The atomic bomb is a powerful explosive nuclear weapon fueled by nuclear fission. The Manhattan Project led by US Army General Leslie Groves and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer developed the first atomic bombs during World War II. The first was tested in July 1945 and two were dropped on Japan in August 1945, devastating Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killing over 100,000 people. The bombs were dropped to end the war and avoid the massive casualties expected from invading Japan. Some argue the bombs were also meant to intimidate the Soviet Union in the early stages of the Cold War.

1. The atomic bomb
By: M. Awais Yaqoob

2. What is an Atomic Bomb?
• Powerful explosive nuclear weapon fueled
by the splitting, or fission, of the nuclei
of specific isotopes of uranium or
plutonium in a chain reaction
• What is fission?
– The act or process of splitting into
parts

3. Who Created the Atomic Bomb
and When was it Created?
• Named the Manhattan Project
• The leader of the Manhattan Project was U.S.
Army Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves; His
team worked under the direction of American
physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer
• Development of the atomic bomb began in 1942

4. What is the Atomic Bomb Made
From?

5. When was the First Bomb
Dropped?
• The first atomic explosion was conducted, as a
test, at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16,
1945
• August 6, 1945 the US drops first atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, Japan ("Little Boy")
• August 9, US drops second atomic bomb on the
city of Nagasaki ("Fat Man")

6. Statistics of the Bomb
• 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed by the
Hiroshima bomb
• 40,000 by the bomb dropped on Nagasaki
Blue= Death Toll
Red= Injuries

7. Why was the Atomic Bomb Dropped?
• To save Americans soldiers lives
– Options were to invade Japan or drop atomic
bombs
• Invasion of Japan had casualty numbers of
500,000 to 1 million soldiers killed/wounded
– Fierce house-to-house combat
• Atomic bomb losses projected at American
aircrew
– Decision made by President Harry S. Truman

8. Negative side to to the Atomic
Bomb (people’s opinions)
• People thought the bomb was not dropped on
European enemies but on people of a nonwhite
race
• “ A few scholars, notably Gar Alperovitz, have
further charged that the atomic holocaust at
Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not the final shot of
World War II but the first salvo in the cold war.”

9. Who Delivered the Atomic Bomb?
• The USS Indianapolis
– Delivered parts of “Little Boy” on July 30,
1945 in a Top Secret mission
• Dropped 2 weeks later
– Torpedoed by Japanese submarine
• 300 killed on impact
• 900 sailors went into the Pacific for over 5
days
• 321 survived to be rescued
–4 later died in the hospital

11. Works Cited
• Microsoft, Encarta, Microsoft Corporation, 2003
• Stanton, Doug. In Harm’s Way. Henry Holt and Company, New York,
2001
• Bailey, Thomas A., and David M. Kennedy. The American Pageant.
10th ed. Lexington, MA: D.C. Health and Company, 1994.