Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
The atomic bomb was developed by scientists working under the Manhattan Project. The project was granted funding on December 6, 1941, with American leaders aiming for a new invention that would serve as a wartime weapon. The decision to drop an atomic bomb on Japan had been made by 1943, and a shortlist of candidate target cities was in place in 1945. At the time, it was argued that an atomic bombing would bring about a more rapid end to the war. Hiroshima, the first target, was selected to show the power of America's new weapon. The second bombing, of Nagasaki, was intended to demonstrate that the USA had a large arsenal. At 11:02 A.M. local time on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man as its code name by Robert Serber in the United States (after Sydney Greenstreet's character in "The Maltese Falcon") was dropped on Nagasaki, forever changing the city's landscape. A mushroom cloud rose to an altitude of 45,000 feet above the city.
Environmental impact of war
After four years of World War II in August 1945, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima in Japan. About 70,000 people died in nine seconds at the bombing in Hiroshima, which was comparable to that of the devastating Operation Meetinghouse air raid over Tokyo. Three days after the bombing in Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on the industrial city of Nagasaki, killing 35,000.The nuclear weapon released a catastrophic load of energy. The temperature once the bombs were blasted reached about 7200°F. With temperature that high, all the flora and fauna are destroyed along with the infrastructure and human life in the impact zone. When the atomic bomb was dropped, it released enormous quantity of energy and radioactive particles. The radioactive particles released contaminated the land and water for miles. The initial blast increased the surface temperature, along with the crushing winds caused by the initial blast, trees and buildings in the path were all destroyed.