This section is on testing the atomic bomb at Trinity site and then the decision to use the bombs against Japan.

By the spring of 1945 Germany and Italy had been defeated but we were still at war with Japan. We didn’t need to bomb to defeat Hitler but the scientists were very close to finishing the development of the bomb. We still didn’t know for sure if it would really work. It needed to be tested but that couldn’t be done here because of the town and all the people. A large open space away from people was needed.

Do you know where we chose to test the bomb? (White Sands) Between Las Cruces and Alamogordo, on the White Sands Missile Range. This is in the middle of the desert and the government already owned most of the land in the area so it seemed like a perfect place. Even it was secret and had a code name. Do you know what it was? (Trinity Site) You can visit it on one day of the year but the rest of the year it is off-limits on the military reservation.

Men from Los Alamos went down to White Sands to set up a camp there and to prepare for the test. They were instructed to drive straight down stopping at only one approved place for lunch, and to talk to no one. It took them many months to prepare. Nothing like this had ever been done before and they knew they had to be very careful. They even had a “test” test first, exploding 100 tons of TNT to see what the effects of a large explosion would be. When the day of the real test of the bomb came people were very nervous, but on July 16, 1945 the bomb was successfully tested. Once again, though, this was kept a secret. Although they certainly couldn’t keep people from seeing and hearing the explosion the Army made up a story to keep people from suspecting the truth. They said that an ammunition dump or storage place had blown up and caused the explosion. The explosion was so brilliant that it was described as being brighter than the sun. The day of the test is sometimes referred to as “the day the sun rose twice.” Because the test took place in the very early morning before dawn, it seemed that when the bomb exploded it was like the sun coming up. Then of course a short while later the sun did come up. There was a woman riding in a car many miles away who saw the light and asked about it – even though the woman was blind! Some of the wives in Los Alamos, who of course were not allowed to go down to White Sands, were watching that night from the Jemez Mountains and saw the light.

The decision was made by President Truman and his advisors to go ahead and drop the bomb on Japan even though we knew by that time that we would defeat Japan. But it was thought that by dropping the bomb we would end the war much sooner and thus save the lives of many American soldiers. So on August 6 a bomb was dropped by the airplane Enola Gay on Hiroshima, Japan, and on August 9 a bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, and World War II was finally over.

The world has never been the same since the scientists in Los Alamos developed the bomb.

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