The Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Projet was the code name for the secret US government project that was working to create the first atomic bomb. It was created before World War Two.The idea of forming a research team to create a nuclear weapon came from Albert Einstein. He had sent a letter to president Roosevelt explaining that if German's had figured out nuclear weapons first, the world would be in a terrible place. The United States had to do something about it. When the project had developed a little more, the first atomic weapon was tested at Los Alamos. This test was also named the Trinity test This happened on July 6, 1945. The director of Los Alamos said this after he saw the first test of a nuclear weapon:
"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all felt that one way or another. "
J. Robert Oppenheimer
The United States and Japan had been fighting for four years and they were not getting any closer towards the end of the war. Germany had already left the war in May but Japan certainly was not about to surrender. The U.S. decided to use their atomic bombs. About a month after the first nuclear bomb test, two bombs were dropped over Japan. One was dropped in Hirsohima and another in Nagasaki. Many people thought that bombing Japan was not necessary and that they would have surrendered even without the bombing. But many people also think that we saved many American lives by bombing Japan and if we did not so this, the United States would have invaded Japan and even lives would have been lost on both sides. These bombings also ended the war a lot sooner.