The United States dropped “Little Boy,” the atomic bomb fueled by uranium from Oak Ridge, on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Between 90,000 and 166,000 Japanese died within the first four months after the bombing. Today, historians and the public continue to debate the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For more information, see "Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Narrator: The United States dropped “Little Boy,” the atomic bomb fueled by enriched uranium produced at Oak Ridge, on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The news of the bombing revealed the top-secret work at Oak Ridge to the world. Three Manhattan Project veterans who worked at Oak Ridge, Robert Kupp, Ray Stein, and Mary Lowe Michel, recall their reactions to the bombing and the end of World War II.
Robert Kupp: The town went wild. It was absolutely crazy because, as was generally reported in the papers, very few of the people here knew that we were working on a bomb. No one knew what the status was, because, you know, as relatively young engineers, it was not possible for us to know how much material was needed for a weapon or anything else. We weren’t sophisticated physicists like [J. Robert] Oppenheimer and the rest of them out in Los Alamos.
Ray Stein: What I remember is people just driving up and down the road, honking and hollering and shouting. And it was just like a New Year’s Eve ten times over. It was just a wild experience. People were just so—just letting out all this energy all at one time, and being so happy it was over, especially those that had loved ones overseas.
Mary Lowe Michel: There was joyous occasions in the streets, hugging and kissing and dancing and live music and singing that went on for hours and hours.
But it bothered me to know that I, in my very small way, had participated in such a thing, and I sat in my dorm room and cried.