The Possibilities of the Element of Uranium ...

The Possibilities of the Element of Uranium ...

... were investigated in Los Alamos, New Mexico. It was called the Manhattan Project. The result was the development of the atomic bomb, which was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on 6 August respectively 9 August 1945 killing 280.000 people immediately or in the following years due to radiation sickness.

Albert Einstein was the initiator of this project. He wrote a letter to the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, being concerned about rumors that the Nazis in Germany could succeed in constructing nuclear weapons. Roosevelt responded on 19 October 1939. He thanked Einstein for his most interesting and important information, which were the reason for taking immediate actions by the US government.

After the Japanese surrender being aware of the disaster Einstein was deeply in doubt whether he had acted correctly. He remained a critic of the arms race and the Cold War until his death in 1955.

This document can be peered by visiting the Albert Einstein Museum in Bern.