In 1939 a letter warned Franklin Roosevelt that a bomb of a new type might be possible. Six years later, 125,000 people had built two of them in secret cities that appeared on no map, and the war ended in nine days. This is the full story of the Manhattan Project, Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, from the discovery of fission in a Berlin laboratory to the shadow it left over the rest of the century.
Chapters:
0:00 The Flash
0:44 The Letter
2:32 The Race
3:59 The Secret Cities
6:13 The Physics
7:50 Trinity
9:48 The Decision
11:45 Hiroshima
13:54 Nagasaki
15:38 The Surrender
17:01 The Shadow
Sources & credits:
Image: Wikimedia Commons / Internet Archive
Image: Otto Hahn und Lise Meitner.jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Image: Lise Meitner (1878-1968) and Otto Hahn (1879-1968), Dahlem, Germany, 1913 (4405627945).jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Footage: Nuclear Test Film - Nuclear Testing Review (Internet Archive, public domain) via Pexels
Image: Robert Oppenheimer (left) and General Leslie Groves (right) at Ground Zero of the nuclear bomb test site.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, CC0)
Image: Petition from Leo Szilard and Other Scientists to President Harry S. Truman 01.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Around this table, in an elaborate country estate in Potsdam, Germany, the "Big Three" will confer in talks which... - NARA - 198972.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Footage: Hiroshima Aftermath 1946 USAF Film.ogv (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain) via Pexels
Footage: Tale of Two Cities (1946).webm (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain) via Pexels
Footage: Atomic Bomb.webm (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0) via Pexels
Footage: The First Atomic Explosion (Internet Archive, public domain) via Pexels
Image: Sale of First Radioisotope Clinton Laboratory 1946 Oak Ridge (17423241078).jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Footage: Tale of Two Cities, A (Internet Archive, public domain) via Pexels
Image: K-25 Plant Aerial 1945 Oak Ridge (29022368925).jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Image: 1945-K-25-Plant-Aerial-Oak-Ridge-Tennessee.jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Image: Gen. Groves First Press Conference after use of the atomic bomb 1945 Oak Ridge (15643473737).jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Hiroshima aerial view after atomic bomb 8-1945.jpeg (Wikimedia Commons)
Footage: Physical damage, blast effect, Hiroshima, 1946-03-13 ~ 1946-04-08, 342-USAF-11071.ogv (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain) via Pexels
Footage: Atom Bomb [Joe Bonica's Movie of the Month] (Internet Archive, public domain) via Pexels
Image: Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. Large Format (31371478744).jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: General Leslie Groves Speaking to Workers Oak Ridge (6986753544).jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Feynman and Oppenheimer at Los Alamos.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Guest Lodge, Oak Ridge, in 1946 1.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: HoffmanCentrifuge Rally Civic Center in Oak Ridge (6925570848).jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: World War II Generals at Guest House 1946 Oak Ridge (15474245498).jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Farmers Maket 1947 Oak Ridge.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Guest Lodge, Oak Ridge, in 1946.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Footage: General Effects of Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.ogv (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain) via Pexels
Image: Trinity shot color.jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Image: Col Paul W. Tibbets before takeoff 6 August 1945.jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Image: Trinity Test - Oppenheimer and Groves at Ground Zero 002.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Naval Reactor Compartment Packages in Trench 94 at Hanford, WA.png (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Mixing of plutonium oxide powders, Hanford, Washington, c. 1961 - HD.6D.592 (11872658474).jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Little Boy bomb.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Little Boy bomb.jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Image: Fat Man Assembled Tinian 1945.jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Image: Fat Man names on bomb.jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Image: Boeing B-29 Superfortress of the 509th Composite Group, in 1945 (76048591).jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and President Truman with their staffs around the conference table at the Potsdam Conference, 17 July 1945. BU8985.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Trinity Test - Oppenheimer and Groves at Ground Zero 001.jpg (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Image: Trinity Test Plutonium Core (uncropped).jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
Image: R. Oppenheimer oversees final assembly of the gadget (10537627864).jpg (Wikimedia Commons)
(+ more sources)
