On recalling the explosion, Oppenheimer later called to mind a passage from the Hindu holy book the Bhagavad Gita: “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one ” The blast, which was equal to 20 kilotons of TNT, turned the desert sands to glass and released a blinding light. The first successful detonation, codenamed Trinity, was conducted on the 16th July 1945. Physicist J Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos laboratory where the bombs themselves were designed. The results of which were the creation of atomic bombs capable of harnessing the awful and destructive forces within. With the discovery of the splitting of the atom, it was inevitable that the enormous energy unleashed would be considered for military uses. The Manhattan Project had been designed to explore the use of the first nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, in the years that the war had been active, a special research and development unit based in Los Alamos in the United States was finally delivering results.
Yet this battle was seen as purely a means to gain a base of operations for the mainland invasion of Japan, which was anticipated to bring even greater casualties on both sides.
The invasion of the Japanese islands of Okinawa had seen the loss of 14,000 Allied lives, with the Japanese toll over 77,000. The Pacific War had seen some of the most brutal battles to be waged during the world conflict. Germany had already fallen following the capture of Berlin and the subsequent Potsdam Declaration had been issued calling for Japan to surrender. That would be like the splendor of the Mighty One…īy 1945, the Second World War had appeared to be drawing to a close.