LITTLE BOY AND FAT MAN

Last Saturday was the 82nd anniversary of D-day; the military assault in World War II on the western European coast by Allied forces.   From that day, we marched inland toward a time, May 8, 1945, when Germany unconditionally surrendered.  We lost many men in that eleven months. 

The war in the Pacific was ongoing.  Most of the land held by the Japanese had been liberated.  Japan refused to an unconditional surrender.  The U.S. President, Harry S. Truman, agreed to allow the use of a new atomic weapon (bomb) on a city in Japan.  The experimental bomb was dubbed "Little Boy" by the scientists who created it.  

On August 6, 1945, a bomber dropped "Little boy" on a city named Hiroshima.  With the equivalent power of 15,000 tons of TNT, it completely obliterated 5 square miles of that city.  In total, it is estimated it caused  the death of about 140,000 souls.  

"Little Boy" was a bomb that used Uranium and was ignited by the compression of this nuclear fuel causing a chain reaction releasing enourmous energy.  

Japan refused to unconditionally surrender. 

Three days later, a plane dropped another bomb on Japan.  This one was called "Fat Boy".  It was made differently.  The nuclear fuel was plutonium.  The firing mechanism was more sophisticated but the distruction very similar.  "Fat Boy" was dropped on the city of  Nagasaki.  It had the power of 21,000 tons of TNT.  It obliterated 3 sqaure miles of the city with similar loss of life.  The Japanese agreed to surrender on August 14, 1945.