The Atomic Bomb Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki - 1827 Words

The Atomic Bomb After World War I, no one, not even the Head of Chemical Warfare, suspected such a weapon would be dropped on civilians in the near future. Prior to the development of the atomic bomb in World War II, gas bombing and incendiary bombing were prevalent (Rotter 5). The race to create nuclear weapons and the excitement of succeeding technologically is thought to have distorted the morality of those who decided to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These atomic bombings are plausibly the first and last of their kind, as increasing nuclear programs in countries worldwide promise mutually assured destruction to countries associated in such an ordeal. In the future, all countries involved in a war will need to tread carefully, as†¦show more content†¦Ironically, approximately twenty years later, the United States of America was blamed for doing just that. Arguably, the entire Atomic Bomb situation began on August 2, 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt received a letter revealin g by purifying uranium 235 one had the potential to create a bomb. It also revealed the efforts in Nazi Germany to create a bomb (Bellis 1). In response to this letter, a secret government project called the â€Å"Manhattan Project†, began (Bellis 1). The Manhattan Project was top secret at the time, and served the purpose of creating and testing an atomic bomb(Bellis 1). Between 1939 and 1945 over two billion dollars were given to the Manhattan Project (Bellis 1). The scientists burdened with inventing such a bomb mostly originated from the University of Chicago (Bellis 1). To create an atomic bomb, a specific amount of enriched uranium must be used, to create a chain reaction (Bellis 1). The group of scientists, headed by Enrico Fermi and J. Robert Oppenheimer, created a pile of forty five metric tons of natural uranium embedded in solid graphite (Bellis 1). Although the reaction was slowed because the uranium 235 was not extracted, it was considered successful (Bellis 1). The next step was to extract the uranium 235, and create a real bomb (Bellis 1). The way to go about this creation was difficult. The ratio of uranium to uranium ore is five hundred to one. The â€Å"one† part in that ratio is ninety nine