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Look for and find two facts and one person involved in the Manhattan Project

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In a national survey at the turn of the millennium, both journalists and the public ranked the dropping of the atomic bomb and the end of the Second World War as the top news stories of the twentieth-century. The advent of nuclear weapons, made possible by the Manhattan Project, not only helped bring an end to the Second World War-it ushered in the atomic age and determined how the next war, the Cold War, would be fought.

The Manhattan Project: An Interactive History is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the Manhattan Project. Five main topical areas-Events, People, Places, Processes, and Science-are further divided into sub-sections, each with an introductory page and as many as a dozen or more sub-pages. The site is interactive in the sense that it is designed with the flexibility to meet the needs of a variety of users. Those seeking a brief overview of the Manhattan Project, for example, should start with the introductory pages for the eight sub-sections of the Events Section. Users wanting a more in-depth chronological history should read, in order, the fifty-six Events sub-pages. Numerous internal links within the content of the pages allows the reader to easily move from page to page, wherever his or her interests lead. There are thus multiple ways for the user to approach the site. In addition, the Resources Section provides access to a variety of resource materials, including photos, documents, maps, and published histories.

When completed, The Manhattan Project will total some 120,000 words and over 250 pages and 500 images. The site is being implemented incrementally, with theEvents and Resources sections the first part to go online. The remaining sections are scheduled to go online in mid-2013. Click on the above buttons for listings of the projected web pages under each heading.

The Manhattan Project is the result of a collaborative effort headed by the United States Department of Energy's Office of History and Heritage Resources, with the assistance of graduate fellows in recent American history interested in the intersection of science and national security issues and supported by the Department's Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration. The Department's Office of Classification hosts the site on its OpenNet website, provided by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, as part of the Office of Classification's partnership with the Office of History and Heritage Resources in making available Manhattan Project resource materials.

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The Manhattan Project: An Interactive History

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In a national survey at the turn of the millennium, both journalists and the public ranked the dropping of the atomic bomb and the end of the Second World War as the top news stories of the twentieth-century.

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https://www.energy.gov/lm/doe-history/manhattan-project-background-information-and-preservation-work/manhattan-project-1

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The USS Indianapolis: Mission and tragedy

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The USS Indianapolis: Mission and tragedy

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What was the secret mission of the USS Indianapolis and what happened to the ship?

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The USS Indianapolis (hull classification symbol CA-35) was a US Navy cruiser that delivered the components of the Little Boy atomic bomb to Tinian Island. It was later sunk by a Japanese submarine in what became the worst naval disaster in US history. The ship's secret mission, the questions surrounding its sinking, and the brutal trials endured by survivors have fascinated the public for decades.

Background and Tinian Mission

The Indianapolis was one of two Portland-class cruisers built during the early 1930s. It was formally commissioned in 1932. Before the war, it transported President Roosevelt on various occasions, including on a tour of South America. It was stationed with the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor in the lead-up to the war. During the attack on December 7, 1941, the Indianapolis avoided damage because it was out on a training mission. The ship saw action in New Guinea, the Aleutian Islands, and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. It served along the way as the flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance, Commander of the Fifth Fleet.

The Indianapolis was struck by a kamikaze attack during the battle of Okinawa. The impact of the plane itself did little damage, but the pilot managed to drop a bomb that punched a hole in the ship and led to several casualties. After emergency repairs, the ship went back to California for a full overhaul. While there, the Indianapolis was chosen for a secret mission: to transport components of the Little Boy uranium bomb to Tinian. The B-29 Enola Gay would eventually take off from the island for its fateful mission to Hiroshima.

It set off for Tinian on July 16, 1945. Only a few days before, Captain Charles McVay III had received his orders from Rear Admiral William Purnell and Captain William Parsons. The ship took on many crew members in California. Enlisted men ending their tours of duty rotated out and were replaced by new enlistees. Despite the new crew's inexperience, they were given little time to prepare for departure.

