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Atomic Bombs
Atomic bomb is an explosive device in which a large amount of energy is released through nuclear reactions. This makes an atomic bomb, more properly called a nuclear weapon, a much more powerful device than any conventional bomb containing chemical explosives. The first Atomic Bombs were used during World War 2 in 1945 by the US onto 2 Japanese cities.
2,042 Questions
Why was the atomic bomb considered the ultimate weapon in World War 2?
The Decision to Drop Decision to Drop ExhibitionNazi Germany surrendered unconditionally at 2:41 a.m., May 7, ending World War II in Europe. At midnight May 8, the guns stopped firing. The Pacific war with Japan, who was Germany's ally, continued. U. S. President Harry S. Truman, English Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met in Potsdam, Germany between July 17 and August 2, 1945, to discuss strategies to end the war in the Pacific. The Potsdam Conference The Potsdam Conference was a key step in deciding to drop the bomb.When the Potsdam Conference opened, the news of the successful test at Trinity Site, New Mexico, had reached President Truman. The bomb was now a reality. President Truman's first action was to call together his chief advisors for their opinion on whether the bomb should be used. The consensus was that it should, but that the military plans for invasion should also proceed because it was not known what physical or psychological effects the new weapon might have. The United States, the Soviet Union and Britain approved military plans for invasion and drafted a declaration to be sent to the Japanese demanding unconditional surrender. On July 26, 1945, the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast to the Japanese by the Allied forces. The Japanese government decided that a reply should await the result of peace overtures to the Soviets. Prime Minister Suzuki announced to the world on July 28 that he would ignore the ultimatum. Little Boy and Fat Man Little Boy and Fat Man (L to R) were the world's first atomic weapons. Little Boy was the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. It exploded approximately 1,800 feet over Hiroshima, Japan, on the morning of August 6, 1945, with a force equal to 13,000 tons of TNT. Immediate deaths were between 70,000 to 130,000. Little Boy was dropped from a B-29 bomber piloted by U.S. Army Air Force Col. Paul W. Tibbets. Tibbets had named the plane Enola Gay after his mother the night before the atomic attack. Fat Man was the second nuclear weapon used in warfare. Dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, Fat Man devastated more than two square miles of the city and caused approximately 45,000 immediate deaths. Major Charles W. Sweeney piloted the B-29, #77 that dropped Fat Man. After the nuclear mission, #77 was christened Bockscar after its regular Command Pilot, Fred Bock. While Little Boy was a uranium gun-type device, Fat Man was a more complicated and powerful plutonium implosion weapon that exploded with a force equal to 20 kilotons of TNT. Source: http://www.atomicmuseum.com/tour/dd2.cfm
Why did the US decide to make an atomic bomb?
The US developed the atomic bomb because we had a reasonable fear that the Nazis were developing the atomic bomb and might at any moment use it on either the UK or USSR to force them to surrender. Eventually the Nazis would threaten the US with them too.
What was unknown was that the Nazi atomic bomb program had already stalled (due to several scientific errors) and been changed to a low priority reactor prototype development project that was to be expanded after the Nazis won the war to build nuclear power plants.
Was dropping the second atomic bomb at Nagasaki necessary to end World War 2?
This is not true. There is written proof that Emperor Hirohito was planning on surrendering after the bombing of Hiroshima. The U.S. did not give enough time for them to officially surrender. Although i will not argue about the necessity of the bombing of Hiroshima, the bombing of Nagasaki was unnecessary. Not only did it ruin more innocent lives, it was just done for a demonstration of power, which everyone knew the U.S. already had. The Japanese couldn't take much more strain and Hiroshima's bombing was the straw to break the camel's back. Nagasaki's bombing was an unnecessary move and created the ferocious image of the U.S. being a nuclear beast. The U.S. is absorbed in its nuclear power, uncaring of the enviromental problems or the casualties of innocent people. They could have killed the army men at least to end the war instead of innocent people. The military men were voluntarily putting themselves out there to die. My personal opinion, and the generally accepted opinion, is that the second atomic bomb was unnecessary.
Well...
