On July 16, 1945, there was a loud noise in the Alamocord Desert of New Mexico. The world's first atomic bomb successfully exploded. Since then, mankind has ushered in the era of nuclear energy. Subsequently, countries around the world have successively manufactured their own nuclear weapons.
As of now, there are a total of 10 nuclear-armed countries in the world. my country successfully detonated its first nuclear atom on October 16, 1964, making it the fifth country in the world to possess nuclear weapons.
In September 1939, World War II broke out in Europe. In order to develop an atomic bomb before Germany, the United States established the top-secret " Manhattan Project ", and the goal was to build an atomic bomb before Germany. Oppenheimer was selected as director of the atomic bomb program.
Oppenheimer led the entire team to complete what Truman praised as "a large-scale organized scientific miracle unprecedented in history." This not only verified the great power of science and technology and contributed to ending the war as soon as possible, but also won himself a high reputation and became a hero known to everyone in the country. He is known as the "father of the atomic bomb".
Zilard Leo, a Hungarian physicist who moved from Europe to the United States, first considered that once fascist Germany mastered atomic bomb technology, it might have serious consequences. After the efforts of him and several other scientists who immigrated to the United States from Europe, physicist A. Einstein wrote a letter to the 32nd President of the United States, F.D. Roosevelt, in August 1939, suggesting the development of an atomic bomb, which attracted the attention of the US government.
However, the initial planned funding was only US$6,000. It was not until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that the US government realized the urgency and necessity of developing nuclear weapons, and finally expanded the scale. By August 1942, it developed into a huge project code-named "Manhattan Project Area", directly employing more than 500,000 people and investing US$2.3 billion. By the end of World War II, three atomic bombs had been produced.
In order to force Japan to surrender and end the war as soon as possible, the United States put its only three atomic bombs into actual combat.
Faced with the arrogant and domineering Japanese army, the United States immediately announced that it would bomb Japan with nuclear weapons. However, Japan did not pay special attention to it. Instead, it believed that the United States was bluffing and deliberately scaring them.
In the summer of 1945, Japan's defeat was certain, but the Japanese government refused to accept the Potsdam Proclamation on July 28.
At the end of the Potsdam Conference , a resolution on Japan was adopted, known in history as the Potsdam Proclamation. The proclamation urged the Japanese government to immediately order all armed forces to surrender unconditionally, otherwise Japan would suffer rapid and complete destruction. Japan did not realize that the warning of rapid and complete destruction was a hint that the atomic bomb would be used. It believed that the proclamation did not explain the emperor's status, so it rejected the Potsdam Declaration.
Another very important reason is that the Soviet Union had a Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Treaty with Japan. Japan hoped to mediate with the Soviet Union and wanted to end the war in a more dignified manner. Therefore, Japan finally had internal discussions and different opinions. In particular, the military community firmly refused to accept the Testan Proclamation. Some other departments in the diplomatic community advocated the end of the war, but the military community advocated pursuing the "100 million pieces of jade" plan, resisting to the end, and fighting a decisive battle on home soil. In the end, Prime Minister Suzuki succumbed to the opinions of the military leaders and went all the way to the dark side.
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, causing more than 200,000 casualties in both places. The U.S. atomic bomb attack shocked the Japanese government and the public and showed a certain deterrent effect. On August 15, Japanese Emperor Hirohito issued the " Final War Edict" in the form of a broadcast, announcing unconditional surrender.
In just 20 days, the United States went from successfully detonating its first atomic bomb to directly engaging in actual combat. When
first started, the United States chose four targets for dropping atomic bombs on Japan. They were: Hiroshima , Nagasaki, Kokura and Niigata.By the end of July 1945, three targets were finally determined: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kokura. In addition, the United States prepared 3 atomic bombs and 7 aircraft from the beginning. However, only Hiroshima and Nagasaki were dropped with atomic bombs.
There were obviously three atomic bombs, so why only two were dropped? Could it be that the United States temporarily changed its plan? Where did the other one go?
The answer is that the third one did not explode.
In fact, in war, it is not uncommon for bullets to be dumb bombs . Even high-precision weapons like atomic bombs are no exception. In people's impression, once launched, it has a precise target and a wide impact area. In fact, the probability always exists, and the atomic bomb will also be "dumb".
The United States' plan has not changed, but when it was preparing to launch in the second target city, the weather was not helpful and the sky was covered with dark clouds, making it impossible to see the ground target clearly with the naked eye. The plane idled over Kokura for 45 minutes, but failed to find an opportunity. Finally, we had to give up and go straight to the third target, Nagasaki.

