The conclusion of World War II came with a daunting choice that forever changed history: the use of atomic bombs on Japan. But few know this fact: there was a third atomic bomb, perhaps bound for a second Japanese city, lurking in the background of the Manhattan Project’s final game plan. This mention of the target for the third bomb makes one remember the chilling tales of atomic war and is a reminder of the days when the world was poised on the edge of nuclear annihilation.
The Manhattan Project, a hitherto untested clandestine endeavor, in which the United States rushed to produce the world’s first atomic weapons, culminated in the dawn of the nuclear era. It had three primary locations across the country: Hanford, Washington; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The project’s success provided the use of the first two nuclear weapons used in conflict: “Little Boy,” which was dropped over Hiroshima, and “Fat Man,” which was exploded over Nagasaki.
But historical threads could have been woven otherwise. As revealed, a third bomb was in the process of building with the plutonium core going on to be infamous as the “demon core” awaiting a “third shot” against Japan in late August 1945. Its making was thwarted with Japan’s capitulation following the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the shocking Soviet announcement of war against it, hitherto pledged to the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact.
The reality of the third bomb challenges us to wonder about what might have been. Speculation is rampant regarding the target not made public this third device would have destroyed, so strong are the arguments for what might have occurred and the lost lives that might have ensued. The result of the Manhattan Project was already of such magnitude that moral and ethical questions were being questioned among those who were privy to its objective, and these are greatly pondered in deciding on the use of yet one more bomb.
The “Fat Man” bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 was a melancholy chapter in the history of the world. Built by scientists and engineers at Los Alamos Laboratory using Hanford Site plutonium, it was delivered by the B-29 Superfortress Bockscar, piloted by Major Charles Sweeney. The detonation resulted in the fission of about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of the 6.19 kilograms (13.6 lb) of the pit’s plutonium, unleashing the energy of 21 kilotons of TNT equivalent to an explosion.
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the demon core which was destined for the third bomb had its path diverted toward catastrophic experiments rather than being used during the war. Two years after the Japanese surrender, two physicists died from radiation poisoning from the demon core and the criticality experiments were halted at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Subsequently, the core was also deemed too radioactive to utilize for the purpose for which it had been designed and was melted down, its contents being used in new warheads.
The third unused bomb, a grim reminder of what could have added to the list of atrocities, has a history that remains examined and understood today. Through the lens of this atomic trinity the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the one that had never been detonated we are brought back to scientific leaps of the era and to the profound moral challenges that accompanied them. The Manhattan Project, as an intriguing American historical episode, continues to pose questions that echo through the decades, reminding us of what is possible and what is threatened by those who will have the nerve to split the atom.