The truth is, we'll never know. After the Hiroshima bombing (August 6th), what had happened did not become known to the Japanese High Command until mid-day on the 7th. Before that, all that was known was that something horrible had happened.
The Japanese War Council (comprised of 4 Military and 2 Civilian leaders) voted that night to continue the war effort, with all military members voting for war, and the civilians against. The Emperor was silent.
During the next two days, and intense diplomatic effort was attempted by the civilian council members, to contact the Allies to discuss surrender, convince the military members to accept a surrender, and persuade the Emperor to intervene.
Historically, the likelihood of a diplomatic solution being acceptable to the Japanese civilian leadership and the Allies is high, but such an agreement would almost certainly have been rejected by the military members of the council, and, as they had the deciding majority on the council, no surrender.
Efforts by the civilians to persuade the Emperor had been ongoing for several months, as the inevitable loss of the war had become apparent by late Spring. The Emperor had remained outside politics, as he had practically all his reign.
The hitch is here: by dropping the 2nd bomb on August 9th, the US did two things to the above processes.
Firstly, it didn't allow for the full effects of the Hiroshima bombing to be comprehended. There simply wasn't enough time to fully appreciate the complete devastation that it caused. Such devastation could have been used by the civilian members to more successfully press the military and Emperor to surrender. But that's theoretical, and we'll never know if more time would have allowed them to be successful in lobbying for surrender, or if the additional time instead would have allowed the military faction to argue more persuasively for further resistance.
Secondly, the immediate bombing of Nagasaki gave the Japanese the impression that US had a significant supply of these weapons, and that further resistance would result in genocide of the Japanese people within the month. Ultimately, this is what appears to have changed the Emperor's mind about intervention (Hirohito specifically mentioned this in post-war interviews, that the possible annihilation of all of Japan suddenly was presented as a distinct possibility, and was what made him speak out then).
As much of the Japanese government records were destroyed shortly after the 9th, intentionally during a coup attempt (and kidnapping attempt of the Emperor) and incidentally in the chaos afterwards, and most of the members of the council were tried on war crimes charges (and executed), there is very poor documentation on the actual conversations had, and little in the way of reliable witness statements.
The end result is this: we simply don't know if another bombing was necessary. Moreover, we don't know if more time between bombings would have helped either (i.e. if we'd threatened to repeat the Hiroshima on say the 20th, would Japan have then surrendered?) There's simply not enough hard evidence to make much of a case either way. The sole hard piece we have is the Emperor's word that it was the 2nd bombing that changed his mind, and caused him to intervene. But, once again, was this due to the timing of the second bombing, or would have a greater interval cause him to reconsider the opinion he'd held even immediately after Hiroshima?
We know the second bombing worked (i.e. forced the immediate surrender). What we don't know was if there were other alternatives that might also have worked.
Which is more powerful an atomic bomb or a nuclear bomb?
They are the same kind of bomb: bombs that derive their energy from the atomic nucleus. It just depends on design and how much of the design yield is from fission or from fusion. Pure fission bombs cannot be built with yields above 1 megaton, but including some fusion the theoretical yield is unlimited.
However considering mission, construction costs, size limits, etc. it is usually more practical to build low yield bombs that are part fission part fusion than to try to build high yield bombs of either type.
The lowest yield nuclear bomb tested was the US Davy Crocket at 10 tons yield, the highest yield nuclear bomb tested was the USSR Tsar Bomba at 52 to 58 megatons yield (depending on method of measurement). Both were part fission part fusion designs, although the designs were obviously very different: the Davy Crocket was almost entirely fission yield, the Tsar Bomba was over 95% fusion yield and generated the least fallout per kiloton yield of any nuclear bomb detonated in the atmosphere.
How is the atomic bomb deadlier than the conventional bomb?
Conventional bombs use conventional explosives or incendiary materials, e.g. TNT, RDX, C-4, Semtex, Magnesium, Napalm. They cause localised damage with fairly consistent and predictable effects. They are usually cheap and leave little ongoing damage once detonated.
Nuclear bombs use the power of either nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or both. The result is enormous amounts of energy released in microseconds, with wholesale destruction over a large area, and leave radioactive fallout all around.
