Little+Boy

=__Little Boy- The First Atomic Bomb__=

by Naomi West
A History  The first atomic bomb was built in Los Alamos, N.M., during World War II under a program called the Manhattan Project. Physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer was the main leader of the discovery of the atomic bomb which was created by the fusion of uranium. It was the original President Roosevelt who gave the A-OK for the testing and discovery of this mass weapon, but later President Truman took over after Roosevelt's passing. The first testing of the bomb drew mixed reactions, but every scientist knew the power this new gadget had

The Real Deal The Pacific war between the USA and Japan was relentless, and no amount of fighting was ever going to make Japan surrender it seemed. Harry Trueman was then quoted saying in regards to this new found bomb "it seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful..." Trueman made the decision to drop "Little Boy" on the Japanese on August 6th, 1945. This device weighed approximately 8,000 pounds and contained 12.5 kilotons of TNT. The decision on how to drop it and where was left up to General Carl Spaatz, he chose the Japanese city of Hiroshima because Hiroshima was a very industrial city, and had a military base. Hiroshima would be the perfect example of what kind of super bomb the Americans had created. On August 6th, 1945 at 8:15AM, pilot Tibbets dropped Little Boy out of his plane Enola Gay, and destroyed the city beneath.

The Effects The attack on Japan with the worlds first atomic weapon wiped out everything within a 1.5 mile radius of the drop zone. Not only did it kill 150,000 people, the radiation harmed anyone it came in contact with for generations to come. This first bomb didn't cause Japan to surrender until the second nuclear weapon Fat Man was dropped onto Nagasaki three days later.