Historical Context
The terrible war in the Pacific - a battle on a large tract of land, air and sea - continued. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan conquered the Philippines, Malaysia, the Dutch East Indies and Burma. U.S. troops, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand tried to stop the Japanese advance, which reached its highest point in the spring of 1942. The turning point of the Pacific war came in June 1942 during the Battle of Midway. The American victory at Midway ended the Japanese hope to control the Pacific. The United States began a long counter-offensive, and recaptured some Pacific islands that Japan had occupied. In October 1944, the U.S. finally crushed the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines.
But Japan refused to surrender. The United States wanted to end the war with Japan's unconditional surrender Furthermore, also wanted to avoid more battles such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where they had taken very heavy casualties. These factors justifying U.S. plans to use the atomic bomb.
The United States in late 1941 established a secret program that became known as the Manhattan Project, with the aim of developing the atomic bomb, an extremely potent nuclear weapon. The aim of the project, directed by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, was to build an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany. After Roosevelt's death in April 1945, Harry S.Truman became the U.S. president and a staunch supporter of the program developing the atomic bomb. At this point, the new gun had two motives. First, it could be used to force Japan to surrender unconditionally. Second, the possession of the bomb would allow the United States, not the USSR, the political control of the postwar period.
Should the United States of America to use the bomb to end the war with Japan? What were the reviews in 1945? A review was to invade Japan, Truman believed that it would cost more than half a million American lives. Some historians have estimated the loss of life between 25,000 and 46,000, although these figures consider only the first step of the invasion planned for November. A second opinion was not to demand the unconditional surrender, and there is a negotiation with Japan A third alternative was to allow the Soviet Union invaded, ending the war with Japan, which would reduce the U.S. influence policy in the postwar. Scientists who developed the atomic bomb discussed the subject. Some felt wrong dropping the bomb without notice and supported by the explosion demo to convince Japan to surrender. In the opinion of Oppenheimer, it was very uncertain and risky, only the shock of using the pump in a Japanese city would force Japan to surrender. President Truman agreed.
On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. On August 8 the Soviet Union declares war on Japan the next day the U.S. launched an even more powerful atomic bomb on Nagasaki. On September 2 the Japanese government, which had sworn to fight until death, declared unconditional surrender.
Should the United States of America have released the bomb? Critics complain that the decision of the loss of human life. Consider that any of the alternatives would have been preferable. Others think that only the pump, used the way it was used, could have ended the war. Above all, both agree that it saved countless American lives. The pump also prevented the Soviet invasion of Japan and the U.S. has enormous influence in the postwar world. For there is no doubt about it, Truman later wrote: I regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubts that she should be used.
Letter from Einstein to Roosevelt
Albert Einstein
Old Grove Rd
Nassau Point
Peconic, Long Island
August 2, 1939
FR Roosevelt
President of the United States
Whiste House
Washington, DC
Sr.
Recent studies of E. Fernu and L. Szilard, whose manuscripts have been made to me, lead me to believe that in the immediate future, the element uranium may be turned into an important new source of energy. Some aspects of the situation that now seem to require much attention and, if possible, immediate action on the part of the Administration. So I think it is my duty to bring to your attention the following facts and recommendations.
During these last four months became likely? through the work of Loiot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America? it may be possible to start a nuclear chain reaction on a large mass of uranium, from which would be generated large amounts of power and new elements identical to uranium. Now it is almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.
This new phenomenon could be used in the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable? I think it's inevitable? which can construct a new type of pump extremely powerful. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well completely destroy the port in question, together with the territory that surrounds it. However, such pumps may be too heavy to be transported by air.
The United States has very few uranium mines with little value and in moderate amounts. There are very good deposits in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia, and the most important source of uranium is Belgian Congo.
Given this situation, you might consider it desirable to have some kind of contact between the Administration and the group of physicists who are working on chain reactions in America. One possible way to achieve this could entrust this mission to be a person of his confidence that podiria may serve as an unofficial way. Their functions are as follows:
- Being in touch with the Department of Government, keeping them informed of future developments, and suggest actions the Government, with particular attention to the problems of ensuring the supply of uranium ore to the United States.
