”My god, what have we done?” – Robert Lewis co pilot of the Enola Gay. Just before the beginning of World War 2 Albert Einstein wrote a letter to our president at the time Franklin D. Roosevelt. Einstein as well as some other scientists told our president that Germany was planning on purifying Uranium and that they could possibly be planning to make an atomic bomb the world was never seen before. This news startled the president and what we now know as ”The Manhattan Project” was underway.

Making an atomic bomb is no easy task. Scientists believed the hardest part was making enough Uranium to produce a chain reaction. In the early 40’s getting a hold of Uranium-235 was not easy. A lab in Tennessee was built to complete the task at hand. Harold Urey and some of his colleagues worked on task of figuring out gaseous diffusion. Scientist Earnest Lawrence was tasked with working on separating the two isotopes U-235 and U-238 magnetically. A gas centrifuge was used to seperate U-235 which was lighter and U-238 which was non fissionable. As soon as all the tasks were completed the next step was completing the theory behind atomic fission or splitting the atoms.

From 1939 to 1945 2 billion dollars was put into completing the project. Some of the best scientists at the time were doing whatever they could to work on making Uranium into an atomic bomb. Robert Oppenheimer was the big name behind the atomic bomb and oversaw its completion from beginning to end. The First test came in the summer of 1945 in New Mexico. After the test was done however scientists had plenty of different reactions. Even Robert Oppenheimer the head guy in charge, felt as if he created a monster. Some of the participants who took part in creating the bomb that would shake our time wanted to petition what they had created.

Towards the end of World War 2 allies used the the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and in Nagasaki Japan. It is important to note that this is still the only time nuclear weapons has been used since the bombs fell on Japan. Within minutes thousands have died. Thousands of buildings were immediately destroyed as well as result of the massive blasts. In Nagasaki alone 39% of the buildings there were destroyed and most of the casualties were from the radiation. Plenty of people were missing and never found as a result of the blasts.

In my opinion yes this is something that still instills fear in all of us. It happened once could it happen again? Could this happen on U.S soil? I believe that there is a huge possibility that it could happen with so many technical advances in our generation. Was all this necessary though? So many civilians women and children for instance died as a result of the blast. We have to really look at the aftermath and what it did. In my opinion yes it did end the war but at the same time I do not think was necessary to drop a bomb of this magnitude on innocent civilians who played no part in the war at that time.

http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/atomic_bomb.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

http://www.atomcentral.com/hiroshima-nagasaki.aspx

http://ozebook.com/wordpress/archives/5500

http://wweapons.blogspot.com/2011/04/fat-man-atomic-bomb-nuclear-weapon.html