None of the crew knew what was contained in the crate and canister that were brought on board. The crate contained the "gun-type" mechanism for Little Boy. The uranium contained in the canisters was about half the US supply (the other half was flown to Tinian). It is unclear if McVay even knew what the contents were, though he claimed after the war that he did. He was, at least, aware of the secrecy and importance of his mission.

The two men who definitely did know were James Nolan and Robert Furman, two men from the Manhattan Project who accompanied the components to Tinian. The men were disguised as artillery officers, though it was not a very convincing cover. Furman, as an Army engineer, had some experience with artillery. But Nolan, a radiologist, raised some suspicion. He constantly had to return belowdecks to check the radiation from the canister, and was unable to answer basic questions about his supposed artillery experience.

Furman and Nolan were also probably the only ones who knew what caused the delay in launching the ship on the morning of July 16. In fact, they were waiting for a message about the result of the Trinity Test. With confirmation of that success, the Indianapolis left port. The ship stopped at Pearl Harbor briefly to refuel, before continuing on to Tinian. McVay made sure that the Indianapolis traveled quickly; it made the trip in record time. It arrived on July 26, and the bomb parts and their handlers disembarked. The cruiser's crew were surprised by the number of high-ranking officers who supervised the mysterious cargo. Many of them would never find out what they had been transporting.

The Sinking

After leaving Tinian without the crew setting foot on the island, the Indianapolis carried on to Guam. It was then ordered to rendezvous with other ships at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. Two controversial procedural flaws on Guam would eventually contribute to the cruiser's disastrous fate.

First, Navy higher-ups had two indications of submarine activity along the route to Leyte Gulf: intercepts from the codebreaking operation ULTRA, and the sinking of the destroyer Underhill. McVay was not made aware of these indications, and precautions were not taken. Apparently the US did not want Japan knowing that their codes had been broken. Second, McVay requested an escort, but his request was not granted. It is unclear why the request was denied, as a ship like the Indianapolis (which did not have equipment to detect submarines) would usually be accompanied by a destroyer. Just in case, McVay was given orders to follow a zigzag course at his discretion in order to throw off enemy submarines.

As it made its way along the route, unescorted, the Indianapolis was targeted by the Japanese submarine I-58. It was July 30, just four days after the bomb had made it to Tinian. Two torpedoes hit the ship, causing explosions. The ship was almost ripped in half; it sank in just 12 minutes. Crew members drowned, were struck by the propeller, or died in the explosions. Of the 1,196 men, around 900 made it into the water. But their ordeal was just beginning. The men grouped together, clung to debris, and sought out rations or life rafts. But no rescue came for four days.

Many survivors died while waiting to be rescued. Causes of death included dehydration, starvation, salt poisoning, and drowning. Hallucinating men attacked each other or drank salt water and died. The most terrifying were the shark attacks, which came frequently and without warning. In fact, the aftermath of the sinking is recognized as the worst shark attack in recorded history. Decades after the event, Loel Dean Cox recounted some of the trials of the survivors in harrowing detail, in an interview with the BBC World Service:

You could barely keep your face out of the water. The life preserver had blisters on my shoulders, blisters on top of blisters. It was so hot we would pray for dark, and when it got dark we would pray for daylight, because it would get so cold, our teeth would chatter. The drinking water was kept on the second deck of our ship. A buddy of mine was hallucinating and he decided he would go down to the second deck to get a drink of water. All of a sudden his life-preserver is floating, but he's not there. And then he comes up saying how good and cool that water was, and we should get us a drink. In that clear water you could see the sharks circling. Then every now and then, like lightning, one would come straight up and take a sailor and take him straight down. One came up and took the sailor next to me. It was just somebody screaming, yelling or getting bit.

The Rescue

Four days after the Indianapolis sank, Lieutenant Wilbur Gwinn was piloting a bomber on a routine anti-submarine patrol. He noticed the men in the water, and radioed his base in Palau. After deliberation back at the base, a seaplane departed under the command of Lieutenant R. Adrian Marks. The seaplane was dropping supplies to the men in the water when Marks's crew informed him that they saw men being attacked by sharks. Upon hearing this, he executed a dangerous open-ocean landing (in violation of orders). He and his crew began taking survivors aboard, and radioed for more help.

