Groves and Oppenheimer, standing at the S, control bunker, discussed what to do if the weather did not break in time for the scheduled a. To break the tension, Fermi began offering anyone listening a wager on "whether or not the bomb would ignite the atmosphere, and if so, whether it would merely destroy New Mexico or destroy the world.
Meanwhile, Edward Teller was making everyone nervous by applying liberal amounts of sunscreen in the pre-dawn darkness and offering to pass it around.
At , Groves and Oppenheimer pushed the time back to At , the rain stopped. Kistiakowsky and his team armed the device shortly after and retreated to S, In accordance with his policy that each observe from different locations in case of an accident, Groves left Oppenheimer and joined Bush and Conant at base camp.
Those in shelters heard the countdown over the public address system, while observers at base camp picked it up on an FM radio signal.
During the final seconds, most observers laid down on the ground with their feet facing the Trinity site and simply waited. As the countdown approached one minute, Isidore Rabi said to the man lying next to him, Kenneth Griesen, "Aren't you nervous?
As Groves later wrote, "As I lay there in the final seconds, I thought only of what I would do if the countdown got to zero and nothing happened. As the countdown reached 10 seconds, Griesen suddenly blurted out to his neighbor Rabi, "Now I'm scared. At precisely a. While Manhattan Project staff members watched anxiously, the device exploded over the New Mexico desert, vaporizing the tower and turning the asphalt around the base of the tower to green sand.
Seconds after the explosion came a huge blast wave and heat searing out across the desert. No one could see the radiation generated by the explosion, but they all knew it was there. The steel container "Jumbo," weighing over tons and transported to the desert only to be eliminated from the test, was knocked ajar even though it stood half a mile from ground zero. As the orange and yellow fireball stretched up and spread, a second column, narrower than the first, rose and flattened into a mushroom shape, thus providing the atomic age with a visual image that has become imprinted on the human consciousness as a symbol of power and awesome destruction.
The most common immediate reactions to the explosion were surprise, joy, and relief. Lawrence was stepping from his car when, in his words, everything went "from darkness to brilliant sunshine in an instant"; he was "momentarily stunned by the surprise.
A military man was heard to exclaim, "The long-hairs have let it get away from them! Norris Bradbury reported that "the atom bomb did not fit into any preconceptions possessed by anybody. He quickly scrambled to his feet and slapped Oppenheimer on the back, saying, "Oppie, you owe me ten dollars. At the May 31 meeting, they concluded that the United States should try to retain superiority of nuclear weapons in case international relations deteriorated.
Most present at the meeting thought that atomic secrets should be protected for the present, though they conceded that the United States monopoly could not be held long. The meeting with the industrialists confirmed their view that the United States had a lead of three to ten years on the Soviet Union in production facilities for bomb fabrication.
There had been some discussion of free exchange of nuclear research for peaceful purposes and the international inspection system that such an exchange would require. Stimson told Truman that the Interim Committee was considering domestic legislation and that its members generally held the position that international agreements should be made in which all nuclear research would be made public and a system of inspections would be devised.
In case international agreements were not forthcoming, the United States should continue to produce as much fissionable material as possible to take advantage of its current position of superiority. Not all the scientists of the Manhattan Project were satisfied that their voices had been heard in decision-making about the bomb.
They had built the bomb and thought they had a right to help determine how it was to be used. The Scientific Panel of the Interim Committee was supposed to be the connection between the scientists and the policymakers, but after the scientists of the Met Lab were briefed by Arthur Compton on June 2 about the Interim Committee's conclusions, the Met Lab decided to create a "second opinion.
Its report argued that postwar international control of atomic power was the only way to stop the arms race that would be inevitable if the United States bombed Japan without first demonstrating the weapon in an uninhabited area. Oppenheimer, Fermi, Compton, and Lawrence the Scientific Panel disagreed with the Franck Report, however, and concluded that no technical test would convince Japan to surrender.
On June 21, the Interim Committee concurred. The bomb would be used as soon as possible, without warning, and against a war plant surrounded by additional buildings. A huge mushroom cloud appeared over what had been the heart of Hiroshima. The Enola Gay was then buffeted violently when struck by two shock waves—one direct and the other reflected from the ground.
Caron took photos from the tail of the plane and described what he saw over the intercom for the rest of the crew. He later recounted the experience in his book Fire of a Thousand Suns :.
A few crewmen claimed they heard him say them. The devastation of Hiroshima was apocalyptic. The city was almost completely leveled while a conservative estimate places the death toll at , people. Of course, this was not a fleet of Bs. This was two planes—the Enola Gay and the backup plane. The Japanese understandably assumed they were just weather planes. We flew them over Japan all the time in advance of bombing missions.
So nobody went into the shelters. In his book, Rhodes wrote about what happened on the ground just after Little Boy detonated. Mosquitoes and flies, squirrels, family pets crackled and were gone. The fireball flashed an enormous photograph of the city at the instant of its immolation fixed on the mineral, vegetable and animal surfaces of the city itself. A spiral ladder left its shadow in unburned paint on the surface of a steel storage tank.
Leaves shielded reverse silhouettes on charred telephone poles. A human being left the memorial of his outline in unspalled granite on the steps of a bank. It is believed that another , Japanese citizens died when Fat Man erupted over Nagasaki on August 9.
At the time, most Allied military and political leaders believed they had no other option. Japanese aggression in the region had fueled the start of the war. In a surprise attack, Japanese naval air forces had bombed the U. And throughout the war, the Japanese military had proven to be tenaciously belligerent—willing to die before surrendering and committing horrendous atrocities against Allied POWs. The war in the Pacific was now grinding on endlessly with mounting casualties each day and no end in sight.
The American public was growing weary of the toll it was taking. President Harry S. That battle had been extremely costly with nearly , Americans and Japanese military and civilian lives lost. The Allies expected even worse casualties during the invasion of Japan. The U. Chiefs of Staff predicted 1 million U. As many as 10 million Japanese might have perished in the attempt to conquer the island.
After the war, General Dwight D. Eisenhower , who would succeed him as president, and others said they believed Japan was close to surrendering, especially after the Soviet Union attacked Japanese-held Manchuria. The key sticking point was retaining Emperor Hirohito as a ceremonial leader, which the Allies eventually agreed to when they accepted surrender terms.
It is unrealistic to expect him to make any other decision than dropping the bomb. That choice has long inflamed passionate discord. He witnessed the controversy as it happened and how it led to the resignation of the director of the National Air and Space Museum. The original exhibition was scrapped and replaced. The subsequent exhibition then came under fire when a group of historians sent a letter of concern to the Smithsonian Secretary I.
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