MANHATTAN PROJECT BACKGROUND
- 1939 - Einstein Letter to The President regarding the development of the Atomic Bomb
- 1942 - Top secret military project for the allies to develop their own Atomic Bomb went underway
- J. Robert Oppenheimer was the lead scientist in the project
- Employed 120,000 people while only a small amount actually knew what it was; Harry S. Truman only learned about it once he became President in 1945
- 37 new factories and facilities were built for the project
- 1945 - Trinity Test in New Mexico was the first successful testing of the atomic bomb
Atomic Bombs - The first nuclear weapons
"Little Boy"
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"Fat Man"
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Short Term Effects
- Clothing and shadows were burned into peoples skin
- Shards of glass cut and stuck into skin and could cause death
- 90% of surrounding buildings within Hiroshima and Nagasaki were completely in ruins
- High death rate because hospitals filled up too quickly and there were not enough
- Ended mankind’s biggest war in less than a month
- Us becomes super power because of WMD possession
- Started Cold War tensions between Russia (Soviet Union) and United States
Click on the images separately to read a short description of the details in the photo.
Long Term Effects
- Radiation Exposure
- Affected unborn babies and old aged people most
- Radiation lasted in cities for months and even a year in some places
- Liver Dysfunction and Cardiovascular Disorder
- Injected fear into the Japanese people and ignited a nuclear arms race
- Gave countries a strategic opportunity to advance their military and impose a threat of mass destruction on to other countries