The Attack on Japan
After capturing Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Allied forces prepared to invade Japan. It was hoped that daily bombing of the Japanese home islands and the threat of a super bomb – the atomic bomb – would end the war.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein, a Jewish physicist who sought refuge from his Nazi Germany homeland, wrote President Franklin Roosevelt and warned him that the Germans had been working on a new and very destructive bomb. Such insights prompted Roosevelt to secure a group of scientists to construct their own version of such a bomb. This is known as the Manhattan Project.
The Trinity Test during the Manhattan Project
Enrico Fermi
The plan was to make an atomic bomb. Enrico Fermi, an Italian who had escaped Italy for the United States during Mussolini’s reign, was able to achieve such a goal while working at the University of Chicago in 1942. Three years later in July of 1945, a group of scientists tested Fermi’s bomb in the desert of New Mexico. This first test of atomic technology was nicknamed Trinity. Fermi’s work was a success. The more important questions now were when, where, and if the United States should use its new weapon.
Map and location of New Mexico