The man who dropped the bomb

QUOTE

No regrets as Hiroshima bomber dies

Paul Tibbets, the US pilot of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died on Thursday. He was 92 and insisted almost to his dying day that he had no regrets about the mission and slept just fine at night.

Tibbets died at his Columbus home, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend. He suffered from a variety of health problems and had been in decline for two months.
Tibbets had requested no funeral and no headstone, fearing it would provide his detractors with a place to pro-*test*-('"), Newhouse said.

Tibbets' historic mission in the plane named for his mother marked the beginning of the end of World War II and eliminated the need for what military planners feared would have been an extraordinarily bloody invasion of Japan. It was the first use of a nuclear weapon in wartime.

The plane and its crew of 14 dropped the five-ton "Little Boy" bomb on the morning of August 6, 1945. The blast killed 70,000 to 100,000 people and injured
countless others.

Three days later, the United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Tibbets did not fly in that mission. The Japanese surrendered a few days later, ending the war.

"I knew when I got the assignment it was going to be an emotional thing," Tibbets told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published on the 60th anniversary of the bombing. "We had feelings, but we had to put them in the background. We knew it was going to kill people right and left. But my one driving interest was to do the best job I could so that we could end the killing as quickly as possible."

Tibbets, then a 30-year-old colonel, never expressed regret over his role. He said it was his patriotic duty and the right thing to do.

"I'm not proud that I killed 80,000 people, but I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did," he said in a 1975 interview.

"You've got to take stock and assess the situation at that time. We were at war. ... You use anything at your disposal."

He added: "I sleep clearly every night."

Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. was born February 23, 1915, in Quincy, Illinois, and spent most of his boyhood in Miami.

He was a student at the University of Cincinnati's medical school when he decided to withdraw in 1937 to enlist in the Army Air Corps.

After the war, Tibbets said in 2005, he was dogged by rumours claiming he was in prison or had committed suicide.

"They said I was crazy, said I was a drunkard, in and out of institutions," he said. "At the time, I was running the National Crisis Centre at the Pentagon."
Tibbets retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general in 1966. He later moved to Columbus, where he ran an air taxi service until he retired in 1985.

But his role in the bombing brought him fame - and infamy - throughout his life.
In 1976, he was criticised for re-enacting the bombing during an appearance at a Harlingen, Texas, air show. As he flew a B-29 Superfortress over the show, a bomb set off on the runway below created a mushroom cloud.

He said the display "was not intended to insult anybody," but the Japanese were outraged. The US government later issued a formal apology.

Tibbets again defended the bombing in 1995, when an outcry erupted over a planned 50th anniversary exhibit of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution.
The museum had planned to mount an exhibit that would have examined the context of the bombing, including the discussion within the Truman administration of whether to use the bomb, the rejection of a demonstration bombing and the selection of the target.

Veterans groups objected, saying the proposed display paid too much attention to Japan's suffering and too little to Japan's brutality during and before World War II, and that it underestimated the number of Americans who would have perished in an invasion.

They said the bombing of Japan was an unmitigated blessing for the United States and the exhibit should say so.

Tibbets denounced it as "a damn big insult".

The museum changed its plan and agreed to display the fuselage of the Enola Gay without commentary, context or analysis.

He told the Dispatch in 2005 that he wanted his ashes scattered over the English
Channel, where he loved to fly during the war.

Newhouse, Tibbets' longtime friend, confirmed that Tibbets wanted to be cremated, but he said relatives had not yet determined how he would be laid to rest.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/02/1193619089989.html

God will judge him.....

fuck that i will judge him....

i know he was ordered and all, i know they didn't fully comprehend what the outcome would be....but if that had been me i would have eaten a bullet ages ago...after blowing away the arseholes who sent me on the mission in the first place....

all those innocent civilians on his conscience.... greekturkish/shakehead.gif

It was wartime and this was a new weapon and the Americans obviously chose
their man well to carry out this task.

