Enola Gay Pilot Fights Bomb Backlash

[SSGMike.Ivy]

( I hope this is posted in the correct forum area )

By CHRISTINE GIRARDIN
Staff Writer

Last update: March 10, 2005


TITUSVILLE -- There were 12 men onboard the B-29 that dropped the world's first atomic bomb in war, annihilating 70,000 people that day in Hiroshima, Japan, and killing about 130,000 more in the aftermath.

Historians still disagree about whether the bombing was necessary to prevent the loss of more lives in battle, but the man who flew the aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945, remains proud of his role in the closing days of World War II.

"I regretted it was necessary, but to me it was necessary to do it. I tell everybody I never lost a night's sleep over it," said retired Gen. Paul Tibbets, who is telling tales of those heady days and meeting fans this weekend at the 28th annual Tico Airshow in Titusville.

Tibbets, 90, makes about a dozen appearances a year, promoting his book and talking about his place in military history. But the Enola Gay, and it's payload, Little Boy, weren't always something he talked about.

For the first 10 or 12 years after the war, nobody wanted to revisit the Manhattan Project and the two atomic bombs it produced -- at least not publicly. Everyone was just so tired of killing that talking about it was shunned, Tibbets said.

It was when the tide of public and scholarly opinion began to turn against the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that Tibbets went on the offensive. Ever since, he's talked about the special B-29 developed under his supervision to carry Little Boy, and details about the bombing run into Japanese skies.

That bombing has been ranked as the most important news event of the 20th century, and one that changed humankind forever, said Peter Kuznick, director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University in Washington, D.C.

As a scholar who believes it probably wasn't necessary to drop the atomic bomb to end WWII, Kuznick said the ultimate lesson about the event is that once such terribly effective weapons are developed, they are extremely likely to be used.

Moral debates and a scientific awareness of potential long-term problems won't be enough to prevent their use, just as they weren't enough to stop President Harry S. Truman from giving the order to drop the bomb.

"He knew it wasn't just another bomb. He knew it wasn't just a bigger, more terrible bomb. He knew that he was beginning a process that could ultimately mean the annihilation of the human species," Kuznick said.

Proof of the bomb's destructive power is displayed in old photographs on the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum's Web site. Survivors closest to the blast, a little more than half a mile from the explosion's center, suffered severe burns. One woman is shown with the pattern of her kimono burned into her back. A Japanese child later wrote that the bomb turned people instantly into ghosts.

Despite the atomic bomb's aftermath, Tibbets said humankind may again witness nuclear destruction. But this time, it's difficult to know who's the enemy.

"There's gonna be some people who play with it. They're doing it now," he said.

christine.girardin@news-jrnl.com

DID YOU KNOW?

The Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, was named for the mother of Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the plane's commander and pilot.

SOURCE: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

TICO AIRSHOW

WHEN: Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets $13 for adults, $8 for children ages 4-12. For information, call (321) 268-1941.

WHERE: Valiant Air Command Museum, 6600 Tico Road, Titusville. Take Interstate 95 south to State Road 405. Take S.R. 405 east, then right on Tico Road.

EVENT:Retired Gen. Paul Tibbets is the guest speaker at a Valiant Air Command dinner, Saturday, 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets $13. Reservations required. Call (321) 268-1941.

[sappernz]

Dropping that bomb was the best thing that could have happened. If it saved one allied soldiers life it was worth it.
Japan started the war and lost.
If they had won would there be a Hiroshima Peace Museum. No way.
They are still milking it pretending they are the victems yet Japan and Germany were on their way to developing atomic weapons, something that is almost forgotten in these PC days.
Well done the bomb, and I believe most of Hiroshima was.

[BrianP]

I did a term paper on the question if the U.S. should have used the bomb or not. In my opinion, it was the right thing to do, and here are my reasons why:

- Of course it saved Allied lives. It was estimated that an invasion on the Japanese home islands could have cost us as many as one million casualties.
- Not only did it save Allied lives, it saved Japanese lives as well. Imagine how many would have died if we invaded the home islands.
- It shortened the war. An invasion of the Japanese home islands would have probably pushed the war into late 1946, possibly into early 1947.
- It showed the Russians that the United States was willing to use the weapon to win a war. And it prevented the Soviets from claiming any rights to occupying a part of Japan. Imagine having a split Japan like we do in North Korea, or like we did in Germany.