In the sky above Nagasaki, there were also dark clouds at the beginning. But soon after, the dark clouds suddenly dispersed, and the ground targets could be clearly seen, so both atomic bombs were dropped.
However, the effect was not as good as the United States imagined. Although the death toll in Nagasaki was close to 40% of the population, and 60% of the buildings were damaged, two atomic bombs were dropped here. Groves himself said afterwards: This is a huge difference from the number they estimated. The reason is very simple. One of them did not explode, and the one that exploded was 2,000 meters away from the intended target.

Here, let’s talk about the whereabouts of the third atomic bomb. So where did the atomic bomb that did not explode go?
The air defense report of Nagasaki, Japan, faithfully recorded what happened that day: two B-29s dropped two "new parachute bombs" over Nagasaki. The unexploded atomic bomb was quickly found by the Japanese and was properly taken care of.
is also because of this atomic bomb that did not explode. Japan got an atomic bomb as a blessing in disguise, and if possible, Japan could build its own atomic bomb. However, it is a foregone conclusion that Japan will become a defeated country, and the atomic accelerator of Imperial University has been bombed and damaged by American planes, making it impossible to build an atomic bomb. Later, the Japanese decided to hand over the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union out of consideration of national interests.
At that time, when Japan handed over the unexploded atomic bomb to the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union also made certain promises to Japan.
In addition, the Soviet Union had obtained important scientific and technological information on the U.S. atomic bomb test from the British scientist Farage who had participated in the U.S. atomic bomb test. It also obtained the physical object of the unexploded atomic bomb from the Japanese. With the ingenuity of the Soviets, they quickly created the atomic bomb.
On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union successfully exploded its first nuclear weapon, becoming the second country in the world to possess nuclear weapons. Compared with the United States, the Soviet Union did not possess the atomic bomb four years later.
After hearing the news, U.S. President Truman was completely stunned and kept saying to himself: "Is this true? Is it true?" Because he knew how difficult it was to successfully develop an atomic bomb. Since the end of 1938, German scientists Hahn and Straman used neutrons to bombard uranium and fission occurred. After seven years of hard work, the American, British, French and German scientists who fled to the United States built the first atomic bomb. To this end, the United States mobilized more than 500,000 people and spent as much as 2.3 billion U.S. dollars.
Such huge expenditures were obviously unbearable for the Soviet Union, which had just recovered from the war. Because of this, General Groves once predicted that it would take at least 20 years for the Soviet Union to build an atomic bomb.
After the successful atomic bomb explosion in the United States, the U.S. military immediately sent a top-secret telegram to Truman in Postan, saying that the results were satisfactory and exceeded expectations. U.S. Secretary of War Smithson immediately flew to Postan. He wanted to report the details of the atomic bomb explosion to Blumen face to face.
The success of the atomic bomb also gave the United States an absolute trump card for victory at the Potsdam Conference. At the plenary meeting the next day, Truman immediately became more confident. Churchill, who was meeting with him, clearly felt the changes in Truman. It was only later that he learned that the reason why Truman was so excited was because of the secret weapon of the atomic bomb.
After British Prime Minister Churchill learned about the atomic bomb explosion in the United States, his first reaction was that the United States finally had the tools to end the Pacific War. The Allies did not need to land in Japan to fight, and the Soviet Union did not need to send troops to Northeast China. As long as the atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese mainland, Japan would be able to stop its final resistance.
On July 24, Truman walked up to Stalin deliberately pretending to be casual and told Stalin that the United States had created weapons with great power. Unexpectedly, Stalin just said lightly that that was very good, and he hoped it could be used against Japan. But what about Stalin’s words? He knew that the United States was using this to allow him to achieve his strategic goals and to achieve world dominance after the war. Therefore, Stalin pretended not to hear clearly, pretended not to know, and had no reaction at all.
In fact, after returning to the Soviet Union, Stalin impatiently came up with his own ideas. He immediately arranged that the United States had successfully developed the atomic bomb, and we had to step up research and development as soon as possible. So sometimes some struggles are very subtle. In the later stages of World War II, the germination of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union had already begun.
Americans are angry and hateful that the Soviet Union possesses the atomic bomb. Their own carelessness has also unintentionally created their biggest competitor.
After the Soviet Union acquired nuclear weapons, it completely broke the nuclear monopoly of the United States. On November 1, 1952, the United States succeeded in its first explosion test on the small island of Elugulab in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. Less than nine months later, on August 14, 1953, the Soviet Union announced that it had the hydrogen bomb. Since then, the second phase of the U.S.-Soviet arms race officially began.
