When America started to make an atomic bomb, they were not thinking "When we finish, we will drop this on Hiroshima" In fact, they did not think about dropping it on Japan at all, they were trying to win the race against the Germans. The Germans were also trying to create atomic bombs. In fact they would have won the race to build one, but the United States sunk a ship carrying materials for the bomb in a lake in Germany.

The attack on Pearl Harbor triggered the United States’ involvement in the Pacific. Within a few hours the Japanese had destroyed eight American battle ships, 200 American planes (still on the ground), and killed approximately 3000 American naval workers. Those losses frustrated the United States so much that it partly fueled the making of the atomic bomb.

All these events led up to one of the bloodiest and most deadly campaigns in the history of the United States. General Douglas McArthur commanded this campaign, called The Island Hopping campaign and   he also commanded the entire war in the Pacific. The Island hopping campaign had a purpose. This purpose was to capture an Island close enough to Japan that it was in range of B-29 Bombers. They captured Tinian Island, where the 509^th (The air force in charge of dropping atomic bomb) promptly built a base. Some other islands that were captured include: Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Sapian, Kwajalein, and Eniwetok.

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