[sappernz]

While it is true that history is written by the victors, it is also true that history is being rewritten by the losers who started the war and aided and abedted by the politically correct brigade .
If the Japanese had not started a war and behaved like animals when they were winning then there would have been no Hiroshima.
Now they whinge like little kids.
They would know about that, they killed millions of little kids during THEIR WAR.

[Dieppe]

I'll say that Japan deserved all it got.
The Japanese didn't have to get involved in the war but they saw that they had a big chance of expanding their empire and they tried their best to take whatever they could.
I have great difficulty in feeling sorry for the Japanese after Hiroshima and Nakasaki, actually I don't feel sorry for them. The brutality they showed to their prisoners (civilian and military) was savage, brutal and inexcusable and as far as I'm concerned they do not deserve my pity.

Furthermore, the Japanese government still will not officially apologise for the war crimes of their troops and those, like the Koreans, who were directly under their control; what does that generally say about how the modern-day Japanese view the actions of their ancestors?

[nolanbuc]

I can't really add any more to what already been said here except to agree wholeheartedly. Dropping the bombs was the lesser of two evils, plain & simple. Most everyone who can't see this as a fact either doesn't know their history or has an agenda to push.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

Originally posted by Lee@Mar 20 2005, 08:37 AM
I'll say that Japan deserved all it got.
The Japanese didn't have to get involved in the war but they saw that they had a big chance of expanding their empire and they tried their best to take whatever they could.
I have great difficulty in feeling sorry for the Japanese after Hiroshima and Nakasaki, actually I don't feel sorry for them. The brutality they showed to their prisoners (civilian and military) was savage, brutal and inexcusable and as far as I'm concerned they do not deserve my pity.

Furthermore, the Japanese government still will not officially apologise for the war crimes of their troops and those, like the Koreans, who were directly under their control; what does that generally say about how the modern-day Japanese view the actions of their ancestors?

Quoted post

Completely agree Lee. The very fact that they have never properly apologised says a lot about how they still view the West. Dropping the bombs was the right thing to do. Hindsight is a wonderful gift but the Allied Commanders didnt possess this. The cost in human lives of an invasion of Japan would be massive. No the right option was taken and it worked.

[angie999]

Originally posted by SSGMike.Ivy@Mar 10 2005, 07:33 PM
( I hope this is posted in the correct forum area )

By CHRISTINE GIRARDIN
Staff Writer

Last update: March 10, 2005

Quoted post

When copying in a published piece like this, protocol requires that you include a link so that we can go back and read it at the original source and check out the publisher.

This looks like a piece from a local newspaper, but it does not say.

[Gnomey]

I would say the dropping of the bombs was the correct thing to do in the situation as it saved countless allied (and Japanese) lives as well as shortening the war by anything upto 2 or 3 years. It prevented the partitianing of the Japanese home islands which I believe had this occured another Korea would be on our hands instead Japan is one the richest and most properous countries in the world. Of course there was backlash against the bomb but between 2 and 3 hundred thousands lives is a better option than 2 or 3 million plus that would of died had the Allies invaded the home islands.

[Pte1643]

Originally posted by Lee@Mar 20 2005, 09:37 AM
Furthermore, the Japanese government still will not officially apologise for the war crimes of their troops and those, like the Koreans, who were directly under their control; what does that generally say about how the modern-day Japanese view the actions of their ancestors?

Quoted post

Lee, and All.

I work for a Japanese company, they are an extremely Proud and Stubborn race. But the modern Japanese are, it must be said, exceptionally courteous and Polite. Having said that I truly believe that the Japanese government will NEVER appologise for the actions taken by their military personnel during WW2.

It is also my belief that, YES extreme measures had to be taken. It just so happened that, at the time, these measures came in the guise of an A-Bomb, as they would have fought to every last man, woman and child if necessary.

This is in almost total contrast to ANY modern day German (Military or Civilian), who usually cannot appologise enough for the actions of their nation during WW2.

But hey, I'm NO Germany fan either, but then I'm Half-Jewish.