Posted on 07/23/2005 5:58:17 PM PDT by T-Bird45
Sixty years later, the debate still rages. Was America right to drop the atomic bomb - both bombs? Did it truly face the prospect of a full-scale invasion of Japan which some estimated would result in a million casualties? Or was Japan's imperial army, despite its astonishing savagery and unwillingness to surrender, on the brink of capitulation? Can the mass slaughter and irradiation of civilians without warning ever have been justified?
The man who built the A-bombs, scientist Robert Oppenheimer, and the man who used them, President Harry Truman, are both long dead. But the men who were physically close to one of the pivotal moments of the 20th century still live with the consequences.
General Paul Tibbets, who commanded the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress he named after his mother, is now 90 and living in Columbus, Ohio. The Enola Gay's mission over Hiroshima was so secret that Tibbets was given cyanide pills, one for each of the crew, so they could commit suicide if they fell into Japanese hands.
Many of the Japanese children who felt the wrath of the bomb, Little Boy, when it exploded are still alive, too. As might be expected, nearly all of them condemn the use of the A-bomb as unethical. Yet many acknowledge that in 1945 they were ready to fight to the death with bamboo spears, and dreamt of joining Japan's military machine, perhaps as Zero fighter pilots, kamikaze suicide bombers. Whether they would have done the same as Tibbets in his position is a question some cannot, or will not, answer.
The issue will be hard to duck on 6 August when Keijiro Matsushima, 76, a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb, visits Tinian Island, the US base in the Pacific, to commemorate the Enola Gay's flight 60 years before. He is expected to come face to face with US veterans who crewed the warplane that day, though Tibbets himself cannot go due to ill health. Mr Matsushima, a fluent English speaker and frequent visitor to America, was at school in Hiroshima on 6 August 1945: 'I remember thinking, "Did they drop thousands and thousands of fire bombs in a moment?" People's hair was sticking up, or they had lost their hair. Their whole bodies had been smoked to almost charcoal and their clothes were singed or torn. Their skin was peeling off and you could see red muscle.
'Without exception they stretched their arms out in front of them and were walking very slowly, marching like ghosts. I saw many 12- and 13-year-old boys and girls heavily burnt among those victims. When I think of these boys and girls, I can't stop the tears.'
And yet Mr Matsushima, whose brother, Kanngo, was a Zero fighter pilot, said he too had craved the fight against America. 'All Japanese boys wanted to join the military in those days. When I walked out of the city I could see both sides of the river burning phosphorus. Big smoke had covered the whole city, rising up, and I thought, "Hey, the Americans invented a real tough weapon. It's very hard to win this war." At the same time I never believed in surrender either. We were ready for suicide attacks.'
Would he have dropped the A-bomb? 'I tell American people I don't think we can blame you. This was during the war, when people become mad to kill the enemy. If Japan had an A-bomb we might have dropped it into New York. Do we have to thank them for dropping the A-bomb on Hiroshima? I don't think so. I can't say that.'
Pressed on whether he would have done as Tibbets did, Mr Matsushima raised his hands and said: 'This time I will reject that. I know that some of the pilots of the Enola Gay say, "If I was told to carry the A-bomb again I would do it, because that was our job." But I don't think I can welcome this opinion.
'Sixty years ago maybe the pilots of the Enola Gay had to do that because it was their duty but, after all, they killed men and women, young and old, and even children and babies.
'If I see them on Tinian Island, what shall I tell them? "I understand you did your job during the war so I don't blame you. But I just hope you will be able to mourn the victims of Hiroshima and have a drop of tear for the victims. Please co-operate to stop the third use of it in this world".'
As a result of the A-bomb, Akihiro Takahashi, who turns 74 this week, has no ears, suffers chronic liver disease and cannot fully raise his right arm with its claw-like hand, and his body still has shards of window pane embedded.
A couple of years ago he met Paul Tibbets in Washington. 'I told him "I'm not going to complain or hold a grudge against you." I pushed my right hand towards him and he noticed the burns on my hand. He asked, "Is this the effect of the A-bomb?" I said, "Yes". He looked surprised and shocked.
