Posted on 08/06/2005 6:25:05 PM PDT by wagglebee
Sixty years ago today, Hiroshima, Japan, became the first target of an atomic bomb, with Nagasaki the second target three days later. Thus, a war that lasted four years was ended in four days.
To those who decry the devastation caused by President Truman's decision to develop and detonate this awesome weapon, I remind them of the lives saved, not lost.
I'm very proud of the fact that my uncle was not only a member of the Enola Gay that dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, the first atomic bomb in history, but he was actually the bombardier. The bottom line, as my uncle said many times, was that he slept well at night knowing that he helped save more lives than he killed by bringing the war to a sudden halt.
The late Tom Ferebee, a native of Mocksville, N.C., was an Army Air Force lieutenant, hand-picked for a highly secret mission by pilot Paul Tibbets Jr., to be part of the Enola Gay's 12-man crew.
Debate still swirls around the exhibit of the rebuilt Enola Gay at a Smithsonian museum near Washington's Dulles International Airport, mostly by liberals awash in shame that the United States of America would wreak such damage upon the population of Hiroshima.
In a story I wrote years ago about my uncle's participation, here's what I said:
He quietly answers accusations that he must feel guilty with "all that blood on your hands," responding firmly that he has never tossed and turned in his sleep, never second-guessed his country's decision and knows in his heart he was responsible for saving thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of lives American lives.
How do real Americans, that is, those outside the confines of political Washington, feel about Ferebee? Let's take a look at a celebration in Mocksville in 1991 in which the town erected a marker to its famous son.
A local news story of the occasion, unembellished with political nuances, read in part:
"Ferebee changed the world when he launched the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945. A second atom bomb was dropped by a different crew on Nagasaki on August 9. Japan surrendered on August 10 and World War II ended."
The marker erected at the city limits simply reads: "Family Home Site of Colonel Thomas W. Ferebee, Bombardier on the Enola Gay. Dropped Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945."
To refute today's politically correct critics, perhaps it should also have some fine print explaining the stark fact that this action saved 38,000 American lives, the "low ball" estimate by revisionists, or up to 1 million, if you value the judgment of those who participated in the decision to drop the bomb. It also saved 100,000 Allied prisoners of war.
Why? Because Tokyo had ordered that at the very moment the United States invaded Japan, these 100,000 POWs were to be stabbed, shot, beheaded or otherwise slaughtered.
But Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed all that.
Let's pick up the rest of the story at Ferebee's hometown celebration as reported by Susan Shinn in the Salisbury, N.C., Post in 1991:
"Several hundred Davie Countians turned out to honor their native son Monday with a parade at town square and the dedication of a marker at Ferebee's homeplace on U.S. 64. ...
"And Ferebee brought his best friends: Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay; its navigator, Maj. Theodore (Dutch) Van Kirk; and Col. Harry Boothe. No one here can imagine how proud I am to be here," Ferebee said. 'You people have remembered me. I am happy to have three of my best friends here with me.' ...
"The men worked together 10 and a half months before their mission. Tom put the bomb where it belonged.' Tibbets said. 'What we did that day as a crew changed the nature of wartime forever. ...
"'If I could pick a brother, I'd pick Tom Ferebee.'"
Someone once said war is hell. Kill or be killed. Even Japanese survivors at Hiroshima have said that "if Japan had the bomb, it might have used it in a worse way." Others have said, "We need to admit the crimes committed by Japan before we can ask for an apology from the United States."
Atrocities?
The Bataan death march, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima. Those are names for Americans to remember, but most of all, Pearl Harbor.
Enola Gay
by OMD
Enola Gay...
You should have stayed at home yesterday
Ah ha words can't describe...
The feeling and the way you lied
These games you play...
They're gonna end it more than tears someday
Ah ha Enola Gay...
It shouldn't ever have to end this way
It's 8:15...
And that's the time that it's always been
We got your message on the radio,
conditions normal and you're coming home
Enola Gay...
Is mother proud of little boy today?
