# Was the US general public aware of the A-bomb before Hiroshima?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 20, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114 "2005-06-20T20:51:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/1 "2005-06-20T20:51:44Z")
Title says it all.
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### Author:  [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/2 "2005-06-20T20:54:18Z")
No.
Not according to the misc. information on the level of sequirity on the subject I have, but then again, I was not alive at the time.
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### Author:  [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/3 "2005-06-20T20:55:44Z")
No.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/4 "2005-06-20T20:57:46Z")
Nope. Hiroshima was the big “unveiling.” The whole world was pretty astonished.
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### Author:  [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/5 "2005-06-20T21:13:36Z")
As an actual programme to develop an A-bomb, no.
The public was aware that scientists and science fiction writers had repeatedly speculated about using atomic energy for military ends. It had become a widely quoted “fun fact” in much writing pre-war writing about physics that there was enough energy in some small amount of matter - in the US, the conventional comparison tended to be a baseball - to destroy a city. There was a period of a couple of years from 1939 onwards when the initial research on fission was being reported openly in the press. As the immediate possible potential of that research became more obvious, the scientists involved in the US developed a ban on publicising it. Some press speculation did continue, though that tended to result in a visit from certain federal officials suggesting that you lay off the subject. The foreign press in neutral countries didn’t have such restrictions and they did continue speculating. But none of this was particularly informed speculation.
At various times and in various countries there were rumours that someone - usually the Germans - was developing a specifically atomic “wonder weapon”. But these were just typical wartime rumours and there’s no evidence that any derived from a leak in any of the actual programmes.
The existence of the Manhattan project was thus a complete surprise to the public. Indeed, that was a secret that’d been successfully kept from Vice President Truman: he was only informed about it a short while after succeeding Roosevelt and it came as a surprise to him.
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### Author:  [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/6 "2005-06-20T21:16:00Z")
The fact that we had built one that would work was (not surprisingly) a well guarded secret. The theoretical idea of the atomic bomb was certainly well known.
For example, there was an article in the Los Angeles Times on June 10, 1940 – nearly 18 months before the US joined the war – with the headline “First to Tap Power of Atom May Emerge Victor in War.” It outlines the basic physics and the practical challenges of building a bomb. It also laments that the Germans “were almost a year ahed of the rest of the world.”
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### Author:  [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/7 "2005-06-20T21:18:53Z")
-
-
- Semi-related: “Censored Nagasaki Bomb Story Found” (Slashdot, Monday June 20, 2005)
[http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/06/20/087223.shtml?tid=153&tid=149&tid=126&tid=219](http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/06/20/087223.shtml?tid=153&tid=149&tid=126&tid=219)
~
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/8 "2005-06-20T21:26:42Z")
The general public may not have known an A-bomb was coming, but the idea of there being such a thing as an A-bomb was out there:
> [@](#):
>
> Leo Szilard was a student of Albert Einstein, who spoke very highly of him. They were the two geniuses. Szilard liked Science Fiction writing, and had read a book named The World Set Free and written by H.G. Wells [(1914)](http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=1059) , the man who began Science Fiction writing. In this book Wells described a process of “atomic disintegration” that unleashed “limitless power” which led to global nuclear war.
[here](http://www.hiroshima-is.ac.jp/Hiroshima/abomb.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> On July 4, 1934 Leo Szilard filed a patent application for the atomic bomb. In his application, Szilard described not only the basic concept of using neutron induced chain reactions to create explosions, but also the concept of the critical mass. The patent was awarded to him - making Leo Szilard the legally recognized inventor of the atomic bomb.
>
> Szilard attempted to keep the patent secret (so as not to tip off Germany) by gifting it to the British War Office. They initially rejected, then later accepted a few months later in February 1936.
[here](http://intergate.cccoe.k12.ca.us/abomb/popups/patent.htm)
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/9 "2005-06-20T21:39:12Z")
> [@anson2995](#):
>
> It also laments that the Germans “were almost a year ahed of the rest of the world.”
The Germans probably were a year ahead of everyone else at the outset. Fortunately Heisenberg calculated in 1939 it would take literally hundreds of tons of uranium to produce a bomb and that much uranium was out of the question back then (not to mention how impractical toting it around would be). Due to this the Germans opted for a plutonium bomb which added delays into the process. The Germans also goofed in miscalculating how well graphite would work as a moderator and so went with heavy water…not easy to come by back then (and in one case it was actively smuggled out of France to keep it out of German hands).
