Nuclear Dawn, The Atomic Bomb from the Manhattan Project to the Cold War

By James P. Delgado, Osprey Publishing, Colchester, 2009, 216 pages, copious illustrations, £20, ISBN 978-1-84603-396-4

Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

This book provides an illustrated and factual guide to the development of nuclear weapons. It starts with an account of research into the nature of atoms.  This is followed by a summary of the work which led up to the manufacture of the first atomic bombs in the Manhattan project. The next chapters deal with the bombs (‘little boy’ and ‘fat man’) and their delivery over Japan in August 1945.  Separate chapters on Hiroshima and Nagasaki describe the devastation caused by the bombs on the two targets. The book then summarises the “reaction and response” to the bombs. The two atomic bombs were just the beginning. The Americans pressed on with their research and the H-bomb was developed and tested at Bikini atoll in July 1946 against a number of old warships. The next chapter is entitled nuclear proliferation and deterrence. The final chapter is on the legacies of the bomb.

Anyone who wants a simple illustrated guide to the development of atomic weapons will find this a useful book, but its discussion of nuclear proliferation is confined to describing the Russian, British and French development of their own atomic weapons. The fact that China, India, Pakistan and Israel (although this is not publicly admitted by the Israeli government) are all now nuclear weapons states is not mentioned. There is no reference to North Korea or to Iran. The discussion of deterrence is cursory and the important nuclear non-proliferation treaty is not discussed.  While the reasons for the decision to use the bombs on Japan in August 1945 are outlined there is no in-depth discussion of the moral and strategic issues involved.   But in a short illustrated account of the development of atomic weapons it is perhaps unreasonable to expect all these issues to be covered.