What is the History of the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb?

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Informative Speech

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Imagine standing on a far away mountain, looking over the city of Hiroshima. You see a B-29 bomber fly over the top of the city and drop a slim, green, and long bomb above. Suddenly, you see a flash of bright light accompanied by a tall mushroom cloud, fiery wind, and a powerful shockwave. The estimated yield of the bomb was equivalent to 15 kilotons of TNT. Three days later, the U.S. dropped another bomb called the Fat Man which resulted in an explosion of 20 kilotons of TNT.

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To understand about the history of the atomic bomb and its dropping, one must first look at the reason why the atomic bomb was developed. During the 1930’s new discoveries about the atom and the nucleus were being made. An article from World History in Context by John Merriman and Jay Winter states that with these new discoveries, scientists were interested in the “theoretical possibility of creating massive explosions through splitting the individual atoms”. This was called nuclear fission. However, this theory seemed far fetched by many physicists until 1938 when German scientists observed a uranium atom splitting itself. This alerted many scientists in the United States that Germany had the technology to build a uranium bomb with devastating power. Scientists like Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein sent a letter to FDR, urging to build an atomic bomb, who approved the idea into a project.

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Initially, the project was a simple committee of scientist to discuss about the use of uranium as a bomb material, but with the U.S. involvement of WWII due to the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, the project became a top priority under the Presidential authority. Soon the simple committee evolved into a complex project known as the Manhattan project. The scientists had three objectives: assemble the bomb without exploding, transport it safely on the plane, and detonate the materials above ground zero.  Initially, the atomic bomb was intended to be dropped on Germany to support the Allied invasion. But with Germany defeated, Japan was the only country left fighting. The U.S. army believed that using the bomb on Japan was the right answer. When the first atomic bomb was finished, the army decided to test it in the Trinity test site. The bomb though relatively small, created the biggest explosion at that time; though only weighing 10 kg, the bomb yielded 20 kilotons of TNT.

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Before the Trinity test, however, President FDR suddenly died of heart attack leaving his vice president Harry S. Truman to succeed him. During his trip to the Potsdam Conference, Truman learned that the Trinity test was successful. To Truman, the answer was so simple: the bomb, despite the civilian casualties that would result, should be used. His belief was that this act would avert the atrocious and horrific casualties that would result in an inland invasion. Another reason, according to History.com, was that the surrender terms with Japan was unsuccessful “As the Potsdam Declaration provided no role for the emperor in Japan’s future, the ruler of the island nation was unwilling to accept its terms.” Truman then issued the order to drop the bomb. Two bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man, were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. The reason to use the atomic bomb, instead of conventional bombing, according to Encyclopedia Britannica “was a means of shocking Japan into surrender.” In Hiroshima alone, 140,000 people were killed from the bomb, and 74,000 more died from the Nagasaki bombing. On August 15, 1945, nine days after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan surrendered, ending WWII.

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So was the bomb dropping necessary?. Some people believe that the bomb dropping was necessary to end the war. Some people believe that the bomb should’ve been only a deterrent. Some people believe that the bomb was an unnecessary device that killed innocent people. Whatever your opinion is about the bomb, one thing was evident from the bombing on that fateful day: the world would never be the same again. This device marked the genesis of an era of the brave new world: the atomic age.