History

     The Manhattan Project

      Even before the war in 1939 many American scientist became concerned with the Nazis research on nuclear weapons. In 1940 the United States government began funding its own atomic weapons development program. This top secret project was codenamed "The Manhattan Project"(for the engineering corps' Manhattan district).  Over the next few years scientist worked on producing the materials for nuclear fusion. they sent these materials to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where a group of scientist led by J. Robert Oppenheimer worked to turn these materials into a working A-bomb. Early morning July 16, 1945 was the first successful test of an atomic device at the Trinity test site.

Japan Won't Surrender

      Despite clear indications that they had little chance of winning, Japan vowed to fight to the bitter end. Between April and July 1945 the Japanese inflicted nearly Half the Allied casualties than they had in the past three years of fighting, proving that japan had become more deadly faced with defeat. in late July, Japans government rejected the Allies demand for surrender which put forth in the Potsdam Declaration, which threatened the Japanese with prompt utter destruction if they refused. If the United States went through with "Operation Downfall" (a massive invasion of Japan) there would be up to 1 million American casualties. In order to avoid such a high casualty rate, Truman decided to use the atomic bomb hoping that it would bring the war to a quick end.

The Atomic Bombs

      Hiroshima was selected as the first target. After arriving at the U.S  base on the pacific island of Tinian, the massive bomb was loaded aboard a modified B-29. The plane dropped the bomb "Little Boy" by parachute at 8:15AM, and it exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima destroying five square miles of the city. After the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima Japan still refused to surrender. So on August 9,  Major Charles Sweeney flew another B-29 from Tinian. There where thick clouds over the primary target Kokura, This drove Sweeney to a secondary target, Nagisaki, Where the second larger bomb "Fat Man" Was dropped at 11:02AM. The topography reduced the bombs effect, limiting the destruction to 2.6 miles. At noon on August 15, 1945 (Japanese time), Emperor Hirohito announced his country's surrender in a radio broadcast. The news spread quickly, and "Victory in Japan" or "V-J Day" celebrations broke out across the United States and other Allied nations. The formal surrender agreement was signed on September 2, aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.