Nuclear Bomb Dbq

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At 8:15 A.M. on August 6, 1945, the city of Hiroshima, Japan was reduced to ruin at the command of the United States. 30% of its’ population lay dead with another 70,000 injured. The city of Nagasaki, Japan saw similar fate on August 9th, 1945. Thousands more people died on that day as well. The cause of all this death: nuclear weapons. Nuclear bombs are weapons of mass destruction that were originally created by the United States in order to end World War II. Under order of the President of the United States, the Manhattan Project was tasked with the production of nuclear weapons. Nuclear bombs can be broken down into two types: atomic and hydrogen bombs. Once the devastation that these bombs could produce was clear, an arms race…show more content…
“The site chosen was a remote corner on the Alamagordo Bombing Range known as the "Jornada del Muerto," or "Journey of Death," 210 miles south of Los Alamos.”5 The Trinity test was remarkable because no one truly knew what was going to happen. Would the bomb be small? Would the bomb be so large that it will put an end to the world? Will the bomb even go off? These thoughts filled the minds of those watching the Trinity test unfold. Due to the uncertainty of the test, Oppenheimer and Groves were in separate bunkers during the test. In the event that one died, hopefully the other would survive to report about the test and continue work. At 5:30a.m. on July 16, 1945, hunkered down in bunkers 10,000 yards from ground zero, scientists watched in awe as a bright flash appeared followed by a mushroom cloud that rose over 40,000 feet into the air. “It is estimated the at the instant of the explosion, the temperature at the core of the bomb was 60 million degrees centigrade and that the initial explosion was brighter than the sun.”6 Following this, a massive wave of heat and energy rushed outward from ground zero. In the words of Robert Oppenheimer, “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent…Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. I suppose we all thought that one way or another.” The nuclear age had

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