- Accelerating the experimental work, which currently takes place with limited budgets of university laboratories, with the provision of funds. These funds were made possible with contacts with private groups who were willing to make contributions to this cause, and obtaining the cooperation of industrial laboratories which had the team needed.
I understand that, currently, Germany stopped the sale of uranium mines in Czechoslovakia, which were taken by German forces. It might be thought that Germany shares held as evident, since the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, von Weizacker, is responsible for the Institute Kraiser Guilermo Berlin where some of American jobs are being copied.
Your secure server,
A. Einstein
The atomic bombs on Japan Explosion
The day August 6, 1945 dawned bright and hot in Hiroshima, Japan's seventh largest city with 343,000 inhabitants and a garrison of 150,000 soldiers. Hiroshima is located near the delta of the Ota River, which flows into the sea Interior. That Monday, despite the war being waged on the islands of the Pacific Ocean against the United States of America, life was as usual: the traders had already opened stores, the students were in classrooms, offices and factories were full swing.
Shortly before 8 o'clock in the morning, the siren warning of the presence of enemy aircraft. The alert was so commonplace that few people went to shelters. The siren stopped. At 8:15 pm, high in the sky, there is a bluish-white spark that turns into a pink bow. In tenths of seconds, Hiroshima (Large Island) is white. Buildings and houses levitate. People and animals evaporate; roofs and bricks melt. A heat wave of 5.5 million degrees Celsius and winds of 385 km / h devastate the city.
Shock wave
Coming from the sky, the punishment for the Japanese city was the first atomic bomb used in military, launched by a B-29 bomber, the Flying Superfortress, the United States. Not even the crew of the B-29 - dubbed the Enola Gay - knew what kind of bomb carried. Innocently named Little Boy, the bomb was dropped to 10 thousand feet, having descended by parachute and exploded 650 meters from the ground on the city center. All that was 500 meters from the epicenter of the blast was immediately incinerated. Within seconds, the shock wave reached a radius of more than 7 km. Less than one hour after the blast, 78,000 people had died and 10,000 simply evaporated. 37 000 were injured and thousands were dying in the days, months and years ahead. For many years due to deficient children born to mothers radiation had been exposed. In the devastated city, the shadow people, plants, bridges, was printed in negative - the mark of the atomic shadow.
Mushroom
The explosion released a ridiculous amount of radiation and the world first met the image of the dreaded mushroom cloud. Altogether, died about 300 000 people as a direct result of the attack. Who is not dead burned, crushed or pulverized later suffered the effects of radiation - usually death from cancer.
The time Nagasaki
The intention of the U.S. government was that Japan surrendered. Even with the destruction of Hiroshima, the Emperor Hirohito showed no surrender. Three days later, on August 9, the scientific-military operation was repeated in Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu, the southernmost Japan The B-29 launches Grand Artist pump number 2, Fat Boy, at 11:02 h . Of the 250 000 inhabitants, 36 000 died that day. The carnage was not higher because the mountainous terrain protected the city center. Four months later, however, the deaths in the city amounted to 80 000. Nagasaki, in fact, was the secondary objective. Was reached because the weather Kokura, the primary target, prevented the destructive effects of the pump were planned. In 1950, Japan's national census indicated that there were 280,000 people in the country contaminated by radiation from the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Unconditional surrender
Historians and military analysts consider the atomic attack on two Japanese cities entirely unnecessary, and inhumane. The whole world knew that Japan was defeated. The United States closed the siege on the Japanese islands after the conquest of Iwo Jima and Okinawa islands of Japan near the unconditional surrender of Japan occurred on August 14, but World War II would only be officially closed on 2 September 1945, a Sunday, so the Japanese representatives signed the declaration aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri.
The english version of this article will be available soon. In the meanwhile, the text above was the result of a Google translation from portuguese version to english.