What many of us tend to do is judge the event without really taking the bigger picture into perspective. To invade japan would have left millions dead. Also, prior to that a fire bombing of Tokyo by the USAF left close to a quarter-of-million dead. He judges the person who ordered this devastation.

But most importatnly as this was a new weapon, at least the world could witness its horror and which eventually led to nuclear detente. Without it the yanks and the ruskies could have easily unleashed mutual assured destruction.

QUOTE (Deman68 @ November 02, 2007 10:23 am)

Yes, your judging powers will have an enormous affect on history.

QUOTE (Kayakiran @ November 03, 2007 12:04 pm)

Yes, your judging powers will have an enormous affect on history.

that was a touch bitchy Kaya......must be a case of over greekturkish/jack.gif

decreasing the ratio of -*test*-('")osterone to estrogen in your system..... greekturkish/bluebiggrin.gif

still the issue stands, how he could he live with himself is beyond most people.....

im guessing you would have trouble sleeping either, especially if they were kurds hah?.... greekturkish/sneaky.gif

in which sense was he different from the pigs that bombed or ordered the bombing of any city?

none whatsoever Dukie....at all.....but to be removed from an act, by a simple order, compared to actually dropping a bomb that incinerated 70,000+ people is at least psychologically stark...

i for one could not live with it....

QUOTE (Deman68 @ November 03, 2007 05:36 am)

that was a touch bitchy Kaya......must be a case of over greekturkish/jack.gif

decreasing the ratio of -*test*-('")osterone to estrogen in your system..... greekturkish/bluebiggrin.gif

He was following orders. The way most Americans rationalize this deed is that the bombs saved more lives than those that perished. If America would have invaded with land forces the war would have been drawn out with many more (especially Japanese) lives lost.

As far as me dropping the bomb on kurds: I would gladly drop the bomb on any terrorist organisation and the dogs that support them.

QUOTE (Kayakiran @ November 05, 2007 06:08 am)

that argument for dropping the bomb Kaya was proved false back then...the idea of fortress Nippon, a challenge so stark it would cause the death of 250,000 us servicemen was utter bull.....

all the US had to do was isolate the island and starve it into submission.....there was little resistance left in Japan.....

i believe you would gladly extinguish life....which makes you no better than those 'PKK scum' you seem to hark on about....

cause Kaya my mate, to them your the terrorist.....truth and the concept of right then becomes like religion, a matter of dogma ....and death and destruction becomes reality.....

anyone with true humanity, no matter what the reason may decide that to kill is necessary, but would never gladly do it.....no man who has actually taken a life, held a gun and fought in a war would make that comment....

which means like me, you have been nowhere near a conflict....to know whats its like to have human blood on your hands.....to see your mates brains blown out all over you.....to look into the eyes of the enemy while you plunge a knife into him....and feel his life snuffed out......

which makes you one of the biggest key board aggro warriors about greekturkish/laugh.gif

yes its easy to drop a bomb from 1000 feet up...yes its easy to rationalise that their not human but roaches, hey kaya?....

i guess its easy for some...but not for me mate.....

i would gladly kill no one....would i kill to survive or defend my country? i dont know, only in the moment of action would i know....but would i gladly do it and feel nothing latter.....no way.... greekturkish/tiphat.gif

QUOTE (Kayakiran @ November 05, 2007 06:08 am)

As far as me dropping the bomb on kurds: I would gladly drop the bomb on any terrorist organisation and the dogs that support them.

drop a bomb on kurds? Freudian slip?

you mean PKK right? greekturkish/laugh.gif

well to you i guess all Kurds are scum that need to be exterminated....viva the humanitarian....lets go cry over a song now Kaya mate, celebrating the brotherhood of Greeks and turks.....

im misting up already.....boohoo.... greekturkish/bluebiggrin.gif

QUOTE (Kayakiran @ November 04, 2007 08:08 pm)

As far as me dropping the bomb on kurds: I would gladly drop the bomb on any terrorist organisation and the dogs that support them.

God will judge you greekturkish/laugh.gif