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October 15, 1998

Atomic Bombs

This is how the atomic bomb got its start. President Franklin D Roosevelt and some scientists were working on an atomic bomb. The atomic bomb was so top secret that when Roosevelt died Harry S. Truman had no idea about the bombs so he had to quickly learn all the information to make this difficult decision to use the bomb to end the war with Japan. The first bomb was called "Little Boy". When it was dropped on Hiroshima. It killed 70,000 people. Three days later, a second bomb called "Fat Man" was dropped. It weighed about 10,000 pounds and was 68 inches in diameter and 128 inches long. The bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945 and killed about 36,000 people. Truman gave an announcement shortly after the bombing that told American people that a bomb with the power of more than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. had been dropped on Japan. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.

View documents on line pertaining to the Atomic Bomb decision

By Branson, Chris, Jared
Paxton School, Platte County, Missouri


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