On the flipside the Allied physicists made a few early intuitive leaps that made a huge difference. By the end of the war Germany was nowhere close to having a bomb.
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### Author:  [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/10 "2005-06-20T21:57:51Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> On July 4, 1934 Leo Szilard filed a patent application for the atomic bomb.
I hope he got the royalty cheques from the US government in 1945.
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/11 "2005-06-21T03:07:47Z")
The key word is that Szilard _filed_ for a patent.
Did he actually get one?
I believe that nuclear weapons aren’t patentable now.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/12 "2005-06-21T03:31:20Z")
> [@BobT](#):
>
> The key word is that Szilard _filed_ for a patent.
> Did he actually get one?
UK Patent 630726
[http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=GB630726&F=0](http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=GB630726&F=0)
The European patent office is swamped at the moment: “Please try again later.”
The patent is mentioned in the [Wiki on Szilard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard)
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### Author:  [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/13 "2005-06-21T03:41:39Z")
> [@scm1001](#):
>
> I hope he got the royalty cheques from the US government in 1945.
As I understand it Szilard’s method doesn’t work. He certainly was one of the first to suggest the possiblity of a chain reaction but his method used fast neutrons. For a sustained chain reaction I think the neutrons need to be slowed with a moderater in order to increase the probability of neutron capture resulting in the release of more neutrons.
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### Author:  [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/14 "2005-06-21T03:46:09Z")
And no, the public wasn’t aware. This led to some interesting rumors. There was a bright, young PhD physicist at the University of Iowa who disappeared. All sorts of stories circulated the wildest of which was that it had been discovered that he was a German spy. After the war he returned to Iowa from his wartime work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/15 "2005-06-21T04:04:55Z")
From [here:](http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Med/Discfiss.html)
> [@](#):
>
> On July 4, 1934 Leo Szilard filed a patent application for the atomic bomb. In his application, Szilard described not only the basic concept of using neutron induced chain reactions to create explosions, but also the key concept of the critical mass. The patent was awarded to him - making Leo Szilard the legally recognized inventor of the atomic bomb.
>
> Szilard did not patent this prescient and tremendously important idea for personal gain. His motive was to protect the idea to prevent its harmful use, for he immediately attempted to turn the idea over to the British government for free so that it could be classified and protected under British secrecy laws.
>
> On October 8, 1935, the British War Office rejected Szilard’s offer, but a few months later, in February 1936, he succeeded in getting the British Admiralty to accept the gift. Szilard’s actions in attempting to restrict the availability of the atomic bomb, are also the earliest case of nuclear arms control.
I haven’t been able to find this patent (in an admittedly brief search) at the USPTO Web site, though.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/16 "2005-06-21T04:38:21Z")
To reply to the OP. I asked my mom and uncle and remember what my dad told me.
No. It was a total suprise to them. They were prepared for mucho American causilties in the invasion of Japan.
My uncle was in a transport ship from Europe in the Panama Canel on his way from Germany when he heard about the bomb. He was studying War Department training manuals on how to fight an island war when it hit.
My dad was in Okinawa on a battleship prepared to die in the assult on Japan. His ship had taken several kamikazi attacks in that battle and knew that the next one was going to be even tougher.
My mom was at home, and all she could remember was that the papers said that the toughest battle was coming.
They all felt that the bomb was a gift from GOD for our side.
I have a picture that my dad saved from VJ day, it shows the US fleet at Okinawa shooting off thier guns the night Japan surrendered, makes any 4th of July celebration you have ever seen look like like a back yard barbeque.
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### Author:  [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/17 "2005-06-21T10:58:34Z")
> [@commasense](#):
>
> I haven’t been able to find this patent (in an admittedly brief search) at the USPTO Web site, though.
There were several patents that Szilard applied for in the UK during 1934. The two I have definite references to were applied for on March 12th (numbered 440023) and on June 28th (630726). For the first [see here](http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=GB440023&F=02) and for the second [here](http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=GB630726&F=0), courtesy of the European Patent Office.
