Vanity: Hiroshima and Paul Tibbets Interview

YouTube ^ | 8/6/2021 | Kermit Weeks

[llevrok]

I saw this interview of Paul Tibbets who piloted the plane that did it. Interesting (to me at least) what led up to August 6 for him with the B-29's development and his preparation for the bomb drop.

These are about 20 minutes each.

Part 1 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG2n3EmNtqY&t=159s

Part 2 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UelE357z58M

[NWFree]

The big bang took and shook the world
Shot down the rising sun

Rush - Manhattan Project

[NWFree]

Rising sun = japs 🇯🇵

[pfflier]

I had the pleasure of meeting Gen Tibbets, Dutch Van Kirk and Thomas Ferebee at a local event t our high school. I ran the sound for them in the auditorium and had a chance to talk with all of them while setting up the mikes.

They were all very happy and likeable individuals and there was none of the rumored remorse among any of them. I told them of my father's response to their mission and how grateful he was to them. He would have been among the earliest to land in any invasion of Japan. He thought he was a dead man walking.

After meeting them, it was a shame that Gen Tibbetts had requested tht his ashes be scattered in an anonymous location because he didn't want to be the center of a circus of protests

[KingLudd]

I stood in the open bomb bay of Enola Gay when it was being restored at the Smithsonian’s Paul Garber Facility c. 1993. Very powerful moment for me.

The technician working on the skin said that the exterior surfaces were covered in pits but Enola Gay’s pits would be as shiny as possible. They also said that they restored systems including engines to original condition and if necessary used worn out original parts, including gaskets and orings instead of modern replacements. They said they would prefer the oil leaks.

[BenLurkin]

Have never been able to figure how killing civilians with an atomic bomb was somehow more reprehensible that fire bombing them to death.

[left that other site]

I met General Paul Tibbets ay Tamiami Airport in 2000. We had a nice conversation, and he noticed my bike helmet, and asked me about my ride.

When I described my 93FXR to him, he said he wanted to see it, so the two of us walked out to the parking lot, leaving the people (and my hubby) in the hangar.

He liked my bike and said so. I thanked him for helping end WW2, asmy Dad would have been part of the invasion force if the war hadn’t ended.

It is a precious memory!

[Jim Noble]

I go back and forth on this one, especially “why was Hiroshima worse than Tokyo, or Dresden?”

I think it’s the idea of a single weapon, a “push of the button”, erasing so many people at once, reproducing (now) the mechanism that powers the sun, that’s so creepy.

I was 11 when the USSR detonated their “100 megaton bomb” (actually about 58). My family lived in a wood frame split level 25 miles from the Empire State building, the next day the front page of the NY Times had a map with the Empire State Building as ground zero for a Tsar Bomba, and we were all inside the 100% fatality circle they drew on the map.

Most days, I accept the necessity of the atomic bombings. But not every day.

[logi_cal869]

I was wondering if anyone else was going to post on August 6th, 1945.

I’ve been busy with blueprints while browsing posts...

[logi_cal869]

Well, they’re the same crowd who defend the rights of so-called ‘palestinians’ over Israel.

So I think that it falls under that ‘mental disorder’ banner.

[Ann Archy]

I’ve been to Nagasaki......its LUXH where the boy b HIT! I was SHOCKED!

[Dilbert San Diego]

On those days when you don’t accept the necessity of the atomic bombings, what are your doubts?

[PeterPrinciple]

https://www.newsweek.com/are-hiroshima-nagasaki-still-radioactive-nuclear-1751822

Today, both cities are bustling urban centers and radiation levels there are on par with the general levels of background radiation experienced the world over.

[llevrok]

I’ve been to Hiroshima on business a couple times. It is a charming bustling city today.

They do recognize that young people do not know of the bomb to the extent middle age and elders do.

[ViLaLuz]

Bflr

[sushiman]

I can see Mt. Unzen in Nagasaki from or home here in Kumamoto City . It’s an active volcano .

[Robert357]

My dad was medically recovering at the time the bombs were dropped and fully expected to be sent to invade Japan. The number of GI’s and Japanese killed in such an invasion would have been horrific. The carnage he saw in the taking of various Japanese held islands and in the battle of Manila were beyond brutal inhumane slaughter.

As a counter point the fire-bombing of major Japanese cities near the end of the war was also pretty horrific by Allied forces.

[Ann Archy]

Lucky you!!! The Japanese women were very welcoming to us....not so much for the men!! :)

[Montana_Sam]

That bit of advice Tibbets got from Oppenheimer about tracking out tangentially rather than perpendicularly from the blast center to escape - found that fascinating, for some reason. The plane would have been over five miles from the blast.
Real sobering to consider that kind of power.

[Zathras]

I went to see “Box Car” that dropped to 2nd bomb.
Its in the Airforce museum in Dayton OH.