What has been done is the greatest achievement of organized science and history. On august 6, 1945, the u. S. Detonated the first clear weapon in history over the city of humor shema, followed by a second that the nation over the city of nagasaki. Six days later, japan surrendered, ringing an and to the second world war. I have received a message from the japanese government. Id and this reply a full acceptance of the potsdam declaration. The Unconditional Surrender of japan. Through the work of cspans cities tour, we will share stories of the people that contributed to this worldaltering event. We begin in new orleans. At the National World war ii museum. We are here on the road to tokyo exhibit. Which will take us up through the war in the pacific and asia. One of the interesting aspects of the war in the pacific is how quickly the turning point came. The bombing of pearl harbor just december 1941. About six months later, after the japanese had run wild through the pacific, the battle of midway was fought. At the battle of midway u. S. Dive bombers destroyed no fewer than four aircraft carriers. That was a major portion of japans naval strength. Whatever chance that japan had disappeared in 1942. That early into the war, from what we may say the humiliation of pearl harbor, to the big victory at midway. Just about six months. It is a big ocean. That is a relatively brief time. The war would go on for over three years after midway. From june of 1942 through august of 1945. I think most Japanese Naval officers realized that the war was probably lost after midway. They had taken this gamble to launch a war on the united dates, a country whose economy was 10 times the size of their own. What was there to do now . But simply to hang tough and hope for some kind of miracle. I think that is what japanese officers in particular were doing. It was often couched in terms of loyalty to the emperor. We cant let the emperor down. I think it was more about the corporate culture. They saw no way out other than to hang tough and realize that it was a big ocean, maybe something would happen. Maybe the americans would tire of the struggle. Maybe we japanese could take such a toll of u. S. Casualties that an american president would be forced to end the war on favorable terms with japan. That was never to be. Clearly, the Japanese Military power was broken. On individual islands they could defend tenaciously. Studies were done, casualty estimates. They were out of the ballpark. Hundreds of thousands. Unbeknownst to most, a topsecret military program had been going on for sometime in the United States. Of the sort that had never been seen before. It was the invention of atomic weaponry. The Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer was the father of the atomic bomb. He directed the civilian laboratory at los alamos during the project. Under his leadership, he directed nobel prizewinning scientists, engineers, military and the civilians who worked on the atomic bomb project in los alamos. In 1938, two german physicist working in berlin bombarded this lump of material called uranium. They got a curious result. A kind of released a lot of heat and it created a different element. An element that was farther down on the table of elements. The word about this spread through the Nuclear Physics world like a forest fire, that scientists had split the atom. And that it was scientists working in nazi germany that had. There was a lot of knowledge that the germans had split the atom. That england was working on their own splitting of the atom and harnessing that into a military weapon. It was not until pearl harbor that the Manhattan Project was created. Then a lot of resources under the control of the army corps of engineers was devoted to create this new weapon. Leslie groves was appointed the head of the Manhattan Project. He had just finished doing the pentagon. Groves talked to different Physics Departments and ask people who would be a good leader. Oppenheimer probably was not high on the list. Oppenheimer had not even been in charge of his Physics Department at berkeley for he was chosen. There was something about oppenheimer that groves like. Groves saw that he was hungry. There were nobel Prize Winners that were being considered. But they had already accomplished the nobel prize. Groves wanted somebody who was hungrier, would maybe work harder. Also on a train trip across the country, oppenheimer was able to describe to groves always needed to be done in terms that a layman could understand. The other thing was where to locate the laboratory. You couldnt have it in chicago, because what happens if an accident happens . It would be easy to breach the top security. If you are walking down the street, involved in it, a colleague who was not involved came up and said hey, joe, what are you doing . There would be an easy way to break top secrecy on that. He looked around, they picked some places in the west. Oppenheimer had come to new mexico to recover from an illness when he was 18 years old and fallen in love with new mexico. At one point he said he wished he could marry the two loves of his life, physics and new mexico. Of course, that was before he got married. I want to be clear about that. This was an opportunity for him to do that. He showed groves some places around new mexico and they settled on this boys school in los alamos. So after that was chosen in november of 1942, oppy started recruiting people. He could not tell them what he was doing. He said, you know, i would like you to join me on this project, but i cant tell you what you are going to be doing. You are going to be in a beautiful place and it is going to be essential. People who knew oppenheimer knew the work being done in germany. They knew this was something that was going to be important. A lot of people did sign on. They were given an address in santa fe to report to. They went to that palace address right near the plaza in santa fe. There were told, you are not quite there yet. It is