On Aug. 6, 1945, U.S. Army Air Force planes, led by the B-29 Superfortress ‘Enola Gay,’ dropped an atomic bomb (Code named ‘Little Boy’) on the Imperial Japanese city of Hiroshima. This was the first use of nuclear weapons in combat and was followed three days later by a second atomic bomb (Code named ‘Fat Man’) on the city of Nagasaki.
Casualty estimates, from both the bomb’s initial blast, shockwave, and follow-on radiation poisoning range from 150,000 – 246,000 people. In the 81 years that followed, there has not been another instance of a nation using nuclear weapons, though this technology has proliferated across the globe with countries including Great Britain, France, North Korea, Pakistan, India, Russia, and China.
The historical circumstances for the creation of Manhattan Project – the U.S. Government program to develop nuclear weapons – along with the decision by President Harry Truman to employ them against the Japanese home islands are complex and very much wrapped in the historical context of the 1940s.
America began its program at the urging of none other than Albert Einstein who cautioned that Nazi Germany was working on their own program. Under the leadership of Army Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves and Dr. Robert J. Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project would be the greatest and most expensive engineering project in human history at the time.
The logistics and sustainment infrastructure required to support multiple scientific and technical bases was significant, given the ever-growing strength of the World War II era ‘Arsenal of Democracy.’
For military planners and sustainment planners, understanding the reasons that Truman chose to employ these weapons vice ordering a ground invasion of the Japanese mainland along with the monumental feat that was the Manhattan Project, is a worthy topic of study. For more of the challenges and aftermath of this world-shaking event, see:
(Department of Energy) – resource page – The Manhattan Project: Fact vs. Fiction - https://www.energy.gov/em/manhattan-project-fact-vs-fiction
(Harry S. Truman Library and Museum) – lesson plan – Atomic Bomb: August 6th, 1945 - https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/lesson-plans/atomic-bomb-august-6-1945
(National Park Service) – resource page - The Manhattan Project National Historic Park - https://www.nps.gov/mapr/index.htm
(National Park Service) – lesson plan -Transportation and the Manhattan Project at Hanford, Washington -https://www.nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/transportation-and-the-manhattan-project-at-hanford.htm
(Industry Week magazine) – article - Timeless Lessons from the Manhattan Project - https://www.industryweek.com/leadership/article/22011427/timeless-lessons-from-the-manhattan-project
Social Sharing