If necessary, means ending the War (WWII), then yes.
There are "reports" that the Japanese were going to surrender, before the bombs were dropped, but the Japanese had been known to use delaying tactics to their advantage.
In any case, the dropping of the bombs, ended the war and in doing so, saved countless additional lives. If the Japanese had surrendered when requested, the bombs would not have been dropped.
When the soviet union exploded an atomic bomb, the US responded by intensifying efforts to develop?
They developed the H-bomb, a bomb more powerful than the atomic bomb that the Americans dropped on Japan, and was stronger than the one that the Soviet Union detonated. The U.S. just wanted to be stronger than the Soviet Union.
During World War II, U.S. leaders, officials, scientists, and others debated using the atomic bomb on Japan primarily because of the moral implications of such an attack. They were concerned as to whether they would be justified in using such a destructive weapon -- against which there was no defense. Moreover, they were concerned as to what the future implications might be if they were the first to unleash such a weapon into the world.
What were the effects of the atomic bomb on the people in hiroshima?
The people that did not get affected by the large explosion were affected by the high radiation. The radiation dug into their skin (the heat they felt) and caused cancer later in life if they survived. The radiation killed all the animals all around and poisoned the plants all around which died instantly along with anything in a one hundred feet zone. Anyone around there a few days after the explosion would also become victims of the radiation which lingers in the air.
Which of these events happened when the US dropped the first atomic bomb?
The leaflet drop warning the Japanese about the new weapon.
Who was the first scientist to develop atomic bomb?
Ernest Rutherford, in 1919, was the first to split an atom, though it was nitrogen, and thus there was no power generation or explosion. In 1932 Sir John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton were the first to cause a nuclear reaction by the fission of an atom. Enrico Fermi, however was the first to fission uranium, in 1932, though at the time he did not fully appreciate the consequences of this discovery. Otto Robery Frisch and Lise Meitner were the first to realize the potential energy produced by the fission of uranium, however, and in a latter experiment, Frisch proved the theory.
The first person to ever realize its potential as a weapon, though, was the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, who realized, after experimentation, that the amount of neutrons released by the fission of uranium (two on average) could produce a nuclear chain reaction, which could lead to a massive explosion. Fearing the use of this reaction as a weapon by a facist government, however, Szilard kept his discovery secret, and convinced others to do the same, but the Joliot Curie group published the exact same results, coming to the same conlusion as Szilard.
However, the man who is generaly regarded as the "father of the A-bomb" is J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the Manhattan Project in the United States, which produced the first ever nuclear weapon.
H.G. Wells was the first to envision a nuclear weapon driven by nuclear fission, when he wrote of "air dropped 'atomic bombs'" in his 1914 novel, The World Set Free. At the time, Wells did not know of the destructive power the such weapons would one day harness. Leo Szilard latter said that this novel had been the inspiration for his research on nuclear fission.And he has tested the bomb offensivly in japan
No one found it!
Leó Szilárd invented it in 1933 while living in London and patented it in 1934, his patent was granted in 1936 and the British Admiralty promptly bought the patent and classified it. However no fuel was known that could make the patent work to build an actual bomb.
In early 1939 a team of scientists working in Germany and Sweden discovered that one isotope of uranium (U-235) could fission when struck by a neutron and produce more neutrons that could cause more fissions. While these scientists did not know of Leó Szilárd's patent (as it was classified) they rapidly figured out everything Leó Szilárd had in 1933 now that they had a usable fuel.
In August 1939, prominent physicists Leó Szilárd and Eugene Wigner drafted the Einstein-Szilárd letter, which warned of the potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type". It urged the United States to take steps to acquire stockpiles of uranium ore and accelerate the research of Enrico Fermi and others into nuclear chain reactions. They had it signed by Albert Einstein and delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt soon authorized preliminary studies.
In 1942, with the United States now at war, Roosevelt decided to begin full scale development of these bombs and authorized the Manhattan Project.
In June 1944, the Manhattan Project employed some 129,000 workers but after construction was complete this declined to 100,000 workers.
The first bombs were ready in the summer of 1945.
