13: The Manhattan Project

All major world powers fought in several battles during World War 2 and more than sixty million people were killed. World War 2 was an extensive, bloody war that needed to comprise an end at some point. The Manhattan Project was the solution to the madness. The Manhattan Project is the code name for a secret project produced by the United State’s government in which the improvement of the nuclear bomb was developed.
In August 1939, Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner; three Jewish scientists, decided to write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, president of the United States warning him about the nuclear physics progression in Europe. Roosevelt wanted to cause conflict with the creation of their nuclear weapons any way he could. He even had a talk with Britain’s government to see if they could establish a way to interrupt Europe’s process. In 1942, General Leslie R. Groves was selected to host the secret Manhattan Project. He created three major campuses of production and engineering in isolated United States cities: one in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; eastern Washington State; and another 100 miles north of Albuquerque in New Mexico.
In November 1942, a facility was chosen by General Leslie Groves and physicist, Oppenheimer. It was named Hanford Engineer Works. It consisted of a half-million acres and was bought for more than $5.1 million. The facility also repositioned 1,500 people.
The scientists working on the Manhattan Project, being smarter than the Norwegians, were generating atomic bombs with the use of uranium and plutonium. Scientists didn’t have an idea of when the production of the bombs would be concluded, but of all the bombs they were making, the first three completed were going to be tested at Alamogordo, New Mexico. On July 16, 1945, these three bombs were successful.
As soon as the atom bomb was ready to be used, Germany surrendered. Shortly after, there was a petition drafted by scientists to ban the bomb from being used on United States soil, although, this request was overlooked by the United State’s new president, Harry S. Truman. He then made a decision, on August 6, 1945 to use the nuclear weapon on Japan. It is anticipated that this bomb killed around 200,000 people, but Japan still didn’t surrender instantly. Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped and forced Japan to finally surrender on August 10th. Even though these two bombs took the lives of several people, it would have been equivalent to the “number of casualties that would have resulted from an Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands.” They also officially ended the Second World War.