The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Washington DC [presumed]: The Manhattan Engineer District, 1946. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Staplebound wraps. ii, 42 pages, plus figures. Notation on front cover. Stamp inside front cover. Pencil Notation on Table of Contents/ Tabular information. Three figures: 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. There is a Hiroshima fold out map is labeled Restricted and Emergency Provision Edition. There is a Nagasaki fold out map was for the use of the Army and Navy. Through page 34 the report is usual text page. Page 35-41 is in two column format. This section is titled: Eyewitness Account Hiroshima -- august 6, 1945 by Father John A. Siemes, professor at Tokyo's Catholic University. Father John A. Siemes, was a Jesuit priest who was born in 1906 and was living at the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Nagatsuka. Father Siemes sent his impressions to the magazine Jesuit Missions. The narrative in the Manhattan Engineer District report appears to be a fuller narrative than what has been found on-line from the Jesuit Missions submission. This report describes the effects of the atomic bombs which were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. It summarizes all the authentic information that is available on damage to structures, injuries to personnel, morale effect, etc., which can be released at this time without prejudicing the security of the United States.
This report has been compiled by the Manhattan Engineer District of the United States Army under the direction of Major General Leslie R. Groves. The content are: Foreword, Introduction, The Manhattan Project Investigating Group, Propaganda, Summary of Damages and Injuries, Main Conclusions, The Selection of the Target, Description of the Cities Before the Bombings: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, The Attacks:
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, General Comparison of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, General Description of Damage Caused by the Atomic Explosions, Total Casualties, The Nature of an Atomic Explosion, Characteristics of the Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs, Calculations of the Peak Pressure of the Blast Wave, Long Range Blast Damage, Ground Shock, Shielding, or Screening, from the Blast, Flash Burn, Characteristics of Injuries to Persons, Burns, Mechanical Injuries, Blast Injuries, Radiation Injuries, Shielding from Radiation, Effects of the Atomic Bombings on the Inhabitants of the Cities, and Appendix: Father Siemes' eyewitness account. 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 #82435]

Price: $1,500.00

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