The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs: A History Perspectives Book
Published in the United States of America by Cherry Lake Publishing Ann Arbor Michigan www cherrylakepublishing com Consultants Peter Kuznick PhD Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute American University Marla Conn ReadAbility Inc Editorial direction Red Line Editorial Book design and illustration Sleeping Bear Press Photo Credits Library of Congress cover left cover middle cover right 1 left 1 middle 1 right 4 17 27 AP Images 6 8 10 14 22 United Nations Yosuke Yamahata AP Images 12 Stanley Troutman AP Images 19 30 U S Marine Signal Corps AP Images 24 Copyright 2014 by Cherry Lake Publishing All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Baxter Roberta 1952 The dropping of the atomic bombs Roberta Baxter pages cm Perspectives library ISBN 978-1-62431-665-4 hardcover ISBN 978-1-62431-692-0 pbk ISBN 978-1-62431-719-4 pdf ISBN 978-1-62431-746-0 hosted ebook 1 Hiroshima-shi Japan History Bombardment 1945 Juvenile literature 2 Atomic bomb History 20th century Juvenile literature 3 Manhattan Project U S History Juvenile literature I Title D767 25 H6B39 2013 940 54’2521954 dc23 2013029376 Cherry Lake Publishing would like to acknowledge the work of The Partnership for 21st Century Skills Please visit www p21 org for more information Printed in the United States of America Corporate Graphics Inc January 2014
Table of Contents In this book you will read about the dropping of the atomic bombs during World War II from three perspectives Each perspective is based on real things that happened to real people who were involved in or experienced the dropping of the bombs As you’ll see the same event can look different depending on one’s point of view Chapter 1 4 Peggy Johnson Manhattan Project Chemist Chapter 2 1 2 Haru Tanaka Hiroshima Witness Chapter 3 2 2 Danny Shields U S Secretary of War Staff Member Look Look Again 30 Glossary 3 1 Learn More 3 1 Index 32 About the Author 32
4 1 In June 1943 I finally found out my husband’s secret Since he earned his PhD in physics the previous summer Bob had worked for a top-secret project at the University of Chicago He couldn’t tell me anything about his work I had just received my PhD in chemistry the previous month and had gotten a job working on the Manhattan Project for our Peggy Johnson Manhattan Project Chemist
5 government It was the same project Bob was working on On the project Bob and other scientists had been experimenting with nuclear fission They had been splitting uranium atoms by blasting them with streams of neutrons When the neutrons hit a uranium atom the atom breaks apart Large amounts of energy are released When the uranium atom splits more neutrons are released and they hit more atoms So the process continues in a chain reaction Scientists were trying to control this type of chain reaction in order to produce enormous amounts of energy I began working with a newly discovered element plutonium Plutonium was first produced in 1941 by bombarding uranium with neutrons in a nuclear reactor My task as a chemist was to do more research on plutonium The project managers told us that they hoped this would allow us to make atomic bombs that would help us win the war An atomic