The destroyer USS Cecil J. Doyle was first on the scene, followed by the Ralph Talbot (which would later participate in Operation Crossroads), Dufilho, Ringness, Bassett, and Register. Marks's seaplane was damaged in the landing and was scuttled after its occupants had transferred to a ship. The survivors received medical treatment on a hospital ship and later on Guam. A few days after the rescue, Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima. It was on Guam that many of the crew learned for the first time what their secret mission had been.

879 crew members perished, including four who died despite being rescued from the water. That left only 317 survivors. The death toll from the sinking is unparalleled in US history. The majority died in the water. News about the disaster on the Indianapolis was not announced until weeks later: on August 15, V-J Day.

Questions remain about why the rescue was delayed for so long. The official narrative was originally that no distress signal had been sent, but survivors testified otherwise. Additional testimonies from other ships receiving the signal corroborate the survivors' narrative. Also, naval intelligence decrypted a signal from the I-58 indicating that it had sunk a cruiser along the route that the Indianapolis was taking. Some reports attributed the lack of action to fears that the messages were a ploy by the Japanese, attempting to ambush rescue ships. Some historians have argued that communication about the Indianapolis was lacking because of the clandestine nature of its prior mission. It is very possible that the secrecy around the atomic bomb doomed the Indianapolis.

Aftermath and Legacy of the Indianapolis

After the war, Captain McVay was court-martialed and accused of negligence. He had been given orders to zigzag at his discretion in order to avoid submarines. In an unprecedented move, the commander of the Japanese submarine that attacked the Indianapolis was called to testify. Mochitsura Hashimoto, who had previously participated in the Pearl Harbor attack, testified that he would have been able to target the ship even if it had been zigzagging. But this was not enough to exonerate McVay, who was demoted for his negligence. The punishment was lifted after Admiral Chester Nimitz became Chief of Naval Operations, but McVay retired soon after anyway. His final rank was Rear Admiral.

His supposed culpability continued to haunt him. He received "hate mail" about the Indianapolis, including from families of men who died. McVay ended up committing suicide in 1968. Many suspect that the memories of the sinking played a role. He was not the only survivor to experience psychological impacts. Cox, the seaman quoted above, reported still suffering from symptoms of PTSD, even decades later.

There is a popular perception nowadays that McVay was a "fall guy" or scapegoat for the Navy, which was attempting to cover up its numerous organizational failures regarding the sinking. This perception has been fed by both the clear evidence of McVay's efforts to protect the Indianapolis and the strangeness of the conviction.

A few details made the court-martial unusual and suspect. No other officer in the history of the Navy whose ship had been sunk in war had been tried for negligence. The Navy also required a second charge―failure to issue a timely order to abandon ship―to bring the case to trial. That charge was quickly dismissed because of the speed of the sinking, and because the first torpedo struck the ship's electrical center and disrupted communication. Finally, McVay had not technically been ordered to zigzag: the order left it up to his discretion, and he had complied with that diktat.

Many survivors from the ship have come to McVay's defense over the years. A campaign was waged to clear his name in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The effort was led by a Florida middle-schooler named Hunter Scott, and involved remaining survivors and historians. Hashimoto even wrote to Senator John Warner, a sponsor of the exoneration effort in Congress. He wrote: ''Our peoples have forgiven each other for that terrible war. Perhaps it is time your peoples forgave Captain McVay for the humiliation of his unjust conviction.''

Hashimoto did not live to see the culmination of these efforts. But a measure recognizing McVay's blamelessness eventually passed, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2001. A letter reflecting the measure was placed in McVay's file.

The mystery and horror of the Indianapolis 's voyage, sinking, and rescue have captivated the public imagination over the years. The horrific tales of shark attacks spurred new military research into shark repellents, with mixed success over the years. They also inspired writers: in addition to numerous historical works about the doomed cruiser, there have been a fictionalized novel about it and a made-for-TV movie. Another full-length film, starring Nicolas Cage, premiered in 2016.

