If there was a button in front of you that when pushed would make your greatest enemy disappear, would you push it? Now if that same button also made you disappear along with your enemy, would you still push it? This was a dilemma faced by the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War. Each waiting and watching to see which one would be the first to press that button.

Brief History of Atomic Weapons

In Berlin in 1938 physicists Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered how nuclear fission works, laying the groundwork for nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Nuclear fission occurs when an atom of radioactive material, most commonly uranium, is split into lighter atoms which in turn releases a huge amount of energy. This energy can be used in numerous ways and from this discovery on Germany worked to create nuclear weapons.

On December 28, 1942 America formed the Manhattan Project in direct response to fears that Germany had been developing a nuclear weapon since the 1930s. This project brought together scientists and military officials to work on nuclear research and develop Americas own atomic weapon. Most of the work occurred at the Los Alamos testing range in New Mexico, and on July 16, 1945 the Trinity Test was performed in Alamogordo, New Mexico where the first atomic bomb was detonated. Fortunately the fighting in Europe was over but there was still much fighting occuring in the Pacific. In late July, not long after the first atomic detonation, President Harry Truman sent the Potsdam Declaration to Japan. Which called for Japan’s surrender and promised that if they would not then they would face “prompt and utter destruction”. Japan refused the declaration and on August 6, 1945 the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. “Little Boy”, as the bomb was nicknamed, released 13 kilotons of force which leveled 5 square miles of the city and killed 80,000 people instantly. Tens of thousands more would die later from radiation exposure. Japan still refused to surrender which prompted the United States to drop “Fat Man” on the city of Nagasaki. It killed roughly 40,000 people upon impact and took out a good chunk of Japan's industrial capacity. Citing “a new and most cruel bomb” Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced surrender on August 15, ending the Second World War.