DURING
The enthusiasm of bombing triggered by the previous world war brought bombing in World War II to new heights. However, as bombs became more routine strategies in warfare, their danger came forth. " All the time you hear the bombs shrieking their way down, and you pity the poor souls in that area. The next time it may be your turn. The heavens are burst by the falling bombs," wrote First Lieutenant John Doyle in November of 1942 in a letter to his father. His perception was that bombs were dangerous, deadly weapons, and his emotion consisted of fear. With so many bombs exploding in the area, the chances of getting hit were far greater than in World War I.
But by the end of World War II, technology had developed a new type of explosive: the atomic bomb. In 1938, German scientists Otto Hahan and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission, or a chain reaction led by the bombardment of neutrons into heavy nuclei. German refugee scientists Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner persuaded Albert Einstein to pen a letter to President Roosevelt, informing him of fission and its potentialities for bombs. The result of the August 1939 letter was funding for one of the most top-secret missions ever carried out in history: the development of the atomic bomb.
Four years later, under the direction of General Leslie R. Groves and scientific advising of Berkeley professor J. Robert Oppenheimer, the bomb was complete. Wanting a quick way to end the war, the Americans decided to drop one of the powerful atomic bombs on a Japanese industrial city. On August 6th, 1945, the uranium-based "Little Boy" was dropped onto the city of Hiroshima, instantly killing 140,000 civilians. When the Japanese still didn't respond, the Americans dropped a second bomb, this time a plutonium-based bomb called "Fat Man," onto Nagasaki. A month later, the Japanese officially surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur aboard the ship USS Missouri.
Although the general perception from the American people after the bomb was dropped was that the war would be over soon, the event brought mixed emotions. On one hand, the soldiers were happy that they would finally return home to their loved ones. But on the other hand, the effects of the bombs were incredible. " I guess everybody's reaction the free world over is the same, mingled excitement, hope, and satisfaction at the idea of winning the war quickly, a sort of awesome fear at its utterly terrible potentialities for mankind. Like getting a first hand look at hell or a preview of the end of the world. Looks like this will have to be the last war for freedom because after the next there won't be any world left to be free," wrote Private Barrie Greenbie in an August 1945 letter home. Fear plagued the minds of many who debated the justice of the bomb. Does the killing of countless civilians make up for a shorter war? Many still ask themselves that question to this very day.