The Atomic Decision

 

Albert Einstein's Letter to FDR (August 2, 1939)

As a Jewish refugee from Berlin, Einstein, well aware of the advanced state of German physics, dispatched a letter to FDR warning him of the enormous potential of atomic power and of the grave danger if the Nazis succeeded in acquiring a nuclear weapon.The letter from Einstein to FDR is included below.

Questions to Consider
1. What element is being used as material for a bomb? In which countries is this element located?
2. What is the destructive potential of this weapon?
3. What course of action does Einstein advise?
4. What has Germany done to alert Einstein’s attention?
Einstein Letter to Roosevelt

Atomic Scientists Petition to Truman (July 17, 1945)

After the Trinity test where the first atomic blast was successfully conducted, many of the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project felt a moral obligation to dissuade Truman from using it against Japan.

The following document is a letter written from the members of the Manhattan Project to Truman Questions to Consider
1. Why had the atomic scientists agreed to work in the project? What has changed now?
2. Why, in the opinion of the scientists, is the use of atomic bombs against Japan unjustified? What should be done instead?
3. How realistic is the scientists’ plan for the Japanese surrender without the use of the bomb?
4. What is the ultimate danger, according to the scientists, if the United States is the first country to use the weapon?

Letter Against Bomb

Tale of Two Cities

Now that the bomb had been tested, Allied forces could put it to use. Hiroshima was the primary target of the first atomic bomb mission. The mission went smoothly in every respect. The weather was good, and the crew and equipment functioned perfectly. In every detail, the attack was carried out exactly as planned, and the bomb performed exactly as expected.
The bomb exploded over Hiroshima at 8:15 on the morning of August 6, 1945. About an hour previously, the Japanese early warning radar net had detected the approach of some American aircraft headed for the southern part of Japan. The alert had been given and radio broadcasting stopped in many cities, among them Hiroshima. At 8:16 A.M., the Tokyo control operator of the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation noticed that the Hiroshima station had gone off the air. Military headquarters repeatedly tried to call the Army Control Station in Hiroshima. The complete silence from that city puzzled the men at Headquarters; they knew that no large enemy raid could have occurred, and they knew that no sizeable store of explosives was in Hiroshima at that time. A young officer of the Japanese General Staff was instructed to fly immediately to Hiroshima, to land, survey the damage, and return to Tokyo with reliable information for the staff. It was generally felt at Headquarters that nothing serious had taken place, that it was all a terrible rumor starting from a few sparks of truth.
The staff officer went to the airport and took off for the southwest. After flying for about three hours, while still nearly 100 miles from Hiroshima, he and his pilot saw a great cloud of smoke from the bomb. In the bright afternoon, the remains of Hiroshima were burning.
Tokyo's first knowledge of what had really caused the disaster came from the White House public announcement in Washington sixteen hours after Hiroshima had been hit by the atomic bomb.Three days later, Nagasaki would become victim. Nagasaki had never been subjected to large scale bombing prior to the explosion of the atomic bomb there. On the morning of August 9th, 1945, at about 7:50 A.M., Japanese time, an air raid alert was sounded in Nagasaki, but the "All clear" signal was given at 8:30. When only two B-29 super fortresses were sighted at 10:53 the Japanese apparently assumed that the planes were only on reconnaissance and no further alarm was given. A few moments later, at 11:00 o'clock, the observation B-29 dropped instruments attached to three parachutes and at 11:02 the other plane released the atomic bomb.
The bomb exploded high over the industrial valley of Nagasaki, almost midway between the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, in the south, and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works (Torpedo Works), in the north, the two principal targets of the city.
The first three resources below are videos exploring the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki along with the interviews with witnesses. The three videos, when played together run 12:02. The fourth resource is a photograph of the crew of the Enola Gay, the plane that carried the bombs to Japan. The fifth resource is a picture of Hiroshima after the bombing. The sixth is a photograph of the mushroom cloud at Nagasaki caused by the bombing. The final document below is an artistic representation of the devastation experienced in Japan.
Questions to Consider
1. According to video #1, why was Hiroshima a target for atomic bombing?
2. What types of buildings were able to withstand the blast?
3. According to the priest in video #2, what was the first thing that he noticed about the blast?
4. According to the priest, what happened shortly after the blast?
5. According to video #3, why was Nagasaki selected as a target?