What day were the atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki?
August 1945 A bit more information. Aug 6 for Hiroshima and Aug 9 for Nagasaki.
What are the pros of the dropping of the Atomic bomb?
This may just be opinion to many including my self, but the pros to dropping the atom bomb on Japan were these:
1. It ended the war since Germany had already surrendered. 2. It killed many Japanese people, innocent or other wise. I do realize as we look back now, this is wrong, but back in the 1940's it looked at as though it was the right thing to do, and in a sense it was. I mean, hello, they did attack us at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th, 1941, and for what reason? Because they didn't want us to join the war. They thought by attacking us that it would hurt our pride and then we wouldn't want to fight, where in the end they made themselves loose because at that time, we weren't planning to join the war.
I know it is not many reasons, but i hope you understand. this was a war that changed the course of the U.S.A, while you are in war what is the object? TO WIN! The goal of the atom bomb was to get the war over and guess what, it did.
It is very easy for some to look back and harshly judge our actions in World War II. Is this fair? No. Many people today fail to give the spirit of the times proper respect. If you were not there, or if you have not fully investigated the whole situation, you cannot apply a truly fair and accurate judgment. This war had been going on for years. 400,000 Americans had already been killed in action. It had to end.
The truth of the matter is this: the atomic attack on Japan saved lives - Allied and Japanese. The Japanese were not going to surrender. A war of attrition was their mindset. Their ports were blockaded. Nothing was being shipped in or out. They, essentially, were going to starve. The fire bombings of Japan throughout the summer of 1945 (which actually killed far, far more Japanese than the atomic attacks) did nothing to convince military leadership to surrender. Added to this fact is the gruesome reality of what an Allied mainland Japan invasion would mean. 1,000,000 Allied lives was projected. Whether you believe that figure or not, just watch "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers" and imagine those invasion scenes playing out on the beaches and in the skies over Japan. The Japanese soldier was much different than the German - definitely the most tenacious the world has ever seen. They would have fought to the last man, woman or child in order to repel an invasion.
The truth is, the atomic attack ended the war quickly, and saved more total lives in the end. It also prevented Soviet interference, since their non-aggression pact with Japan was to end in mid August 1945. A Soviet occupation of Japan would not have been in our best interest, folks.
How did they use Atomic bombs in the Cold war?
The atomic bomb was used in the Cold War as a deterrent, no actual bombs were exploded in military action, only in tests to prove they worked. The idea being that the enemy would be so scared of your ability to wipe it out that it wouldn't use its bombs on you.
How many atomic bombs were used against Japan before it surrendered?
There were 2, 'Little Boy', dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and 'Fat Man' dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Six days later, on August 16, Japan announced surrender and on September 2, 1956 Japan signed an Instrument of Surrender.
In the six months preceding dropping the atomic bombs, the US fire bombed 67 Japanese cities, followed by issuing the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945 calling for Japan to surrender. Japan ignored the request.
Did the Indianapolis deliver both atomic bombs used on Japan?
At Tinian Island, in the Marianas. Tinian was the origin of both the nuclear raids.
How many died in the atomic bomb in Nagasaki?
On 9 August 1945, Nagasaki was the target of the world's second atomic bomb attack at 11:02 a.m., when the north of the city was destroyed and an estimated 40,000 people were killed. According to statistics given at the Nagasaki Peace Park, the dead totalled 73,884, injured 74,909 and diseased several hundred thousand.
60,000-80,000
Is there still radiation from the atomic bombs of World War 2?
no but global warming is killing millions of people worldwide. global warming killed my dog. and manbearpig is global warming's brother
Was the atomic bomb dropped before the bombing of Pearl Harbor?
No. The Atomic Bombs were dropped to convince Japan to surrender, and it worked as planned.
Surrender was hateful to the Japanese, as part of their warrior culture. In every battle across the Pacific the Japanese fought to the very last man, and all had to be killed, or committed suicide themselves. There were never more than a handful of prisoners taken, and many of those were wounded and helpless, or unconscious when taken. Many of the others were Koreans, taken from their homeland (which Japan overran in 1909) and forced to labor building fortifications and pillboxes of the islands the Japanese held in the Pacific. As soon as the US invasion fleet appeared over the horizon off these islands the position of the Japanese ashore was utterly and completely hopeless, but there was never any thought whatsoever of doing the sensible, reasonable thing and surrendering.
