Lead: With Harry Truman's decision to release the first atomic bombs for use, the Manhattan Project prepared for its climactic task.

Tag: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: The Trinity Test in the desert of New Mexico on July 16, 1945 had proven the design put together by Robert Oppenheimer's scientists and Captain Deak Parson's team of ordinance specialists. During the previous year, Parsons, anticipating its use, had been assembling the unit which would deliver the bomb. His choice to lead the group was Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. a veteran bomber pilot. Tibbets squadron, at its heart fifteen B-29 bombers modified to carry and drop the new bombs, began secret rehearsals at Wendover Field in Utah in the Fall of 1944. They would test drop dummy bombs and send the results back to the headquarters of the project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Any needed modifications would be made and the testing would resume.

Parsons team chose the island of Tinian as the launching point for the bombing run and all during the spring and summer of 1945 men and materiel were shipped to this small island near Guam in the South Pacific. After witnessing the first successful explosion in New Mexico, Parsons headed to Tinian to join Tibbets for the final preparations of the delivery of the only two bombs then in existence.

On July 26, USS Indianapolis, a fast cruiser temporarily detailed to the Manhattan Project delivered major components of the first bomb as the B-29 crews continued the final rehearsals for the drop. In Europe the Allied powers demanded that Japan surrender. When the Japanese rejected the ultimatum, President Truman ordered the bomb's use.

All that remained after three years of intensive work was favorable weather over the target. That came on August 6, 1945. Parsons joined Tibbets in the Enola Gay and at 2:45 AM the plane took off for Japan.

At 9:15 AM, the center of the city of Hiroshima was incinerated in a blinding bluish flame. After a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan gave up. World War II was over and the world began a new era of peace, but this time in the stark shadows of an atomic dawn.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

Resources

Christman, Al. "The Atom Bomb: Making it Happen," American Heritage of Invention and Technology 11 (1, Summer, 1995), 22-35.

Cooper, Dan. "The Atom Bomb: Making it Possible, "American Heritage of Invention and Technology 11 (1, Summer, 1995), 10-21.

Genion, William, editor. The Affects of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey. Santa Fe: Genion Publishing, 1973.

Groves, Leslie R. Now It Can be Told. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1962.

Maddox, Robert James, " The Biggest Decision: Why We Had to Drop the Atomic Bomb," American Heritage 46 (3, May/June, 1995), 70-77.

Stehling, Kurt R. "World Shaking Week in December: When the Work in Quiet Lab in Berlin and a Walk in the Snow in Sweden Opened Up the Pandora's Box of Fission," Smithsonian 4 (9, December, 1973), 88-89.

Wyden, Peter. Day One: Before Hiroshima and After. New York: Simon and Schuster Publishing Company, 1984.

Copyright 1995 by Educational Broadcast, Inc.