A Flashback into the Past - The Manhattan Project

A collaborative effort between Great Britain, United States, and Canada in an effort to win the nuclear weapons race against Germany, Japan, and Russia, the Manhattan Project was born and was considered a huge success in the field of nuclear science. A team of scientists along with General Leslie Groves and Robert Oppenheimer made the plans under the reign of then president Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Manhattan Project was the perfect combination of science, technology, and industry - bringing about the actual power of nuclear fission reactions. Nearly 2 billion dollars was spent on research and development of the atomic bomb, according to US History. One of the few Las Vegas museums to hold such knowledge and artifacts is the National Atomic Testing Museum. There also lies the little-known facts about the war that no one else has ever really imagined.

So That’s What Happened

Albert Einstein, most people would call him the “Father of the Atomic Bomb”, actually had no direct participation in its creation contrary to popular belief. Letters addressed to then president Franklin Roosevelt were basically the only things that connected Einstein to the Manhattan Project.

Author H.G. Wells predicted in his 1914 novel “The World Set Free” that nuclear weapons would be used in the 21st century, making his novel a fictional work back then. Then came the Manhattan Project.

The fact that Nagasaki was never supposed to be the primary target for the atomic payload is something that only a selected few know about. It was actually the city of Kokura, however, unfavorable weather had the bombers come to the conclusion that it’ll be Nagasaki that would receive the package. These facts are all housed in museums Las Vegas, who would’ve thought that this was what really happened.

Widely Known Facts

“Fat Man” and “Little Boy” would forever be embedded in everyone’s memory as the bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And on August 6th and 9th of 1945 the bombs were used, according to History Learning Site, which decisively ended the war.

B-29 bombers were the planes used to drop the payload over Japan, also under the Manhattan Project, a specific program was initiated for the creation of the aircraft, namely Project Silverplate. This project was carried out specifically so as to have these “Flying Fortresses” purposely-built for the air strike.

The National Atomic Testing Museum still has a lot to tell. Come over and rediscover the past.