Manhattan Project, Service Certificate

This Manhattan Project, Service Certificate was awarded to crucial contributors of the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was a secret research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear bombs.

The Manhattan Project grew to employ more than 130,000 people. Procuring the highly skilled workers, in competition with other vital wartime programs proved very difficult. In 1944, the War Production Board and the War Manpower Commission gave the project their highest priority. Personal letters were sent to the heads of universities and specialist companies asking for critical people to be released for essential war work. A key source of skilled people was the Army and the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Between 1943 and 1945, there were 62 fatalities and over 3,800 disabling injuries, which was below the rate of the industry.

The certificate is dated, the 6th August 1945, which is the day of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The day, a United States B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. local time. In a routine press release, a statement from U.S. President Harry S. Truman informed the media that an atomic bomb with “more power than 20,000 tons of TNT” had been dropped on Hiroshima.

The certificate is signed by Henry Lewis Stimson (1867 – 1950) who served as Secretary of War (1911–1913) under William Howard Taft, Secretary of State (1929–1933) under Herbert Hoover, and Secretary of War (1940–1945) under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.