'I told him the sky over Hiroshima that day was so beautiful, so clear. We felt safe because the alarm was called off at the time. I told him I was even pointing at your airplane. He said, "Oh yes, I could see Hiroshima very well."
'Before departing, I told him, "We believe as citizens of Hiroshima that nuclear weapons are an absolute evil, and this tragedy should not be repeated in any country in the world. I hope you will try whatever you can do." He responded, "Mr Takahashi, I understand, but I know I would do the same thing once a war has started and I am ordered to drop the A-bomb." I felt angry and also sad. But he also told me war shouldn't happen again because, once a war breaks out, soldiers can do nothing but follow orders.
'The conversation lasted half an hour and he kept holding my right hand. I believe he felt some pain and remorse in his heart. But when I told a friend, he said, "I doubt it".'
Tibbets was unavailable for comment, but in a 2002 interview he insisted that he had no regrets: 'You're gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we've never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn't kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: "You've killed so many civilians." That's their tough luck for being there.'
An associate of Tibbets, Ed Humphreys, of the Enola Gay Remembered website, replied to a written request from The Observer: 'The general recently met a Japanese aviator who was scheduled to fly a kamikaze mission on 17 August. He is planning to translate [Tibbets's memoir] Return of The Enola Gay into Japanese for sale in Japan so they can know more about the truth and wisdom of using the bomb to stop the killing.'
Humphreys added: 'The US picked Hiroshima and Nagasaki because those cities contained over 100 viable military targets. I am not minimising the suffering of the Japanese people. However, if roles were reversed do you think the Japanese would have used the bomb on the United States?
'The general has told me on several occasions he was not at war with the Japanese people, he was at war with the samurai. They were far more ruthless than the terrorists we battle today.
'I thank God our brave solders like General Tibbets rose to the occasion to bring an end to the killing.'
You have absolutely know clue as to what you are spewing. The only part of "history" that says it wasn't necessary is the part written by a bunch of far left, commie "intellectuals". I suggest you read Downfall : The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire before opening your mouth again.
And it wasn't just the combatants who died needlessly. Whole villages of civilians killed themselves by jumping into the ocean to avoid being made slaves by our Army...because that's what their government had told them would happen.
If we had had to invade Japan millions of civilians would have died needlessly.
Where the bombs necessary? Japan didn't surrender after the first one was dropped.
Given that I had a grandfather and father in the Navy in 1945, I'm quite thankful that Truman nuked a savage culture into submission. It was one of the last patriotic acts by a Democratic president in the past six decades.
My father was in China when the war started. He had already seen some of the horrors that Japan inflicted on the Chinese before Pearl Harbor. As he describes his WWII service, he spent the first half of the war retreating from the Japanese and the second half chasing them...interspaced with bouts of Malaria and Dingi Fever.
This is where it get's strange. He was part of the occupying forces in Japan following the war; I spent my early childhood in a nice house on a hill overlooking Yokohoma harbor. We had a housemaid named Sumiko; she was more like a part of the family and only "helped" my mother. She was also paid a decent wage.
The interesting thing is my father was the only veteran of the Pacific war in his unit. He was soon on the carpet by a Colonel who was upset because he was coddling the Jap maid and paying her too much; wives were complaining. Dad set him straight on a few facts and the only thing that saved him from a courts martial was the Colonel's boss...who was a veteran and had served with Dad under Stillwell.
Dad didn't get off free though. Althought the Colonel couldn't touch him, he did give him new duties. He was put in charge of the labor force; basically Japanese military POWs working on base where he could coddle Japs to his hearts content.
I think that was the best thing that ever happened to Dad. We spent many a pleasant day in country homes with the families of his "people". When we finally had to leave these men, who didn't have much themselves, gave him two presents: one a beautiful sword (for the warrior) the other a silver ring with a blessing for peace on it (for a friend).
He stayed in touch with some of his "people" till the day he died. I know more then once he would become upset over these hollow Hiroshima demonstrations because he knew the bombs had saved more Japanese lives then they took.
After his funeral a couple years ago I gave my youngest son (who is a journalist) his ring, and my youngest son (who is finishing school) his sword.
Amen.
