Atoms Dance To Death

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.