“On August 5th crews were shown photographs of the test explosion in New Mexico…. 7 The top-secret information began to spill out days before the mission. SCAP is the commander that controlled and kept tabs on Japanese forces, air, sea, and land. The Project Manhattan was so secretive that just two days before the scheduled attack, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific, (SCAP), was informed about the atomic bomb and the decision to use it. 6 Photograph of the B-29 Enola Gay: the aircraft that dropped the first atomic bomb | Courtesy of Wikimedia This two-million-dollar project could not afford any mistakes. These were the strict procedures for dropping a top-secret nuclear weapon and still escape its shock waves. Keep practicing it… What we learn in Utah may end the war.” 5 Brutal standards required them to bank at speeds of 215 miles per hour, a turn so tight that a wing could snap off the aircraft. The aircrews took orders, “After a simulated bomb run, make a fast turn. But all that training in intensity and secrecy was for what? All pilots wanted to fly B-29s however, none of the trainees knew what missions they were training for. Many pilots for the B-29 were intensely trained, and the training required perfectionism, precision, and accuracy, and many failed the program. If a pilot was “good,” he was selected to go to Utah to train in B-29s but overall, simply being “good” didn’t make the cut. The trainees of the 509th Composite Group had to be the best of the best. It was determined that if such a weapon were used, the target would have to be strictly “a military one,” so the Japanese city of Hiroshima was chosen as that first target, and the intense training of the 509th Composite Group would be put to use. While he was still alive, Roosevelt wondered whether this new weapon might “be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous ark.” 3 A huge decision weighed on the president’s shoulders, whether to use the apocalyptic weapon in order to save American lives or hold back the weapon and have the war with Japan continue for months, possibly years more. 2 President Truman’s diary revealed his thoughts after the news of the successful test. The United States successfully tested the first one on Jin the Alamogordo desert of New Mexico. The top-secret Manhattan Project was a two million-dollar investment in nuclear research, and the initial outcome was three atomic bombs. In order to demonstrate superiority in military power, it was in the United States’ best interest to beat Nazi Germany in the race for a nuclear weapon. This was the first atomic bomb that was successfully dropped by the United States bomber Enola Gay on August 6, 1945, and it marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age. The city “was hidden by that awful cloud…boiling up, mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall.” 1 Horror, destruction, and death rose over the city of Hiroshima. Clear and out of range, the crew members looked back at what was left.
Tail gunner George Caron was able to recognize and warn the crew when the second shock wave was about to hit.
They did not know what hit them through all the commotion, the blindness, and the ear ringing, as the plane “cracked and crinkled.” That was the first shock wave. The crew and witnesses were blinded by the absence of color, by the pure white light. SC 3300 – Special Topics: Public HealthĬolonel Tibbets could not see anything through his army-issued anti-glare goggles, so he flung them off.HS 1302 – United States History since 1877.HS 1301 – United States History to 1877.3 Post-Classical History (600 CE-1492 CE).6 Contemporary Latin America (2000-2030).
1 Pre-Columbian Latin America (to 1492).4 Late Middle Ages-Renaissance-Reformation Europe (1300-1648).6 Great Depression and WWII (1929-1945).5 Emergence of Modern America (1877-1929).4 Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877).2 Revolution and Early Republic (1754-1801).1 Colonization and Settlement (1500-1763).