another 40 miles. Here is your temporary security pass to get into los alamos. Ofentists assembled in march 1943. They decided that they needed to do multiple ways of trying to make this weapon. Part of the problem was the nuclear material, the uranium, or plutonium was minuscule. Plutonium is totally manmade. They decided that they needed to do multiple ways of trying to make this weapon. Part of the problem was the how do you extract that 1 out. That is why the Industrial Complex at oak ridge was made, to separate this isotope of uranium from the rest of it and assembly in a big enough quantity that it can be used for a bomb. Oak Ridge National laboratory is a Major Research institution. Oak Ridge National lab has been after thece right second world war. This was set up originally in 1943 as clinton laboratories. It did not have the name oak ridge at the time. The purpose of clinton laboratories was to learn how to produce plutonium. Which was a radioactive element releaseld split and vast amounts of energy just like some forms of uranium can. They did not know much about plutonium. Element, artificial had to be created by man, and they knew nothing about the characteristics of plutonium. Although we started in february of 1943, this facility, a graphite reactor as we know it today, was starting in the spring of 1943, completed by november of 1943. It came online as the worlds first operating nuclear reactor. In this case, used specifically to produce tiny, tiny amounts of plutonium which were recovered and then shifted up to the Metallurgical Laboratory which was part of the Manhattan Project in chicago so they could be characterized there. Other bits of plutonium were shipped out to Los Alamos Laboratory in new mexico where the bombs were actually designed and built by Robert Oppenheimer other famous physicists. Ultimately tested out there in new mexico. The purpose of oak Ridge National laboratory was originally to serve as a test aretor, which is where we right now, to produce trace amounts of plutonium for the weapon. They thesay government realized fairly quickly that oak ridge and east tennessee were not the places to produce vast amounts of plutonium for a weapon. Plutonium is a highly toxic element, very carcinogenic, very dangerous if not handled properly. East tennessee was not the place to be producing large amounts of plutonium. This reactor here was not even called a reactor, it is called a pile. It was designed simply to learn how to produce plutonium, not to produce large amounts of it. Eventually after a year or two, it actually began to produce some enriched uranium. That enriched uranium was carried out of here in a handbag. On the train, it went out to los just carryingody it normally. Similarly small amounts of , plutonium worshiped to chicago where they could characterize it los alamos where they could , learn how to build a bomb using plutonium. Everything was coming in in train loads and train loads. This is a very ultrasecret undertaking. No one knew what was going on. Except the managers, until the bombs were actually dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki in japan in 1945. Recruitment was very challenging at times because they could not say a lot about what the end goal of the project was. So you had some one of the women i profiled in my book was recruited literally right out of the halls of her high school during her senior year. I interviewed other women who were recruited out of college. I talked to a woman who was recruited out of a diner where she was working. They went all over the place looking for smart, capable young women who followed instructions very well, who were very capable of following instructions. They also had to recruit a lot of men. Constructionwise turnover was a , very big challenge. They didnt want a lot of turnover because that slowed production slowed the , construction rates. They scoured everywhere, getting as many people as they can. From a military standpoint, certain soldiers who had a background in, say engineering or science might be literally taken right out of line as they were getting ready to board a ship to go overseas because they had a certain skill set and redirected to one of the other sides. They were drilling down as much as they could. A couple of my women were right out of high school. If you had a nobel prizewinning scientist, he might live in one of the two or three bedroom houses that had been built depending on housing was assigned depending on how many children you had. They might actually have a lovely house, standalone house. A 19 or 20yearold young woman who was recruited out of high high school, or say a , 22yearold woman recruited out of college would probably live in one of the dorms. There were dormitories and cafeterias and dances, in many ways quite similar to college. She would have roommates and she would pay rent for her dorm. If you are africanamerican, you were living in the huts. These were mostly plywood structures that you would share with three or four other people. In the case of katie, the africanamerican woman i profiled, because oak ridge was completely segregated and facilities were segregated, the was able tos she have were limited. She was not allowed to bring her children or husband with her. When i interviewed her i said what made you decide to do this . This is a trying situation. She said the pay that i was getting was more than double the best i had ever been offered back in auburn, alabama. Sofor her and for husband for her and her husband it was , definitely an economic motivation to endure what they were enduring as africanamericans. There was a real need for bodies. That is underlying all of this. But competence absolute confidence. What went into organizing the Manhattan Project was something that they referred to as compartmentability. You dont need to know anything more than what you need to know to complete your job as best as you can. You might be sitting next to somebody who has a different job than you do. They