Posted on 11/01/2007 9:23:40 AM PDT by NCDragon
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Paul Tibbets, who piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died 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 protest, 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
Rest in Peace, Captain. You did G-d’s work and saved lives...SSZ
I just saw a documentary on Discovery last month with him in it. A true American hero, IMO.
God Speed, Tibbs!
Interesting article. Thanks for posting it.
Advocates often cite casualty avoidance for dropping the atomic bombs on Japan. People extrapolate from 48,000 American and 230,000 Japanese losses at Okinawa to 500,000 American and millions of Japanese casualties for mainland invasions. Those estimates could have vastly understated causalities. Japan at 374,000 mountainous square miles mathematically enables over 500 defensive redoubts comparable to General Ushijima’s construction inflicting most Okinawa losses. The War Faction adopted the motto of “100 million Japanese deaths” for planning 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 directed Japanese to infect themselves and then surrender. The “Greatest Generation” and their parents would have been enraged to discover a cabal satisfied their moral orthodoxy by condemning over 500,000 Americans who might otherwise have been saved.
I have not seen mentioned the critical role Kokutai played in surrender. Any prominent Japanese lived out this spiritual combination of Emperor, citizen, land, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion. Hirohito appointed a Peace Faction in January 1944, but he and advisors debated through twenty months of continuous defeats and 1.3 million additional Japanese deaths before atomic bombs removed the “Final Battle” argument, allowing the War Faction to relent, Hirohito to assume his unprecedented roll, and no one to lose face. They remained within the fabric of Japanese from all eras who had sacrificed themselves for Emperor and Empire.
It seems he will continue to pay the price for having made his sacrifice to end WWII.
God bless you Paul, we owe you a lot.
“He was 92 and insisted almost to his dying day”
He was 92 and insisted to his dying day. (fixed it)
RIP Paul Tibbetts, American Hero!
That says something!
That’s embarrassing! He’s an American hero, and the fact that some perverts would use this as an opportunity to protest or desecrate his headstone says something about where we as a nation have gone.
I met him at an Akron air show - got an autographed copy of that piture with the Enola Gay - great man!
whh629
But you’ll find none of what you note reported in Japan; to this day they refuse to accept responsibility for their own atrocities during the war, and for what befell them as a result.
Their kids don’t even learn of it in school.
The AP just had to slip something sneaky in there.
The sad truth of the matter is this: that at the time, Little Boy abd Fat Man were probably the least of all possible evils.
RIP Captain Tibbets. Job well done, life well lived.
The man did what had to be done, and probably very few others had the guts to do. Without him, a lot more people would have died. The “horror” of the atomic bomb was perhaps the main reason that not ONLY did WWII end, but WWIII hasn’t started in earnest yet.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
“He was 92 and insisted almost to his dying day that he had no regrets about the mission and slept just fine at night”....Why should he have regrets?....What a joke! He was an American pilot doing his job in time of war defending his country....He’s a hero.
My grandfather was with 7th Marines as a forward air controller. They were enroute to Japan for the invasion when the bombs were dropped. They new that Japan had surrendered when in the middle of the night, all of the lights came on in the convoy. Thank God for those brave men.
Since this is not the oldest thread, it might be mentioned here that Washoe has died at 40.
Feeble illusions persist Japan negotiation initiatives made dropping atomic bombs unnecessary. In fact the Japanese Cabinet debated “Final Battle” arguments into utter physical and mental exhaustion for eleven hours following the second atomic bomb on August 9. At impasse Hirohito, the god-king, entered the 30’ by 18’ sweltering, underground bunker to speak the “Voice of the Crane”. He would bear the unbearable and bring war to an end. Only then did they contact Swiss and Swedish foreign offices to begin negotiations with allied belligerents.
Supposed negotiations refer to proposals Foreign Minister Togo and Ambassador Sato made to Russian counterparts. The Japanese intended to bribe Russia into neutrality and have it mediate a settlement for peace with honor. The first June 29 contact ignored surrender, with proposals the Russians considered too vague for an answer. The August 2 proposals accepted the Potsdam Declaration as one basis for further study regarding terms. When Ambassador Sato finally saw Molotov on August 8, two days after Hiroshima, he received war declaration instead of an answer to proposals. In the final meeting of Hirohito and Cabinet, Barron Hiranuma reproved Foreign Minister Togo for never making concrete Russian proposals. The Foreign Minister had no answer.
The Japanese accepted Emperor’s and government’s authority would be subject to the Supreme Allied Commander. The Japanese people’s free expression would determine ultimate government. The only approximate Western historical disruption would be displaying the bones of Jesus at Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Wall.
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