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 ...
Chances are, I would not be here were it not for General Tibbets. My father flew 30 missions in Europe before being told he would be reassigned to B-29s for the invasion of Japan. Guys were lucky enough to make it through one tour back then; surviving two was too much to expect. I am just one of millions of Americans who can say that.
What goes without saying (in the dominant liberal press anyway) is that I’m not the only one: In addition to a lot of Americans, there are tens of millions of Japanese who also owe their lives to this man. Were it not for the atomic bombs, Japan would have endured a terrible invasion, fighting both us and the USSR, and the country would have been partitioned along the lines of N. and S. Korea.
Gen Tibbets, wherever you are, thank you, and God bless you.
You are quite correct. I spent a fair amount of time in Japan when I was in the Navy and encountered many of the same things that you described. Given that the Japanese government has only relatively recently admitted its part in WWII, it will be at least a generation before this type of information begins to be commonly known or understood.
But, the admission alone is a start. When the original admission was made, the Japanese were stunned. Since then, they have reverted to form and become typically “inscrutable”.
Such things are never settled, as much as we can pretend otherwise, and call others “Communists” for asking philosophical or political questions. I try to remember,and you don’t have to, not being a “Communist”, that war is a failure of politics and politicians.
I have read many authors about Hirohito, Imperial Japan, WW II, etc. The most inciteful I have found was the Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy by David Bergamini. He seems to have gotten past a facade other authors have not penetrated. The book has a great glossary, notes and bibliography also.
Is there any doubt that the final bombings of Japan saved many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American and Japanese lives. People who were there seemed to have realized this. Current day critics don’t know what they are talking about.
Try this from from MSNBC on for size -- it' got me madder than hell.
Paul Tibbets, WWII commander of infamous B-29, requested no headstone/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21578185/
Thanks, Paul Tibbets. I may not have had the chance to live without you. Ditto here. One of my brothers and I had just finished a short leave -- having come home from the war in Europe -- and were on orders to the Pacific for that one; and another brother was already over there on an LST boat. General Tibbets made it possible for us to miss the planned festivities. RIP, General.
"...said he had NO regret over role in atomic blast!"
I wonder if these a**holes ever asked one of the Jap pilots who killed our troops at Pearl Harbor if he had any regrets.!" Drive-By Morons!
Try At Dawn We Slept and Miracle at Midway -- both by Gordon W. Prange.
Available from Amazon.Com
BTTT
I have both in my collection and have read them. They are now in one of the 20 or so boxes in the garage. I still dream that one day we will have a house with a room big enough to get them out of storage. I have well over 250 books in various book shelves thoughout our home, and am continualy looking for more history books. When I discuss this hobby, my wife says its sounds more like an AA confession, but she hasn’t gotten me under control yet.
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