The letter was Szilard’s idea, but he insisted that Einstein write it and sign it. Einstein lent considerable prestige, and his Nobel Prize in 1921 made him “the symbol of modern science,” says Kranet. “He has an influence that nobody else has. It seems like other people had tried to warn Roosevelt about what was going on months before, and then all of a sudden you open the door with a letter from Albert Einstein telling you this is what you should do. It’s impressive.”
On July 16, 1945, spectators allowed by security guards shielded their eyes with goggles when a prototype bomb known as “The Gadget” successfully detonated in the New Mexico desert. The result was greeted with both triumph and dread.[1945年7月16日、ニューメキシコ州の砂漠で「ガジェット」として知られる爆弾の試作品が爆発に成功したとき、警備員の許可を得た観客はゴーグルで目を覆った。その結果は勝利と不安の両方で迎えられた。この日、US President Harry S. Truman wrote: In his diary he wrote: “We have discovered the most terrible bomb the world has ever known.”
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Germany had surrendered but Japan had not, and it was thought that an unprecedented and terrifying attack on the Japanese ports of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would hasten the end of the war. The day after the atomic bomb test, Szilard presented a petition urging Japan to surrender before taking such drastic action, but the petition did not reach the authorities in time.
On August 6, a bomb codenamed “Little Boy” was dropped on Hiroshima. On August 9, “Fat Man” exploded in Nagasaki. It is estimated 200,000 people Many were killed or injured, and many more died years later from side effects of radiation. To date, these are the only times that nuclear weapons have been directly used in conflict.
Without Einstein’s letter, the Manhattan Project might never have happened. Wilcock notes that Britain was already “trying hard to pressure the United States to support further research,” and that the British-led MAUD report (1941), which studied the feasibility of nuclear weapons, “was crucial in driving U.S. research and development.” But Einstein’s letter merely accelerated the process. Without it, there might have been delays, Wilcock says, “and it is quite likely that the bomb would not have been ready for use by the summer of 1945.”