Ah ha this kiss you give...
It's never ever gonna fade away
Enola Gay...
It shouldn't ever have to end this way
Ah ha Enola Gay...
It shouldn't fade in our dreams away
It's 8:15...
And that's the time that it's always been
We got your message on the radio,
conditions normal and you're coming home
Enola Gay...
Is mother proud of little boy today?
Ah ha this kiss you give...
It's never ever gonna fade away
Cool song but I don't agree with it's sentiments.
My dad was in the Navy in the Pacific during WWII and chances are good I might not be here if it wasn't for the atomic bomb.
Hey Japan, when you spend most of the thirties raping and ravaging the world, someday someone might just show up with a bigger stick. When the bully gets knocked in the head, why should we feel sorry for him? The lesson is, don't pick a fight and you won't get punched in the face
My uncle was on an LST bound for Japan when Hiroshima happened. He had just finished going from landing to complettion on Okinawa, a campaign that cost his unit over 100% casualties, "red boot" replacements from Hawaii arriving all the time. They were called red boot because the red volcanic dirt of Hawaii they had been training in stood out from Okinawan soil.
There were virtually no POWs taken in Okinawa. End of campaign, hundreds, possibly thousands of Japanese troops leapt off the ocean cliffs rather than surrender, and I know of no American POWs retieved. Every man out of Okinawa knew what to expect as a level of resistance in a homeland invasion. Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved more Japanese lives than American. Men, women and children from 8 to 80 literally were supplied with sticks, bricks and pitchforks with which to defend the Emporer.
As an aside, uncle has tried for some years to contact anyone caught in the storm his vessel survived. Anyone with personal knowledge, please reply. Uncle is 79 and his mates are dwindling all the time.
I worked with a guy who was a POW in a Jap camp. He lost the sight of one eye from malnutrition and suffered unspeakably under those evil swine.
He was very outspoken and full of fun, always had something funny to say, usually at the top of his voice. Another coworker turned to me and complained about the things the former POW said, and I told him that after what that man went through for us, I was happy as hell to let him say anything he wanted to.
Casualty avoidance is often cited for dropping the atomic bombs. People extrapolate from 48,000 American and 230,000 Japanese losses at Okinawa to a half million American and millions of Japanese casualties for the mainland invasion. The estimate could have been vastly understated because Japan, at 374,000 mountainous square miles, mathematically enables over 500 defensive redoubts comparable to that general Ushijima used to inflict most Okinawa losses. The War Faction adopted the motto of 100 million Japanese deaths in planning the final mainland battles. Besides kamikazes, redeployed Kwantung divisions, and bamboo spears for civilians, the allies faced biological warfare. Occupation searchers uncovered large stockpiles of viruses, spirochetes, and fungus spores throughout rural Japan. One delivery plan encouraged Japanese to infect themselves and then surrender.
I have not seen mentioned the critical role kokaitai played in surrender. Any prominent Japanese lived out this spiritual combination of Emperor, people, land, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion. Hirohito decided in January 1944 to appoint a Peace Faction, but he and his advisors debated twenty months through continuous defeats and 1.3 million Japanese deaths before the bombs removed the final battles argument, allowing the War Faction to relent, Hirohito to assume his new roll, and no one to lose face. They remained within the fabric of Japanese of all eras who had sacrificed themselves for Emperor and Empire. Kokaitai is too compelling, oppressive and fulfilling for Westerners to imagine the agony of conscience these men confronted juxtaposed to meetings in a burning Tokyo.
Colonel Ferebee is a great American, and he has no reason to feel any remorse. He was instrumental in ending a war. If there had been an invasion of Japan many American lives would have been lost.
All the men who served on the Enola Gay and Bock's Car are heroes in every sense of the word.
Anyone who lived through WW2 knows that the bomb was not dropped too soon.
Neither show was negative about America's decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both shows were produced by the BBC!
SSQ's Daddy always said that he was alive only because of the bombs. He was slated to be in the invasion force in the Fall of 1945.
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