Robert Oppenheimer's The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project

In 1938, three German scientists split the uranium atom, created fission, and jumped ahead in the race for discovering the secrets of the atomic bomb. A few world scientists were informed about the discovery, including a familiar name. Albert Einstein was urged by Leo Szilard to send a letter to the President of the United States that told Franklin Delanor Roosevelt that splitting an uranium atom could result in nuclear fission. In 1942, Roosevelt began to put his plans into action. In June 1942, FDR introduced the nuclear program under the Army Corps of Engineers called the “Development of Substitute Material.” After concluding that the name was too suggestive of the real idea, it was changed to the “Manhattan Engineers”. This project included 30 different research and production sites and thousands of mathematicians, engineers, and European scientists. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie R. Groves were the main directors of the project . Oppenheimer was in charge of most of it, while Grove’s job was to regulate all the Army’s activities. With leaders in place and plans in action, the nuclear age had begun. Other than the thousands of scientists and mathematicians that worked on the project, the United States concluded that they could not work alone. Harold C. Urey

Initially, Little Boy was going to be dropped on Kyushu, Japan, but there was too much smog in the area and the drop site was changed. At about 8:16am JST, Little Boy exploded 1,900 feet above the city, releasing something equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT. 62,000 buildings were destroyed and only twenty doctors were able to work and tend to the wounded. Since the time difference was extremely off, news of the completion did not reach Truman until lunch the next day. The Japanese government advised citizens to leave all industrial cities, but it was too late for most people in