NathanA Historic Time
He did not want that to happen to his family so he made sure they would never have to go through this by constructing this shelter. The self-trained nuclear engineer Alvin B. Kaufman became terrified that the same case that took place in Japan during World War II would happen. He was afraid that if ever a bomb was dropped, it would kill and harm so many innocent lives.
To Protect Families
He built it right at the beginning of the Cold War which took place in the 1960s between the Soviet Union and the United States. A large majority of American citizens were terrified that a nuclear attack could take place at any time. At this point, many people across the United States constructed fallout shelters in their backyards in order to protect their families.
World War II A-Bombs
After the Pearl Harbor attack, the US went on to drop bombs in the Japanese territories in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So on August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber became the first ever nuclear bomb to be dropped, destroying Hiroshima. The explosion managed to clear off almost an entire city. Experts have estimated that the bomb demolished 90% of the city.
The Casualties
80,000 died due to the explosion while thousands suffered from complications caused due to the harmful radiation. After just 3 days, the US then went on to drop another bomb in Nagasaki. A whopping 40,000 people died. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito then surrendered shortly after. He spoke about the bombing and called it “a new and most cruel bomb.”
Creation of the Atomic Bomb
Even before the war happened, American scientists who were actually escapees from the European fascist countries starting their research work on nuclear weapons. There were several people who were afraid of the Nazis who did research on nuclear bombs as well. The United States government did their research work under the name “The Manhattan Project,” headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The Successful Test
They started their studies in Los Alamos, New Mexico and soon produced their first-ever atomic bomb. Int the wee hours of July 16, 1945, the Manhattan Project held a successful test of these atomic devices–a plutonium bomb. This test was held at the Trinity test site at Alamogordo, New Mexico. This was when nuclear bombs became a new fad that all superpowers invested on.