The United States and Britain kept the development of the atomic bomb a secret (Bondi 493). In order to maintain secrecy, Groves divided the work between laboratories so that the people working on the bomb could not figure out that they were making the bomb. Members of the Manhattan Project asked scientists questions about the bomb and they answered, but they did not know what the answers were for. The project had many restrictions for employees to keep the project secret. They couldn't have private conversations about the material they were working on, because after a while people might have put it together and determined that they were creating a bomb. Employees were performing tasks that had nothing to do with what others around them were doing. Even officials at the War Production Board were unaware of the bomb's existence (“The Atomic Bomb…” 258). As with everything, problems arose during the development process. The plutonium needed for the bombs was only microscopic in size, which was very difficult to handle. The properties of plutonium were unknown, and scientists knew very little about uranium 235. The factories had to be operated by machines because the materials were "radioactive, toxic, violently corrosive, or all three" (Gerdes 143). After scientists studied and became familiar with plutonium and uranium-235, they were able to begin the manufacturing process (Gerdes 91). One of the first things scientists had to do was determine what the plutonium and uranium-235 would do when the bomb was dropped (Bondi 494). The bomb used approximately 10,000 to 20,000 tons of trinitrotoluene, TNT (Gerdes 144). Plutonium and other high explosives placed... middle of paper...... saved many lives and ended the war. With this clarification, most of the United States accepted his rationale. The United States began to view the bombings as “retaliation for the treacherous attack on Pearl Harbor” (Moser 145). The Manhattan Project consisted of a top secret group of scientists who worked diligently to produce the atomic bomb. After hours of research into plutonium and uranium-235, scientists succeeded in producing the bomb. When the Japanese refused to surrender, the Americans dropped two bombs on Japan, destroying both cities. The whole world was shocked because no one knew about the bombs created by the United States. The Americans discovered the existence of these bombs after President Truman made the announcement to the United States. Overall, the Manhattan Project was necessary for the United States to achieve victory in World War II..