Why was the nuclear bomb originally invented?

Question

What does this say about humanity if a group of people funded and spent years working on the production of something capable of inflicting gruesome deaths to millions of people?

And who first made it?

Was it the USA?

Answer 1

There was a top secret initiative during WWII called the Manhattan project and its sole purpose was to create a nuclear weapon. It gathered top scientists in the US. Nuclear bombs were developed and tested. The US was getting ready to send troops to the Japanese mainland and Japan was willing to fight to the last person standing. It is estimated that the US would have lost 1,000,000 soldiers with an attack on the mainland. It took two bombs, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, before the Japanese surrendered. If the US had not invented nuclear technology, other countries would have invented it. It was just a matter of time.

Answer 2

There are some excellent documenteries out now that reveal the history of nuclear technology and power and why the nuclear bomb was originally invented during World War II. In short, if the Americans didn't, the Nazis would have beat them to it. This according the one documentery among others: Skis Against the Atom and also a book, " Assault In Norway: Sabotaging the Nazi Nuclear Program". These are only two examples of many documenting the struggle to end World War II and be the victor through advanced weaponry. The Americans did not have a choice but to build an atom bomb first and use it to decisively end World War II, or, lose to the murderous tyrants of the Axis.

In Europe after 1900 and leading up to the 1930s, European scientists were busy studying the atom and its power. In the 1930s, when the Nazis began their stranglehold over Germany, many of these scientists fled for their lives to the United States of America. After World War II began, these scientists knew this technology in Europe had advanced to a point that the energy of the atom could be harnessed, and theoretically also used as a weapon. They warned the U.S. government about this fact and advised that the United States should develop this technology too, so that the Allies wouldn't be at the mercy of a Nazi atomic weapon. The Roosevelt administration took this advice and the results were the atom bombs used to end the war in the Pacific theatre. They were not, however, used in the European theatre. Since then, the nations of the world have been burdened with the task of using nuclear technology for peaceful purposes as a source of clean energy and avoiding another war where these terrible "weapons of mass destruction" or "WMDs" could ever be used again.

The Allies, during the horrible world war of the 1940s, did not know how far advanced the Nazis were in their development of atomic weapons. The Allies knew the Axis was developing and using new weapons - missiles were beginning to be used to attack Great Britain and German jet airplanes were also in advanced stages of devolopment. Imagine if the Germans were able to build an atom bomb first and attach it to one of their missiles they were lobbing at London? The Allies did not have a choice but to develop this technology first and end the war as quickly as possible, which they did.

And that's why the nuclear bomb was originally invented. The Americans and the Allies did not have a choice but to defend themselves in anyway possible and they could not risk letting the enemy develop and use the atom bomb, or any other new weapon, against them first. The Allies found that they could defend themselves better than the tyrants who ruled over Germany, Italy and Japan.

What does this say about humanity...? Well, it says that it is possible that humanity can be a victim of its own technology, especially if that technology is not used for peaceful purposes.
Humanity is wonderful, however, humanity is sometimes vulnerable to the cruelty of the inhumane.

Answer 3

It was invented to defeat the Nazis in WWII. A group of scientists, led by Albert Einstein, went to President Roosevelt with the proposal that the power of atomic fission in a chained reaction, which had only been discovered months before, could be harnessed to make a weapon.

They argued that the physicists working for Germany would be working on the same goal and if the US did not develop an atomic bomb, first, the Germans would. As it turned out, the German physicists made an incorrect calculation (some suggest this was done intentionally) about how much purified uranium would be needed and concluded that it was not feasible. They continued working on fission for energy production but never got far on that, either.

Of course, by the time the bombs were ready, German had surrendered and they were dropped on Japan, instead.

I really think the power of the bomb ended up being a lot more powerful than those who proposed it thought it would be because those same scientists ended up petitioning to the president to not use the weapon they had created.

Answer 4

For preciesly the reason it was first used. Some say it was to end WWII quickly, others that a demonstration of power to the USSR was another motive.
In general, the war against Japan was a good excuse to practically demonstrate to the world why it ought to subdue to the emerging global hegemon - the United States. Luckily, the Russians got hold of the technology quick enough to create a balance of power, or we'd have had a new Roman Empire in the US long ago. If only one nation had the atomic bomb at its disposal, it would be far less reluctant to actually use it.

Einstein contributed to the theoretical framework that made the bomb possible, and alerted president Roosevelt of Nazi Germany's plans to produce it.
However the team that took part in the Mannhatan project - the code name for the project to build the bomb comprised:
Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peierls, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs and Edward Teller.

Answer 5

Work on the nuclear bomb began as a race between various countries, i.e. Russia, U.S., etc., to see who would have it first. When WWII broke out, the U.S. sped up its research and development on with the help of german scientists who came to the U.S. to help in this endeavor. The first tests here in the U.S. did not go over as well as they would've liked.

Although Japan was in negotiations with the Allies to surrender which would've prevented Japan from being the first country ever bombed with the nuclear bomb, the Allies' stipulation that the surrender had to be unconditional in that the emperor had to step down, Japan did not want this. Thus, the U.S. dropped the first nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki causing utter devastation and death. Japan then surrendered.

While in college I wrote a paper on whether we should've used the nuclear bomb on Japan or not. I argued from the point of view that it wasn't necessary based on all the readings and facts I had gathered. But as they say, to each his own and everyone has their own opinion.

Answer 6

The theory about Nuclear fission, and the atom bomb had been around since the late 20's early 30's. Much of the early work was carried out by German scientists at the beginning of the Nazi period. Fortunately for us Hitler was so wrapped up in his racial nightmare that many of the scientists where persecuted under the 'Jewish laws', Einstein and several others emigrated, whilst others where simply banned from working. Even so by the beginning of the 2nd world war Germany still had the lead in the area.
Einstein was so worried that he personally wrote to Eisenhower urging him to develop an atomic bomb to counter the Nazi threat. The Manhattan project was set up using many of the persecuted Jewish scientists, as well as English and Canadian scientists who had been developing their own theories.
So In answer to your question, the bomb was developed as a counter to a perception that Nazi Germany was closer to developing a fusion device than the allies.
Most historians agree that Nazi Germany didn't have the technological ability nor that resources at the time to build the bomb, and their research had taken them down the blind ally of trying to produce plutonium, when uranium was technically easier to produce. (easy is a relative term, the U.S. had to build the largest building in the world at the time, and used one fifth of the power available to the whole country to en-rich Uranium)

Answer 7

Because all the major powers especially Germany was involved in Nuclear research to make the Bomb.It is ironic that the first person to give this idea to President FDR was a German born Gentle man Prof.Einstein what other proof one could want that Germans were involved in the research.

Answer 8

The United States created nuclear weapons to "SAVE LIVES".

Many people will never understand that, but it is true.
An Invasion of mainland Japan would have cost tens if not hundereds of thousands of American lives.

Look at the Russian/German conflict. Look at the battle of Kursk in 1943, look at the SLAUGHTER on both sides from that battle until the end of the war.

Millions did die, on both sides, because neither side had a Nuclear Weapon. The U.S. understood this, and instead of conducting a bloody amphibious assualt to take down a fanatic Japan, nuclear weapons were used to SAVE LIVES on both sides.

Answer 9

Einstien was British and it was he who put the Americans on the right track of 'splitting the atom'.
Once this was achieved, the bomb itself was only a matter of time .

Answer 10

Space travel, invented by the Germans