The last island the US invaded before readying to move on to invading the Japanese Home Islands was Okinawa. Okinawa is considered part of Japan, even though it is 300 miles south of the main Japanese islands. Both on Okinawa and on Saipan the previous year, there were sizable numbers of Japanese civilians. These killed themselves by the thousands rather than be occupied by the Americans. Mothers threw their babies off a cliff and then leaped after on Saipan, at a place still called Suicide Cliff. Off Okinawa sailors on the ships offshore were issued rifles to shoot holes in the bodies of the civilians floating among the fleet, trying to make them sink, because they were so numerous it was feared they would foul the ships propellers.
The Japanese fought even more viciously on Okinawa than they had before, and were planning to raise it another notch when Americans came ashore in Japan proper. They were forcing civilian women to drill daily with bamboo spears, and were indoctrinating them to run at American soldiers when they saw them and try to stab one before they were, inevitably, killed themselves. They were planning on making the American effort to take Japan an absolute bloodbath, and no doubt whatsoever they would have. American estimates of the casualties from the first invasion of the first main Japanese island in November, 1945 were one million. And these were only the Americans; it was assumed that ALL the Japanese would have to be killed.
The Atomic Bombs allowed the Japanese to think that surrender was acceptable, and prevented the huge slaughter which would have followed the invasion.
Who gave atomic bomb to Russia?
Russia developed its own nuclear program, and was aided by espionage.
Which country dropped the atomic bomb on hiroshima?
If the question refers to 1945, it was not a battle. It was a bombing. The recipient was Japan, and it was done by the United States of America. If the question is really about the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, the participating countries were Japan and Russia. Japan won this battle.
Why did the US drop two bombs on Japan?
Japan would not surrender after the first one was dropped, so they dropped the second one.
By dropping the second so quickly, the Americans bluffed the Japanese into thinking the Americans had a huge supply of these weapons.
Had they known that just one or two more were ready, the Japanese might have gone ahead and toughed it out for another year. This would have resulted in even more catastrophic results for the Japanese people than actually occurred. Many were nearly starving already. Another year of fighting would have killed millions just from lack of food. Additionally ground fighting would have started and, as in Germany, that was much more destructive than the aerial bombardment.
As awful as they were, the bombs were a necessity to end the war quickly and in the end saved many Japanese lives and much property.
The US had 1 ready to drop in late august and a production schedule and operating facilities to drop 20 more before the end of 1945. These took time to make and they were to be used as quickly as they were made.
The US was just lucky to have had two different ways to make them that produced their first bombs at about the same time (BTW, there were no more plans to make anymore Little Boy bombs in 1945 as they wasted too much uranium).
Also had the Japanese not surrendered and the invasion had began it is virtually certain that the US would have used chemical weapons in Japan during the invasion. I am sure that Truman saw the atomic bomb as a possible way to avoid using chemical weapons (which is a violation of the Geneva Protocol).
The Japanese military actually had a plan to continue the war for another 10 years at the cost of 100 million Japanese (more than the population of the main islands in 1941), which while they would lose in the end anyway. The US would be so tired of the war that Japan (with a residual population left of under 3 million) Japan could then dictate all the terms and conditions of their surrender to the US.
When did Russia test their atomic bomb?
The first successful fission nuclear weapons test by the former Soviet Union, named First Lightning (Первая молния) was August 29, 1949. The American's code named it Joe1. The most important part of this test was the demonstration to the west that they were not alone in this nuclear club, despite several later not so effective tests into the H-bomb era for the Soviet Union. Yet, the Soviet Union relatively quickly caught up with not only yield, but the concept to miniaturize their weapons.
General Leslie Groves oversaw the development of the atomic bomb. He also oversaw the construction of the Pentagon. J. (Julius) Robert Oppenheimer was a physicist and civilian who led the other scientists working on the atomic bomb. He reported to General Groves.