Most famously, a scene from Jaws features the character Quint (Robert Shaw) recounting his experience surviving the sinking of the Indianapolis. Quint's harrowing narrative presents a surprisingly faithful depiction of this strange and tragic chapter of atomic history.

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The USS Indianapolis (hull classification symbol CA-35) was a US Navy cruiser that delivered the components of the Little Boy atomic bomb to Tinian Island. It was later sunk by a Japanese submarine in what became the worst naval disaster in US history.

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Provide two facts about the bombings for EACH city

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By July 1945, Germany had surrendered, and the war in Europe was over. Japan, however, refused to submit to the terms outlined in the Allies' Potsdam Declaration. It appeared to American leaders that the only way to compel Japan's unconditional surrender was to invade and conquer the Japanese home islands. Although an estimated 300,000 Japanese civilians had already died from starvation and bombing raids, Japan's government showed no sign of capitulation. Instead, American intelligence intercepts revealed that by August 2, Japan had already deployed more than 560,000 soldiers and thousands of suicide planes and boats on the island of Kyushu to meet the expected American invasion of Japan. Additional reports correctly surmised that the Japanese military intended to execute all American prisoners in Japan in the event of an Allied landing. These frightening figures portended a costlier battle for the United States than any previously fought during the war. By comparison, US forces suffered 49,000 casualties, including 12,000 men killed in action, when facing less than 120,000 Japanese soldiers during the battle for the island of Okinawa from April to June of 1945. At least 110,000 Japanese soldiers and more than 100,000 Okinawan civilians, a third of the island's prewar population, also perished in the campaign. American casualties on Okinawa weighed heavily on the minds of American planners who looked ahead to the invasion of Japan. Japan's leaders hoped to prevail, not by defeating American forces, but by inflicting massive casualties and thereby breaking the resolve of the American public.

This was the situation that confronted American President Harry S. Truman in the summer of 1945 when he authorized the use of the world's first atomic bomb. In light of intelligence reports about Japan's commitment to continue fighting, Truman and his military advisors were determined to use every weapon at their disposal in order to bring the war to an immediate end. Consequently, neither Truman nor any of his advisors ever debated if the atomic bombs should be used, only how and where they should be used. In the spring of 1945, the American government convened a committee of scientists and military officers to determine how best to use the bombs. This group unanimously declared that there was no guarantee that demonstrating the bombs to the Japanese in a deserted area would convince Japanese leaders to surrender. It was vital that Japan be convinced to surrender as fast as possible because the United States had just two atomic bombs available in July 1945 and additional weapons would not be ready to deploy for several more weeks. Meanwhile, thousands of Chinese, American, and Japanese soldiers continued to die each day the war continued.

Consequently, Truman approved the long-standing plans for the US Army Air Force to drop atomic bombs on a list of preselected Japanese cities. The list of targets excluded Tokyo and Kyoto because of their political and historic importance. Instead, the intended target of the first bomb was Hiroshima, a fan-shaped city of approximately 550,000 people that occupied the estuary of the Ota River. The city was also home to the headquarters of the Japanese army that defended the island of Kyushu as well as a number of war industries.

At 2:45 a.m. on Monday August 6, 1945, three American B-29 bombers of the 509th Composite Group took off from an airfield on the Pacific island of Tinian, 1,500 miles south of Japan. Colonel Paul Tibbets piloted the lead bomber, "Enola Gay," which carried a nuclear bomb nicknamed "Little Boy." Despite the bomb's moniker, it weighed nearly 10,000 pounds. As a result, the overloaded Enola Gay used more than two miles of runway to get aloft. At 7:15 a.m., the bomber crew armed the bomb, and the plane began its ascent to the bombing altitude of 31,000 feet.

