The Manhattan Project
Anthony Nguyen
The Letter to the President
August 2nd, 1939
Dear President,
I’m writing to you to inform you that the community of scientist has found out that the scientists in Germany has figured out a way to split a uranium atom which is believed to cause much destruction. This could lead into advance bombs and energy. If we can start experimenting upon this discovery I think we will highly benefit from it. I am very concerned about the possibility of Germany having such power. I suggest talking to your government departments to figure out what to do and to start and speed up the experiments on the subject.
Yours very truly,
ALBERT EINSTEIN
Dialogue on the Project
July, 1940
U.S. Army Intelligence
Person one - ”Should we give the physicist, Albert Einstein, the permission to work on the atomic bomb?”
Person two - “I believe that we should. He was the person that started this whole thing up by the letter from Einstein to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and now that we’re in World War Two I think that we would need him.”
Person three - ”I would have to disagree. He is a potential security risk being born in Germany and easily reachable by many other scientists. There’s too much potential of all the information and discoveries spilling out that I don’t think that it’s worth letting him work on the project.”
Person two - ”Would he let outsiders know? Albert Einstein is an intelligent man. I doubt he would let anybody know about something so important like this. I think if we give him some guidelines we would be fine.”
Person three - ”We cannot be so sure of that. It is still too risky to let him contribute so I am going to say negative on that.”
Permission for Albert Einstein to work on the project denied*
1943
The Army Corps of Engineers
The Making of an Atomic Bomb: The Manhattan Project
Person one - ”Now that the project is starting to pick up the pace we cannot let other countries know about this top secret project and not even many important government members.”
Person two - “New sites and facilities are being constructed in the states of Tennessee, Washington, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and New Mexico, while additional research is still being conducted at Universities such as Berkeley and Columbia. The Metallurgical Laboratory at Chicago; Dayton, Ohio; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee will play important roles in the project.”
Person three - ”We have set up a combined policy committee with Great Britain and Canada and they are going to help us. Many of their scientists will be coming over here to work on the project. We can instantly end the war when we have produced the bombs.”
May we win the race to the atomic bomb.
1945
Person one - “Now that Harry S. Truman has became president, we are now informing him about The Manhattan Project. The funding from the government is now up to two billion dollars from when it started at two thousand.”
Person two - “We have made two bombs. “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.” “Little Boy” used a fission chain reaction produced by uranium isotope U-235 while “Fat Man” uses Plutonium-240. The Plutonium needed to increases density and pressure to create a fission to explode. But the decision to drop the bomb was in President Truman’s mind.”
Person three - “If The President chooses to drop the bomb where in Japan should we drop those bombs?”
Person four - “We can bomb four possible targets: Kokura Arsenal, Hiroshima, Niigata, and Kyoto.”
Person five - “I am going to veto the ancient Kyoto from the group because of its shrines, temples, and cultural importance to the Japanese people.”
Person six - “We should bomb Hiroshima. The city is very dense in population and very compact. It is also a military target with its facilities and the explosion can show the world what we have. If we choose to bomb it the death toll could be around 70,000 to 80,000 deaths.”
Person five - “The second target should be Kokura. It is the site of an arsenal that the government uses. If we cut their weapons off we will surely end the war.”
Person seven - “The weather will be a big negative when we strike, if the weather is bad at a target we will need to move to another one.” (Kokura was nearly bombed but bad weather intervened and they had to move onto another target)
1966
Person one - "The world is now in the nuclear age, good thing we have a head start."
Person two - " I don't think anybody is going to pick a fight with us anytime soon."
Person three - " In the meantime, we are going to help Japan recover from the destruction. We are going to help rebuild Japan's economy and government. Maybe it could benefit us in the future."
Trinity Site
July 16, 1945
Outside here on Trinity Site
Preparing to detonate the first atomic bomb
The countdown started
BOOM
The bomb released its might
A mushroom of smoke looms over the sky
Blocking out the sun
The energy was great
Surprising everyone watching
When it died off
The desert has turned to shards of glass
Information was gathered
And more was made