![]() With the development of weapons designed to bring about the end of World War II as its stated mission, it’s easy to think that the story of the Manhattan Project ends in August, 1945. The Japanese informed Washington, which following Roosevelt’s death was under the new leadership President Harry Truman, of their intention to surrender on August 10th, and formally surrendered on August 14, 1945. The two bombs combined killed more than 100,000 people and leveled the two Japanese cities to the ground. Meanwhile, scientists like Glenn Seaborg were producing microscopic samples of pure plutonium, and Canadian government and military officials were working on nuclear research at several sites in Canada. Groves was appointed to lead the project.įermi and Szilard were still engaged in research on nuclear chain reactions, the process by which atoms separate and interact, now at the University of Chicago, and successfully enriching uranium to produce uranium-235. The OSRD formed the Manhattan Engineer District in 1942, and based it in the New York City borough of the same name. The Army Corps of Engineers joined the OSRD in 1942 with President Roosevelt’s approval, and the project officially morphed into a military initiative, with scientists serving in a supporting role. would enter World War II and align with Great Britain, France and Russia to fight against the Germans in Europe and the Japanese in the Pacific theater. That same year, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared that the U.S. intelligence operatives reported that scientists working for Adolf Hitler were already working on a nuclear weapon. The agencies leading up to the Manhattan Project were first formed in 1939 by President Franklin D. ![]() The Manhattan Project was started in response to fears that German scientists had been working on a weapon using nuclear technology since the 1930s-and that Adolf Hitler was prepared to use it. military-and most of the work was done in Los Alamos, New Mexico, not the borough of New York City for which it was originally named. The controversial creation and eventual use of the atomic bomb engaged some of the world’s leading scientific minds, as well as the U.S. The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic weapon during World War II.
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