Meanwhile, in Hiroshima, Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto awoke at 5 a.m. Hiroshima time, which was an hour behind Tinian time. Tanimoto was the pastor of the Hiroshima Methodist Church, and "a small man, quick to talk, laugh, and cry." Tanimoto was a thoughtful and cautious man who had sent his wife and baby to the relative safety of a northern suburb. Tanimoto remained in the city to remove the transportable objects in his church to the safety of a suburban estate. He had slept poorly because of several air raid warnings the previous night. Hiroshima had not yet endured an American bombing raid, but its good fortune was not expected to last. That morning, Tanimoto had agreed to help a friend move a large armoire filled with clothes out to the suburbs. As the two men trundled the piece of furniture through the streets, they heard an air raid siren go off. The alarm sounded every morning when American weather planes flew overhead, so the men were not particularly worried. They continued on with their handcart through the city streets. When the pair reached their destination, "there was no sound of planes. The morning was still; the place was cool and pleasant."

At 8:14 a.m. Hiroshima time, the Enola Gay arrived over the city. The Aioi Bridge, which bombardier Thomas Ferebee used as an aiming point, was clearly visible through the plane's bombsight. Ferebee took control of the bomber and opened the bomb bay doors. Just after 8:15 a.m., Ferebee released Little Boy from its restraints and the bomb fell away from the Enola Gay. The plane jumped nearly 10 feet at the sudden loss in weight. Tibbets immediately resumed control of the plane and banked it sharply on a 155 degree turn. He had practiced this difficult maneuver for months because he had been instructed that he had less than 45 seconds to get his plane clear of the subsequent explosion. Not even the scientists who designed the bomb were sure if the Enola Gay would survive the shock waves from the blast.

Little Boy fell almost six miles in 43 seconds before detonating at an altitude of 2,000 feet. The bomb exploded with the force of more than 15,000 tons of TNT directly over a surgical clinic, 500 feet from the Aioi Bridge. Less than two percent of the bomb's uranium achieved fission, but the resulting reaction engulfed the city in a blinding flash of heat and light. The temperature at ground level reached 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit in less than a second. The bomb vaporized people half a mile away from ground zero. Bronze statues melted, roof tiles fused together, and the exposed skin of people miles away burned from the intense infrared energy unleashed. At least 80,000 people died instantly.

Reverend Tanimoto saw "a tremendous flash of light cut across the sky... from east to west, from the city toward the hills. It seemed a sheet of sun." Because Tanimoto was two miles from the epicenter of the explosion, he had a few seconds to throw himself between two large rocks in the garden of his friend's house. "He felt a sudden pressure, and then splinters and pieces of board and fragments of tile fell on him." The house had collapsed, along with the concrete wall surrounding the garden. The day grew darker and darker under a massive dust cloud.

From the Enola Gay, Tibbets and his crew saw "a giant purple mushroom" that "had already risen to a height of 45,000 feet, three miles above our altitude, and was still boiling upward like something terribly alive." Though the plane was already miles away, the cloud looked like it would engulf the bomber that had spawned it. "Even more fearsome," to Tibbets, "was the sight on the ground below. At the base of the cloud, fires were springing up everywhere amid a turbulent mass of smoke that had the appearance of bubbling hot tar... The city we had seen so clearly in the sunlight a few minutes before was now an ugly smudge. It had completely disappeared under this awful blanket of smoke and fire."

In the minutes, hours, and days that followed the bombing, survivors in Hiroshima tried desperately to locate loved ones and care for the thousands of wounded. Some people exhibited horrible burns, while others who outwardly appeared unscathed later died painful deaths from radiation poisoning. Thousands of people were buried in the debris of their homes. Most structures in the city had been constructed of wood with tile roofs. All but a handful of concrete structures in the city center had been completely leveled.

President Harry Truman was aboard the cruiser USS Augusta on his way back from the Potsdam Conference when he learned of the bomb's successful detonation. He immediately shared the news with his advisors and the ship's crew. As the information was broadcast around the world, Allied soldiers around the globe felt as though they had received a reprieve from a death sentence. The end of World War II finally appeared to be in sight.

This article is part of an ongoing series commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II made possible by Bank of America.

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The Most Fearsome Sight: The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.