Dawn Over Zero The Story Of The Atomic Bomb

On August 6, 1945, the world was electrified by the news that an American Army bomber had dropped an atomic bomb, with an explosive power equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT, on the important Japanese military center of Hiroshima. Three days later another bomb, of improved design and even greater power, was dropped on Nagasaki. The following day, Aug. 10, the Japanese sued for peace. Newspapers and magazines throughout the world printed many thousands of words about the new weapon and the scientific developments that had made it possible. These stories were based largely on official War Department releases prepared by William L. Laurence, science reporter for The New York Times. At the request of the War Department, Mr. Laurence had been granted a leave by The Times several months earlier. Mr. William L. Laurence was the only newspaper man permitted by the War Department to go to all the plants and inspect the processes of production of the atomic bomb, the only newspaper man allowed to witness the secret trial of the bomb in New Mexico, and the only newspaper man who witnessed the actual dropping of one of the bombs on Japan, from a plane above Nagasaki. This book, first published in 1946, is the full story, so far as it may yet be revealed, of the atom bomb, written by the man who is unquestionably the best qualified to write it for the layman.

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A "behind-the-scenes account of the 116 days leading up to the Americans attack on Hiroshima"--Dust jacket flap.

In the summer of 1945, the world was introduced to the horrific consequences of nuclear warfare. On the sixth day of August, an American B-29 bomber dropped a revolutionary new weapon, the atomic bomb, over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The catastrophic detonation instantly killed over 100,000 residents of the city, with thousands more dying from explosion-related injuries in the months and years to follow. Three days later, a second nuclear weapon was released over the skies of Nagasaki, killing over 40,000 Japanese citizens, most of whom were civilians. Six days after the second nuclear attack, the Empire of Japan surrendered, and World War II was ended. Jubilation among the Allied countries was tempered by a profound sense of relief; nearly four years of bloody war had finally come to an end. Some 406,000 Americans died during World War II, while another 671,000 were wounded. By the end of the war, an astonishing one out of every one hundred thirty six Americans had been killed or wounded in the fighting. American military personnel, along with their spouses, children, parents, and friends, were eager to see the bloody conflict come to and end, by any means possible. Consequently, President Harry Truman's decision to utilize the atomic bomb to bring Japan to its knees was wildly popular in the weeks and months that followed the Japanese surrender. In the six plus decades since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however, many have questioned both the necessity and morality of America's deployment of the bomb. Significantly influenced by revisionist history, passionate debate has focused on the justification for nuclear warfare to subdue an enemy already nearing defeat. Like so many other momentous events, the reader must balance the reality of the world in 1945 against the seemingly clearer prism of revisionist history. Fire in the Sky: The Story of the Atomic Bomb chronicles the development and use of the first atomic bombs. This is a remarkable story about the lives and times of the brilliant scientists, seasoned military officers, and determined government leaders, who reshaped history, and irrevocably changed the dynamics of warfare.

At once fascinating and horrific, this book details the conception, development and impact of the atomic bombs infamously dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 brought the world to a stand still. This unimaginable shock confirmed to the world that the race to develop a working atomic weapon during World War II had been won by the American-led international effort. Horrific and controversial even today, these first uses of the atomic bomb had intense ramifications not only on the continued development of the bomb, but also on politics and popular culture. As well as the technological development, historian James Delgado also examines how the US Army Air Force had to develop the capacity to deliver the weapons, and examines the sites where development and testing took place, in order to give a comprehensive history of the dawning of the nuclear age.

This magnificent account of the coming of age of physics in America has been heralded as the best introduction to the history of science in the United States. Unsurpassed in its breadth and literary style, Kevles's account portrays the brilliant scientists who became a powerful force in bringing the world into a revolutionary new era. The book ranges widely as it links these exciting developments to the social, cultural, and political changes that occurred from the post-Civil War years to the present. Throughout, Kevles keeps his eye on the central question of how an avowedly elitist enterprise grew and prospered in a democratic culture. In this new edition, the author has brought the story up to date by providing an extensive, authoritative, and colorful account of the Superconducting Super Collider, from its origins in the international competition and intellectual needs of high-energy particle physics, through its establishment as a multibillion-dollar project, to its termination, in 1993, as a result of angry opposition within the American physics community and the Congress.

Drawing on the latest research on the atomic bomb and its history, the contributors to this provocative collection of eighteen essays set out to answer two key questions: First, how did the atomic bomb, a product of unprecedented technological innovation, rapid industrial-scale manufacturing, and unparalleled military deployment shape U.S. foreign policy, the communities of workers who produced it, and society as a whole? And second, how has American society's perception that the the bomb is a means of military deterrence in the Cold War era evolve under the influence of mass media, scientists, public intellectuals, and even the entertainment industry? In answering these questions, The Atomic Bomb and American Society sheds light on the collaboration of science and the military in creating the bomb; the role of women working at Los Alamos; the transformation of nuclear physicists into public intellectuals as the reality of the bomb came into widespread consciousness; the revolutionary change in military strategy following the invention of the bomb and the development of Cold War ideology; the image of the bomb that was conveyed in the popular media; and the connection of the bomb to the commemoration of World War II. As it illuminates the cultural, social, political, environmental, and historical effects of the creation of the atomic bomb, this volume contributes to our understanding of how democratic institutions can coexist with a technology that affects everyone, even if only a few are empowered to manage it. Rosemary B. Mariner is formerly Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair and Professor of Military Studies for the National War College. She is currently a lecturer in history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. G. Kurt Piehler is associate professor of history and former director of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which hosted the conference that formed the basis of this volume. He is the author of Remembering War the American Way and World War II in the American Soldiers' Lives Series as well as the coeditor, with John Whiteclay Chambers II, of Major Problems in American Military History.

"Nuclear weapons, since their conception, have been the subject of secrecy. In the months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American scientific establishment, the American government, and the American public all wrestled with what was called the "problem of secrecy," wondering not only whether secrecy was appropriate and effective as a means of controlling this new technology but also whether it was compatible with the country's core values. Out of a messy context of propaganda, confusion, spy scares, and the grave counsel of competing groups of scientists, what historian Alex Wellerstein calls a "new regime of secrecy" was put into place. It was unlike any other previous or since. Nuclear secrets were given their own unique legal designation in American law ("restricted data"), one that operates differently than all other forms of national security classification and exists to this day. Drawing on massive amounts of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time at the author's request, Restricted Data is a narrative account of nuclear secrecy and the tensions and uncertainty that built as the Cold War continued. In the US, both science and democracy are pitted against nuclear secrecy, and this makes its history uniquely compelling and timely"--

This volume, prepared by an acknowledged expert on the Manhattan Project, gives a concise, fast-paced account of all major aspects of the project at a level accessible to an undergraduate college or advanced high-school student familiar with some basic concepts of energy, atomic structure, and isotopes. The text describes the underlying scientific discoveries that made nuclear weapons possible, how the project was organized, the daunting challenges faced and overcome in obtaining fissile uranium and plutonium, and in designing workable bombs, the dramatic Trinity test carried out in the desert of southern New Mexico in July 1945, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.