That was actually Colonel Tibbets at the time. On scene in the Pacific I believe it was General Curtis LeMay who gave the go for the mission.
Thank you for the corrections. Thank God for both of them!
My Dad was stationed on Okinawa and would most likely have been in the first wave in an invasion. Need I say more?
Exactly right. My grandfather was in a P-38 squadron in the Pacific during WWII (1943-45). There's been some idle talk in this thread about what the "generals" thought about the "necessity" of using the Atomic bomb on Japan. Men like your Dad and my grandfather--men who were actually going to have to do the fighting and the dying in an invasion of the Japanese mainland--knew better.
Those (very few) of you trying to cast doubt on the "necessity" of dropping the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki should be ashamed of yourselves.
Actually the fire bombings we did before the A bomb killed more people.
Japan erects patriotic shrines to its war criminals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasukuni_Shrine
But they complained when the Enola Gay was exhibited at the Smithsonian.
Let's put it in this perspective: My Dad came home, married and had six kids. He also now has 6 grandchildren.
So, speaking from a rather subjective POV, I am HAPPY as all git out that the bombs were dropped and feel absolutely no remorse over that fact either.
The Japanese people should blame their emperor and his govt. for Hiroshima. The emperor and his henchmen were given the chance to surrender and refused. They were told what would happen, they still refused.
Horrible images. Every bit as bad as the recollections of a woman I know who was a child in Tokyo during the firebombing. (She eventually married a U.S. serviceman and ended up here.) I imagine a fair number of folks in London, Rotterdam, Warsaw, Berlin, Dresden and several dozen other cities have similar memories. Area bombing of cities was a bad thing. Both sides did it. They started it. We finished it. No one has done anything similar since WWII. I think everyone has taken a lesson.
If I were teaching a class or doing a documentary on the subject, I would make at least three points:
The A-bombings should not be taken in isolation. They need to be evaluated in the broader context of the WWII bombing campaigns and, for that matter, in the context of the mass atrocities being perpetrated by the Japanese and Germans. That's point one. Most here will agree.
Point two is that the A-bombings ended the war and saved millions of lives. Again, most here will agree.
A third point that often gets overlooked strikes me as even more important. Had the A-bombs not been dropped on Japan -- shocking the world with the results -- it is likely that they would have been used later, at some other flashpoint of the Cold War. It is also likely that this would have happened when both sides had them, and in substantial numbers. That is not to say that we would have immediately escalated to an all-out nuclear exchange, but it is certainly possible, even likely, that the death and destruction would have been far greater. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were an innoculation.
Well said, and exactly right. My feelings on this matter are 100% in sync with yours.
It's "no". I trust people like Eisenhower, Leahy, and MacArthur over that of Truman. You seem to be quite upset about this for some reason. As far as communists go, there were certainly enough of them who had infiltrated the American government at the time.
Excellent point -- needed to be said again.
One thing to remember about both sides having them in the Cold War: the Soviets would not have gotten them as quickly as they did without traitorous Americans giving them the details. Further, other traitorous Americans and Soviet spies stole information on the B-29, allowing them to build a nuclear delivery vehicle.
Sheridan, "I apologize. I'm sorry. I'm sorry we had to defend ourselves against an unwarranted attack. I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell. As with everything else, it's the thought that counts."
It IS the thought that counts...(BTW get the zip file of this clip here)
Great story. Thanks.
Our military has plans in place for everything from an invasion of Canada to repelling an attack by Fiji . . . because that's their job. They have considered the pros and cons of every plan.
There was a downside to dropping the bombs - but the upside greatly outweighed the downside. Not only many American lives were saved, but even more Japanese civilians were spared starvation, disease, and death by suicide attack. Others have pointed out what happened at Okinawa. My F-I-L was there and saw the civilians jumping off the cliffs because they had been told they would be tortured and their babies eaten by the Americans. Multiply that a thousand times for an invasion of mainland Japan.
Second thoughts are inevitable, but the decision was the right one at the time. My husband would never have been born - I probably would not have been born. I don't know if your parents or grandparents were in the military at the time -- but if they were, chances are you wouldn't have been here to second-guess the decision.
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