. Over 70,000 people were burned and blasted, and by the end of 1945, another 70,000 died of burns and radiation sickness.
The United States of America became the first and only nation to have used the most horrific weapon ever devised. This is our legacy today. We perfected the science of war, of inflicting the most shocking and indiscriminate torture and death, so swiftly and with such cruel finality, that many of us even now cannot believe it is true, and cannot accept the scope of our national crime. The only rational response we can make, the only way to regain the honor we threw away in those 3 days, is to stop the madness now. We must eliminate these weapons now. Nobody else will do it.
next: Hiroshima and Nagasaki >
We have all heard the story before, so I will not repeat all the details. Physicist Leo Szilard and other scientists had been pursuing theoretical research into nuclear physics, a new field in the 1930s, and they were beginning to understand the mechanisms of nuclear decay, when it became apparent that atomic fission released potentially huge amounts of energy. The possibility of controlling this process to produce great heat, and subsequent electrical and motive power, and equally powerful, but destructive, explosions, was a shocking realization. Albert Einstein agreed, and after agonizing over whether or not to share these insights outside the scientific community, they approached President Roosevelt with a persuasive argument. At that time, there were scientists in several countries, including Nazi Germany, doing similar work in nuclear physics, and they were sharing their results and ideas, as is natural among scientists always. The two physicists assured the president that sooner or later, somebody would discover a method for starting a chain reaction of nuclear fission, accelerating and controlling the process to produce enormously destructive explosives. Such weapons would confer overwhelming military advantage on whichever nation first developed them, and at the time it was feared that if Germany succeeded first, the growing power of Hitler’s army would be unstoppable. In 1939, when the scientists met with the president, the US was not yet at war, but fearful of becoming involved, so his response was to authorize more research, but not start any production yet.
By the time that the US entered the war, after Pearl Harbor, research was well underway, many of the theoretical problems had been solved, and plans for building nuclear reactors and bombs were ready to be implemented. Also, by then, the fear of Germany’s nuclear efforts was reaching hysteria. The Manhattan Engineering District, the government program to build and deploy the atomic bomb, led by General Leslie Groves and Dr J Robert Oppenheimer, was officially authorized in August 1942. That same year, Enrico Fermi’s team at Chicago assembled and started the first nuclear reactor, proving the technology of controlled nuclear fission, and providing the means to produce fissile fuel. Industrial nuclear reactors were quickly built in Oak Ridge Tennessee and Hanford Washington, and began producing U235 and Plutonium. A top secret laboratory complex, complete with a town to support it, was built to assemble and test the bomb, at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The Manhattan Project employed the best physicists in the US, including many who had worked previously in Europe. Engineers and technicians were recruited from US industry and military to support their work, and build the laboratories, the testing facilities, power plants, and weapons that brought the scientific work to military production. By July 1945, with sufficient quantities of weapon grade fuel, the mechanical components for 2 different types of bombs were assembled at Los Alamos. Simultaneously a fleet of B-29s had been outfitted and staffed, and were waiting on their Pacific island base ready to deliver the bombs.
The war, and international political environment, had changed a great deal while the bomb was being developed. President Roosevelt had died in April, 1945, and the new president, Harry Truman was still learning about the bomb. Nazi Germany surrendered in May, thus ending the European war, and any threat of a German atomic bomb program, which was soon discovered to have been abandoned years earlier. The motivation for building the bomb in the first place had centered on the fear of a German atomic bomb that never existed. And in the Pacific War, the US firebombing of major Japanese cities had killed hundreds of thousands of people; the small islands offshore had all been taken; Japan’s navy and air force were nearly wiped out. Most importantly, the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, and the Red Army was poised to attack the Japanese mainland. It was known to the US government that Japan was defeated and ready to surrender, but the momentum to build and use the atomic bomb had developed a life of its own. It rolled on relentlessly to its ultimate horrific climax.
July 16, 1945, at Alamagordo, New Mexico, Trinity, the first test of the new atomic bomb took place. It was an implosion type bomb, fueled by conventional explosives and plutonium, roughly spherical in shape, about 5 ft by 8 ft, weighing about 5 tons, and perched atop a steel tower, 100 feet above the sandy desert floor. It was called, among other nicknames, the Gadget. Theoretically, it would produce an explosion more powerful than any weapon ever made or even conceived of before, but none of the scientists were really sure just what would happen. It was bigger than they expected. When it exploded, it released a burst of energy with the destructive equivalent of 18,000 tons of TNT. The brilliant flash of light was seen over a hundred miles away, and the shockwave shook houses and broke windows that far away as well. The mushroom shaped cloud of fire, dust, and smoke rose 7 miles into the sky. The steel tower, test buildings, and many of the instruments at the site, were incinerated and vaporized, and the sand in the bottom of the blast crater had been fused into radioactive glass. Radioactive fallout spread out sixty miles or more, and drifted a hundred miles downwind as it settled to the ground. The most destructive force ever dreamed of by human beings had just been unleashed, and all of the participants were in awe of what they had done. More, and much worse destruction was to come.
August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by a single atomic bomb. Whether or not the dropping of this bomb was necessary to end the war, and this debate will never be settled, over 100,000 human beings were shattered, incinerated and poisoned that morning.
Three days later, because the Japanese Emperor failed to surrender quickly enough, the same gruesome destruction was visited upon Nagasaki. Over 70,000 people were burned and blasted, and by the end of 1945, another 70,000 died of burns and radiation sickness.
The United States of America became the first and only nation to have used the most horrific weapon ever devised. This is our legacy today. We perfected the science of war, of inflicting the most shocking and indiscriminate torture and death, so swiftly and with such cruel finality, that many of us even now cannot believe it is true, and cannot accept the scope of our national crime. The only rational response we can make, the only way to regain the honor we threw away in those 3 days, is to stop the madness now. We must eliminate these weapons now. Nobody else will do it.
next: Hiroshima and Nagasaki >