Internet Resources
- The Atomic Bombings by Ian W. TollMany Americans greeted the news of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima with jubilation. Beginning shortly after the war, however, a number of prominent US military leaders began to question the bomb's use.
- "Destroyer of Worlds": The Making of an Atomic BombAt 5:29 a.m. (MST), the world’s first atomic bomb detonated in the New Mexican desert, releasing a level of destructive power unknown in the existence of humanity. Emitting as much energy as 21,000 tons of TNT and creating a fireball that measured roughly 2,000 feet in diameter, the first successful test of an atomic bomb, known as the Trinity Test, forever changed the history of the world.
- The Most Fearsome Sight: The Atomic Bombing of HiroshimaOn the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
Research & Reference
- Atomic Archive: Explore the History, Science, and Consequences of the Atomic BombThe Atomic Archive explores the complex history surrounding the invention of the atomic bomb. Follow a timeline that takes you down the path of our nuclear past to the present. Read biographies of A-bomb father Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi's dispassionate account of the Trinity Test. Examine maps of the damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and summaries of arms-control treaties. You'll also find an excellent gallery of photographs and historical footage.
- Atomic Archive: Historical Documents and ReportsA collection of critical documents and reports that have shaped the atomic age.
- Atomic Bomb: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on the atomic bomb (nuclear weapon). This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
- Atomic Bomb Collection: Harry S. Truman LibraryThe Atomic Bomb Collection consists of various types of documents pertaining to the atomic bomb. Included are: eyewitness accounts; atomic bomb test and test site information; correspondence between Harry S. Truman, Leo Szilard, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, and others; memorabilia; printed materials; and research papers. This collection is a combination of documents from various donors, mostly taken from the Miscellaneous Historical Documents Collection (MHDC) and the General Historical Documents Collection (GHDC).
- Nuclear Testing ArchiveThe Nuclear Testing Archive (formerly known as the Coordination Information Center) opened on July 17, 1981, to collect and make available all historical documents, records, and data dealing with radioactive fallout from all U.S. testing of nuclear devices.
Perspectives
Pandora's Keepers
They Were Nine Brilliant Men who believed in science and who saw before anyone else the awesome workings of an invisible world. They came from many places, some fleeing Nazism in Europe, others quietly slipping out of university teaching jobs, all gathering in secret wartime laboratories to create the world's first atomic bomb. During World War II, few of the atomic scientists questioned the wisdom of their desperate endeavor. But afterward they were forced to deal with the sobering legacy of their creation. Some were haunted by the dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and became anti-nuclear weapons activists; others went on to build even deadlier bombs. In explaining their lives and their struggles, Brian VanDeMark superbly illuminates not only their moral reckoning with their horrific creation but also the ways in which each of us grapples with responsibility and unintended consequences. Book jacket.
By the Bomb's Early Light
Originally published in 1985, By the Bomb's Early Light is the first book to explore the cultural 'fallout' in America during the early years of the atomic age. Paul Boyer argues that the major aspects of the long-running debates about nuclear armament and disarmament developed and took shape soon after the bombing of Hiroshima. The book is based on a wide range of sources, including cartoons, opinion polls, radio programs, movies, literature, song lyrics, slang, and interviews with leading opinion-makers of the time. Through these materials, Boyer shows the surprising and profoundly disturbing ways in which the bomb quickly and totally penetrated the fabric of American life, from the chillingly prophetic forecasts of observers like Lewis Mumford to the Hollywood starlet who launched her career as the 'anatomic bomb.' In a new preface, Boyer discusses recent changes in nuclear politics and attitudes toward the nuclear age.
To Hell and Back
Drawing on the voices of atomic bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and the aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices, detonated over Japan, changed life on Earth forever. To Hell and Back offers readers a stunning, "you are there" time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino's scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written. At the narrative's core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand--the Japanese civilians on the ground. As the first city targeted, Hiroshima is the focus of most histories. Pellegrino gives equal weight to the bombing of Nagasaki, symbolized by the thirty people who are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki--where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of both cataclysms within Ground Zero. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell behind which Yamaguchi's office conference was convened--placing him and few others in a shock cocoon that offered protection while the entire building disappeared around them. Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within an illustrated narrative that challenges the "official report," showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki--and why. Also available from compatible vendors is an enhanced e-book version containing never-before-seen video clips of the survivors, their descendants, and the cities as they are today. Filmed by the author during his research in Japan, these 18 videos are placed throughout the text, taking readers beyond the page and offering an eye-opening and personal way to understand how the effects of the atomic bombs are still felt 70 years after detonation.
Hiroshima
The bombing of Hiroshima was one of the pivotal events of the twentieth century, yet this controversial question remains unresolved. At the time, General Dwight Eisenhower, General Douglas MacArthur, and chief of staff Admiral William Leahy all agreed that an atomic attack on Japanese cities was unnecessary. All of them believed that Japan had already been beaten and that the war would soon end. Was the bomb dropped to end the war more quickly? Or did it herald the start of the Cold War? In his probing new study, prizewinning historian Ronald Takaki explores these factors and more. He considers the cultural context of race - the ways in which stereotypes of the Japanese influenced public opinion and policymakers - and also probes the human dimension. Relying on top secret military reports, diaries, and personal letters, Takaki relates international policies to the individuals involved: Los Alamos director J. Robert Oppenheimer, Secretary of State James Byrnes, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, and others... but above all, Harry Truman.
Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War
On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a small port city on Japan's southernmost island. An estimated 74,000 people died within the first five months, and another 75,000 were injured. Published on the seventieth anniversary of the bombing, Nagasaki takes readers from the morning of the bombing to the city today, telling the first-hand experiences of five survivors, all of whom were teenagers at the time of the devastation.
Streaming Media
- The BombThis documentary tells the history of the development of nuclear weapons. Starting with the Trinity Test in 1945, it traces their tumultous journey to the present day. The film includes visual and auditory simulations of nuclear tests and archival footage to help the viewer understand the social and cultural influences on their development, the computer systems invented to control them, the missiles and bombers built to carry them, and the political intrigue that surrounds them.
- Dropping the Atomic BombIn this final episode, reflect on a new era in human civilization. Although Japan was essentially defeated, the government refused to surrender. Travel with President Truman to Potsdam, Germany, where he and Churchill issued a declaration calling for "prompt and utter destruction" if Japan refused to surrender. Then deconstruct the justification for the use of the atomic bombs.
- Japan’s Atomic BombSince the end of World War II, assessments of Imperial Japan’s military capability have indicated that the country was years away from building an atomic weapon. This A&E Special shatters that view, offering evidence that Japan had world-class nuclear physicists, access to uranium ore, cyclotrons to process it into a bomb, and submarines capable of carrying and launching airplanes to deliver it. The sobering conclusion is that Japan may have been just weeks behind the U.S. in the race for the bomb. Distributed by A&E Television Networks.
- Scorpions in a Bottle: The Story of the Atomic BombStarting with the immigration of scientists who fled Nazi Germany to America, this A&E Special documentary unfolds the development of the Manhattan Project and birth of the atomic age. Distributed by A&E Television Networks.