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/18 "2005-06-21T11:57:09Z")
> [@bonzer](#):
>
> The public was aware that scientists and science fiction writers had repeatedly speculated about using atomic energy for military ends. It had become a widely quoted “fun fact” in much writing pre-war writing about physics that there was enough energy in some small amount of matter - in the US, the conventional comparison tended to be a baseball - to destroy a city. There was a period of a couple of years from 1939 onwards when the initial research on fission was being reported openly in the press. As the immediate possible potential of that research became more obvious, the scientists involved in the US developed a ban on publicising it. Some press speculation did continue, though that tended to result in a visit from certain federal officials suggesting that you lay off the subject. The foreign press in neutral countries didn’t have such restrictions and they did continue speculating. But none of this was particularly informed speculation.
> At various times and in various countries there were rumours that someone - usually the Germans - was developing a specifically atomic “wonder weapon”. But these were just typical wartime rumours and there’s no evidence that any derived from a leak in any of the actual programmes.
> [@squink](#):
>
> Leo Szilard was a student of Albert Einstein, who spoke very highly of him. They were the two geniuses. Szilard liked Science Fiction writing, and had read a book named The World Set Free and written by H.G. Wells (1914) , the man who began Science Fiction writing. In this book Wells described a process of “atomic disintegration” that unleashed “limitless power” which led to global nuclear war.
Speaking of the A-bomb and science fiction, (and as a hijack) I remember reading somewhere, possibly one of Isaac Asimov’s many collections, that apparently someone high up in the Manhattan project had considered what it would take to stop the science fiction magazines from including stories about ‘nucleic bombs’ and such. Eventually someone who was aware of the real A-bomb research and familiar with the american sci-fi fandom at the time, made the case that any such change would IMMEDIATELY tip off a few million fans that the US government really was building such a bomb. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/19 "2005-06-21T12:25:14Z")
chrisk writes:
\> Speaking of the A-bomb and science fiction, (and as a hijack) I remember
\> reading somewhere, possibly one of Isaac Asimov’s many collections, that
\> apparently someone high up in the Manhattan project had considered what it
\> would take to stop the science fiction magazines from including stories
\> about ‘nucleic bombs’ and such. Eventually someone who was aware of the real
\> A-bomb research and familiar with the american sci-fi fandom at the time, made
\> the case that any such change would IMMEDIATELY tip off a few million fans
\> that the US government really was building such a bomb.
I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that when Cleve Cartmill’s story “Deadline” about an atomic bomb was published in _Astounding_ in 1944, federal agents went to talk to editor John W. Campbell, Jr. about it. Campbell pulled out a dozen stories from his slushpile that had the same theme. He persuaded the agents that vague knowledge of the possibility of the atomic bomb was common among science fiction writers and fans and that doing anything about the publication of such stories would just let fans and writers know that something was going on.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-us-general-public-aware-of-the-a-bomb-before-hiroshima/309114/20 "2005-06-21T12:33:48Z")
H.G. Wells didn’t just write about “atomic disintegration” – his book **The World Set Free** actually used the term “Atomic Bomb” to describe devices based upon chain reactions that desroyed entire cities, and were dropped from airplanes (Wells had pointed out how air power would revolutionize warfare in his novel “The War in the Air”. AFAIK, he’s the first one to suggest dropping atomic bombs from the air.) Leo Szilard admitted to having read Wells’ book, and of realizing the social implications of an atomic bomb because of Wells.
(Wells’ book isn’t an easy one to come by (But it’s now on Project Gutenberg – [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1059](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1059) ). I just read it a couple of years ago, ansd Wells’ chain reactions are a _lot_ slower than in real atom bombs. They smolder for long periods of time, slowly burning the city)
Wells didn’t come up with the idea himself. He was basing his stuff on the work of
physicist Frederick Soddy, and in particular on his book **The Promise of Radium** , which contained the idea.
John Campbell is suppopsede to have written quite a bit about chain reactions and the like in advance of the bomb. I know that he suggested different chain reactions himself (which weren’t practical), and about the difficulty of accurately machining isotopes like plutonium (because it had so many solid state configurations with different packing factors), but a lot of that may have been _after_ the bomb dropped. Apparently it _is_ true that he was visited by government agents over information contained in one story about atomic processes. But it was a thoroughly forgettable story by a minor author – it’s not like Heinlein was revealing The Big Secret in one of his works.
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