When did the American people know about the Atomic Bomb?

Answer 1

It had been tested so they knew how strong the explosion was. Nobody believed that we would need to use more than one. Little was known about the radiation effects. Although the Atomic Bomb was tested no one knew the devastation it would have in Japan. It was complete shock to all involved and to the world. Some agreed with dropping it while many think it was over-kill. You haven't seen another one dropped!

Answer 2

Albert Einstein signed a letter that had been written by Leo Szilard (who had invented the atomic bomb in 1933) to FDR and warning him that Nazi Germany might be working on atomic bombs. The President ordered a preliminary study with a budget of about $6000. After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry to the war this study was expanded to the Manhattan Project. This is where people are committed to find a way to make a viable atomic bomb, ultimately spending about $2,000,000,000 by the end of the war.

The project was kept totally secret and the first the American public knew of the atomic bomb was the August 6, 1945 evening newspapers that announced the bombing of Hiroshima with an Atomic Bomb that morning.

Answer 3

Nobody knew. Nobody had ever heard of an atomic bomb before so telling them what it was called didn't mean anything, but they WERE warned that the Allies had some kind of super-weapon. What else do you say? The Japanese had been surrounded, shipping had been stopped, there was constant conventional bombing of major cities and manufacturing centers, and still the Japanese refused to surrender. The emperor and his advisors refused to surrender to the Allies because they wanted to get better terms of surrender. They knew that if the Allies attacked mainland Japan there would be close to a million deaths ON BOTH SIDES. The Japanese leaders were willing to sacrifice their people in order to get better terms of surrender. The Japanese leaders believed that they had learned valuable lessons from the war and believed that if they were given an opportunity to rebuild, they could take over the islands of the Pacific... NEXT TIME. They had been warned, they just didn't believe.

Answer 4

The designers had a pretty good idea, and they briefed the military types. Yes, the individuals who understood what the bomb could do and accepted that it could do that could see about how much damage would be done.

Answer 5

Yes, in general all the effects were well understood (at least by the scientists involved). However many details could not actually be determined except by actual observation of damage to structures and injuries to people.

Unfortunately some in the military and political leadership that knew of the secret failed to understand that these bombs were something with effects well beyond that of just greater blast and greater incendiary effects than conventional bombs.

Answer 6

The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were selected as targets after exhaustive study by military specialists. Later on when the bombs were droped, news came that Japan had surrendered. The bombs was a closed secret until they were droped.

Answer 7

I do not know if Japan knew if the US had atomic technology but, a few days before we dropped the bombs on the Japanese cities we flew over them and dropped millions of pieces of paper that said in Japanese to leave the city because if they stayed they were all going to die.

Answer 8

It was mostly president Truman who knew. He saw the predictions of deaths if the war stretched on. he thought it would be best to bomb Hiroshima to end WWII. This however did not stop Japan. Later another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Thus ending WWII (sorry if this stretched past your question, I thought it would add on more to it).

Answer 9

No one knew any facts about the weapon, it was new to the scientists that invented it also. They all had theories; but no one ever used one until 1945.