Photographs of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Washington DC [presumed]: The Manhattan Engineer District, 1945. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Staplebound wraps. Fold-outs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unpaginated. 101 numbered and captioned figures. Stamp inside front cover. Cover has some wear, soiling and discoloration. Pencil notation on Figure 1 Probable Position of Rising Cloud at Intervals after Explosion. Scale is distance on the horizontal and time on the right vertical and height in the Atmosphere on the left vertical. Physical phenomena comments are made: Violent Winds, Extremely Dangerous Radioactivity, Extreme Turbulence, and Stratosphere Inversion. The Hiroshima fold out map is labeled Restricted and Emergency Provision Edition. The Nagasaki fold out map was for the use of the Army and Navy. Figure 4 is a Pre-strike aerial view of Hiroshima. Image is 3.3 miles by 2.6 miles. Figure 5 is The atomic bomb explosion over Nagasaki, taken from about 8 miles distance. The height of the top of the cloud was about 40,000 feet. Figure 6 is the Atomic Bomb explosion over Hiroshima. Figure 7 is a panoramic view of Hiroshima after the bomb. Figure 8 is an aerial view of Hiroshima after the bomb. Figure 9 is a panoramic view of Nagasaki after the bomb, Figure 10 is an aerial view of Nagasaki after the bomb. Remaining photographs provide more granular images and information. On 11 August, Groves ordered a survey team to report on the damage and radioactivity at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A party equipped with portable Geiger counters arrived in Hiroshima on 8 September. They remained in Hiroshima until 14 September and then surveyed Nagasaki from 19 September to 8 October. The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom (which initiated the original Tube Alloys project) and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the actual bombs. As engineer districts by convention carried the name of the city where they were located, the Army component of the project was designated the Manhattan District, Army leadership decided to call the project "Development of Substitute Materials", but Groves felt that this would draw attention. Since engineer districts normally carried the name of the city where they were located, it was agreed to name the Army's component of the project the Manhattan District. This became official on 13 August 1942, when an order was issued creating the new district. Informally, it was known as the Manhattan Engineer District, or MED. Unlike other districts, it had no geographic boundaries. Development of Substitute Materials remained as the official codename of the project as a whole, but was supplanted over time by "Manhattan". Groves established his headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the fifth floor of the New War Department Building, where Colonel Marshall had his liaison office. He assumed command of the Manhattan Project on 23 September 1942. In anticipation of the bombings, Groves had Henry DeWolf Smyth prepare a history for public consumption. Atomic Energy for Military Purposes, better known as the "Smyth Report", was released to the public on 12 August 1945. The political and cultural impacts of the development of nuclear weapons were profound and far-reaching. William Laurence of The New York Times, the first to use the phrase "Atomic Age", became the official correspondent for the Manhattan Project in spring 1945. In 1943 and 1944 he unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the Office of Censorship to permit writing about the explosive potential of uranium, and government officials felt that he had earned the right to report on the biggest secret of the war. Laurence witnessed both the Trinity test and the bombing of Nagasaki and wrote the official press releases prepared for them. He went on to write a series of articles extolling the virtues of the new weapon. Condition: Good.

Keywords: Atomic Bomb, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Pictorial Works, Damage Assessment, Fat Man, Little Boy, Enriched Uranium, Plutonium, Manhattan Engineer District, Manhattan Project, War Department, United States Army, Corps of Engineers

[Book #82358]

Price: $1,000.00

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