dont know what you know, you dont know what they know and you dont know what this two other guy knows. You guys all know the minimum you need to know to perform your for example, some of these women were operating electromagnetic separation calutrons. This involved operating various knobs and dials to keep a needle , to be very range basic, exactly where it needed to be. This is exactly how they were trained. If the need of those this way, turn the knob this way. If sparking happens, call the supervisor. That was it. They did not know what the machines were for. They did not know what the end product of the project was. They just knew everything they needed to know to be able to perform their specific task. That was something throughout the Manhattan Project. You were only given enough information to do what you needed to do to the best of your ability. There was a level of this obviously varied from person to person most people had a certain level of curiosity but it was also drilled into them that if you got to curious and too curious and asked too many questions, you could lose your job. You did not get to curious too often. Some people did. Many people saw people get physically taken out of work in the middle of the day with zero explanation and never saw them again. So there was this idea that i am not supposed to ask any questions so i not going to ask am any questions. There was also a fair amount of what i might call selfcensorship that has happened. Everybody was told this is a very important project for the war. That is what they were told, they were not told what it was. Told it was important that they did not talk about what they did. If you ever talked to anyone who lived through world war ii, most everybody knew somebody away fighting. Most people knew someone who died. The idea that they were supposed to and they were told they were not supposed to talk about things, that was enough for a lot of people. That is what i mean when i talk about selfcensorship. Nobody wanted to be the person who inadvertently or accidentally caused a problem with the war effort or let out the piece of information even though they did not know what it meant. Nobody wanted to be that person who actually caused a problem for what they were trying to accomplish. In september 1940, Glenn L Martin company was commissioned to build a plant specifically at this board. By june of 1942, the plant was in full production. Withproduction continued the be26 marauder. The plant built over 1500 of these mediumsized bombers to help contribute to the war effort in all theaters of the war. It was after that that production was then put into place. How this fits into the war history, the b29 became the atomic bomber in the pacific. Fartherrried faster and than any ever before the b29 , artillery pointed at the heart of japan. Those particular airplanes were manufactured at the martin nebraska bomber plant. Colonel tibbets came and chose his bomber that would be eventually named in only gay enola gay after his mother. It would become the first b29 aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. We are at the National Museum of the air forces airpowered gallery. This is at the tail end of the world war ii story. The first thing we will look at is the atomic weapon known as the fat man. It is important for three reasons. The reason this is significant is because it is a signal of the beginning of the atomic age, the end of world war ii it is a , marker of the supremacy of American MilitaryIndustrial Power at the end of world war ii. The reason it was called fat man is obvious. It was a big round bomb. Its shape was mainly because of its method. It is round because it is an implosion method. Here of explosives that compress a smaller sphere to create a Chain Reaction to release this Tremendous Energy resulting in an atomic explosion. The weapon we have on display is real. It is a mark three atomic weapon. Looks been restored to like the fat man bomb that was in august of 1945. This was one of many mark threes dropped up until 1949. They were withdrawn from service in 1950. This was an iteration of that first design used during the war. Of course, Nuclear Weapons design progressed quickly after the war. This was obsolete within only a couple of years after it was designed and built. Thereafter the shape was , restored. It was displayed for the first time in a museum in 1965. We restored it so that it looked man that was used at the end of world war ii. The lettering on the front was a curiosity. We think it stands for joint army navy combined foul up. These guys who put this together were young men doing a tough job. You will see nose art with pictures and words that were nonstandard. I guess you could say this was one of them. The other little stencil inside is fat man. Pe, fm, the stuff above it is about army Navy Cooperation to get a tough job done and done well. At the museum, we want people to think about what happened at hiroshima, nagasaki, and why. 80,000 lives were snuffed out in a millisecond. On august 6, when the atomic bomb was detonated over day aima, the next different type was over nagasaki. We have the flight record, the pilot dropped the bomb on hiroshima. We have heard the logbook from the enola gay. The primitive computer of the day, which was a way of computing airspeed, which was essential to bombing. As we walk over here, we have examples of glass bottles taken from the wreckage of nagasaki. You can see here the intense , heat literally melting glass not so far from ground zero. Nagasaki was not the original target of bomb number two. Chosen, but the target was too hard to drop the bomb on. The mission was changed to nagasaki. I have been saying this to students for years. This is the most unlucky city on earth by nothing more then a bit of chance. Nagasaki received the second atomic bombing. The battleship missouri, 53,000 ton flagship of the fleet becomes the scene of an unforgettable ceremony, marking Unconditional Surrender of japan. The u. S. Bring