The creation of a deadly weapon!

Atomic bomb, an extremely powerful explosive weapon!

On October 9, 1947, two months before the United states entered World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to develop an ‘Atomic Bomb’.

In May, 1942, James B. Conant, chairman of the National Defence Research Committee, invited his ex student, J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist to take over the task of a fast neutron chain reaction in an atomic bomb. He, along with a few European physicists and his own students were on the task of calculating what needed to be done in order to make the atomic bomb.

In September, Leslie Groves was appointed as director of what became known as the ‘Manhattan Project’. He chose Oppenheimer as the head of the project’s secret weapon laboratory. Many people were surprised by his choice, since Oppenheimer had no experience of leading large projects.

Once he started designing and constructing the atomic bomb, everyone was impressed by his work.

After being appointed as the director of the Los Alamos laboratory, Oppenheimer was in a rush to develop nuclear weapons before the Germans who were lead by Hitler. He was sure that the Nazis were developing nuclear weapons and would use them for extremely diabolical purposes to bring the entire world to it’s knees. In his mind, his justification for developing the world’s first atomic bomb was very valid.

Unfortunately, the atomic bomb was not ready on time to be used on Germany. That was when the new president Harry S. Truman decided to set the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan, since the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1947 officially brought the U.S into World war II. Japan sunk several ships, destroyed hundreds of planes and ended thousands of lives. It’s plan was to cripple the U.S.

On 6th and 9th August, 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

In October, Oppenheimer visited president Harry Truman and told him, “I have blood on my hands.” This meant that he regretted the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After hearing this, the president was very annoyed and told his staff not to let that ‘cry baby’ in there again.

Later on, in 1946, Oppenheimer was awarded the Medal for Merit by President Truman for his services as director of Los Alamos.

Something extra: Approximately two years later, everything was back to normal in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Written by Fatima Amir