The surrender of Germany and Italy in 1945 marked a milestone in the pursuit of peace by the Allied powers. The Second World War had ended, at least for the people of Europe. But that did not truly signal the return of world peace. The other Axis power, Japan, held on, tenaciously, and continued the war. They did not then know of the atom bomb, which the United States of America had acquired. It is ironic that the man who acted as the catalytic agent for paving the way for the atom bomb, Albert Einstein, was a man of peace. He was a pacifist in every sense of the word. He could not have foreseen, in 1905, when he defined the relationship between mass, energy and the speed of
light (energy = mass multiplied by the square of the
speed of light), that his discovery would be the
forerunner of the atom bomb.
When Hitler gained power in Germany, Einstein
was working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. He found
the anti-Judaism of the new regime repugnant to
full freedom to pursue his special interests. Scientists
from all around the globe kept in touch with him.
His contacts informed him about the work
undertaken by German scientists to split the atom
and to release the immense energy it held. In 1939,
Einstein knew for sure that German scientists were
trying to develop an atom bomb by creating a chain
reaction to produce immense energy and power to
the bomb and lend to it terrific destructive power.
Einstein rued the fact that by defining the link
between mass and energy, he had laid open
possibilities of a bomb the like of which the world
had never seen. He could guess that the bomb
would give a tremendous advantage to Germany.
Einstein decided to nip the trouble in the bud.
In 1939, he wrote to President Roosevelt of the USA
about the danger latent in Germany gaining a lead
in developing the atom bomb: “Some recent work
by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been
communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to
expect that the element Uranium may be turned
into a new and important source of energy in the
immediate future. It may become possible to set
up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of Uranium
. . . . This new phenomenon would also lead to the
construction of bombs, and it is conceivable - - -
though much less certain - - - that extremely powerful
bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A
single bomb of this type, carried by a boat and
exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole
or together with some of the surrounding
territory.. .”
The scientist urged the President to take
immediate steps to promote research on Uranium in
order to be ready to check Germany if the danger
became real. The President took immediate action.
The work on developing the bomb set off the ground,
under cover of the code name Manhattan Project.
After five years, the first prototype of the atom
bomb, developed by splitting Uranium 235, was
tested in the desert region around Los Angeles. The
devastation it caused was far beyond the wildest
expectations of the scientists, who reported the
results to the President.
President Roosevelt, who was elected for the
fourth term and assumed office in January 1945 (the
rule restricts the tenure to two terms) died within
August 2005 52 Chandamama
three months, on April 12. Vice-President Truman
(see photo) stepped into the high office.
The war in the South East had not ended. Should
the bomb be used to bring Japan down on its heels?
President Truman, unwilling to wait indefinitely for
the defeat of Japan through normal warfare, decided
to use the bomb.
Hiroshima was a prosperous city of Japan. Its
economy rested mainly on shipbuilding. It was 8.15
a.m. on August 6,1945. The roads bustled with
workers heading for the shipyard. The drone of an
aircraft added to the rustle of people hurrying to
their work spots. The people looked up, fear in their
eyes, to check if it was an enemy aircraft on a
bombing mission. The sound of the siren confirmed
their fears and they ran seeking suitable shelters.
Some of the people, while they ran for safety noticed
a small parachute descending with a bomb attached
to it. Within seconds the bomb freed itself from the
parachute, hit the ground and exploded. In less than
one-tenth of a second the temperature rose to
300,000 degrees centigrade. In one second of
detonation all the buildings around came down like
houses of cards. One hundred thousand people died
almost instantly. But that was only part of the
tragedy. Millions of people, who were beyond the
zone of the strike, faced the risk of radiation and
slow death. Observers reported that the explosion,
while it lasted, was “brighter than the sun”.
The pilot of the aircraft, Enola Gay, named after
his mother, turned back to the airbase, having
completed his mission. Soon the whole world was
shocked by the devastation. Panic gripped
Japan, but Emperor Hirohito and his
advisers still felt that they could stand
up to the assault by America. However,
when on August 9, 1945, another atom
bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, a
flourishing trade centre, Japan woke up
to the fact that no useful purpose could
be achieved by continued resistance. The
Emperor and his advisers, too, realized
that they could never match the new arsenal of the U.S.A. Japan
surrendered. Thus ended the
Second World War. Gen.
MacArthur assumed total control over Japan.
At that time, no reporter was allowed access to
the devastated cities. Yet George Weller, an American
journalist, managed to sneak into “the wasteland of
war”. His first reports spoke of the radiation fallout.
Thousands of people were reporting sick and doctors
categorized it as a mysterious “Disease X”. It was
only much later that the true cause of the disease
became known. Radiation was playing havoc with
the lives of millions of people.
It took Japan decades to free itself from the
lingering effect of radiation, let loose by the tragic
bombings of August 1945.
