The commander of the B-29 plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima in Japan, has died.

Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr died at his home in Columbus, Ohio, aged 92.

The five-ton "Little Boy" bomb was dropped on the morning of 6 August 1945, killing about 140,000 Japanese, with many of them dying later.

On the 60th anniversary of the bombing, the three surviving crew members of the Enola Gay - named after Tibbet's mother - said they had "no regrets".

Enola Gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday!

Rest in Peace, Gen. Tibbets.

Numbers:  ~100,000 Japanese grandparents got obliterated or died of radiation sickness before they got to see their grandkids.  But between 250,000 and 1,000,000 American grandparents got to see their grandchildren.  Between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 Japanese grandparents got to see their grandchildren.

Ethics, as knowable to then-Colonel Tibbets at the time:  With most Japanese cities having already been firebombed to the tune of 50,000 dead, and most Japanese industrial production having been farmed out to small shops widely dispersed around the country, Nagasaki was a center of production of war materiel under the doctrine (as adopted by both sides) of total war.  (If you're thinking that's a pretty scary doctrine under which to fight war, you're right.  Total war wasn't pretty, and while it might be the only way to decisively win a conflict between nation states, the planet hasn't seen its like since the 40s.)

Ethics II, as revealed by 20/20 hindsight:  With the war effectively over except for the inevitable invasion of the Japanese homeland, and the Japanese high command deadlocked as to how to proceed, the bombings gave the Emperor the excuse he needed to surrender. The Japanese, at the time, had no way of knowing that we had no third bomb. There was no honor in dying - every man, woman, and child on the Japanese-occupied colonies in the Pacific having already fought to the last man - against a weapon such as this.  After a few behind-the-scenes suicides, the Emperor was able to prevail upon the high command to pull the plug and surrender with honor.

Historical impact:  Most military planners of the time regarded nuclear weapons as "just another bomb, but bigger".  They didn't change their mind after Trinity.  They changed their minds after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  We, as a species, have found justification to slaughter tens of millions of our fellow humans since then, but so far, every nuclear-armed state has remembered the results well enough that they've managed to find a way not to push the button.

Speculation:  Without the horrors unleashed that day, either the USSR or the USA would have been driven to the use of nuclear weapons during either the Korean or the Vietnam wars, likely resulting in a limited nuclear exchange involving "only" a few million deaths.  I'll err on the side of caution here and chalk up only another million on the "lives ultimately saved" column for the General, even if neither he nor his commanders could have forseen it.

In the interest of balance:  By nuking the Japanese in 1945, Col. Tibbets saved millions of lives, and I raised a glass to him yesterday. When my former (and perhaps future :) adversary's Stanislav Petrov time comes, (and every year on the anniversary of that date in 1983) I'll raise a glass to him, because his inaction in 1983 probably saved billions.  Petrov (and a few others, on each side, in different incidents), by not pushing the button, played as big a role in history as Tibbets.  They had this in common:  they were the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

There was no honor in dying - every man, woman, and child on the Japanese-occupied colonies in the Pacific having already fought to the last man - against a weapon such as this. 

To the contrary.  Many Japanese actually expected WW2 to end in a huge conflagration, and saw no problem with dying to the last person, even if in defeat, as the uultimate moral victory.  Thus the kamikaze pheomenon as the war continued to deteriorate from the Japanese viewpoint.  If Hirohito had exhorted his people to soldier on after Nagasaki, they would have.  And war would have dragged on again, with the USA dropping a new bomb on Japan every couple of months, as soon as Oak Ridge could produce enough fissile material for another bomb.  Perhaps Hirohito figured that if he did not order a surrender, the Imperial Palace would be the next target.  :-\\

You see much the same situation today with suicide bombers and their ilk.  Die for the greater glory and all that stuff.

To the contrary.  Many Japanese actually expected WW2 to end in a huge conflagration, and saw no problem with dying to the last person, even if in defeat, as the uultimate moral victory.  Thus the kamikaze pheomenon as the war continued to deteriorate from the Japanese viewpoint.  If Hirohito had exhorted his people to soldier on after Nagasaki, they would have.


You miss my original point:  the second bombing, even more so than the first, gave Hirohito the impetus to not make that exhortation.

But karma to you for correcting me. Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons, and I misquoted the Emperor.  Of note, the word "surrender" was never used, and the closest Hirohito got to saying "there's no honor in bringing guns to a nukefight" were the bits about ancestry and the endurance of the unendurable. Thanks to your nudging me to find the source material and the magic of the Intarweb, it's the first time I'd seen/heard the original text in full.

"In addition, the enemy has recently used a most cruel explosive. The frequent killing of innocents and the effect of destitution it entails are incalculable. Should we continue fighting in the war, it would cause not only the complete Annihilation of our nation, but also the destruction of the human civilization. With this in mind, how should I save billions of our subjects and their posterity, and atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of Our Imperial Ancestors? This is the reason why I ordered the Imperial Government to accept the Joint Declaration."

Two English translations are available here.  I neither speak nor read Japanese, but I'll trust either those translations over my misquote any day.

To the contrary.  Many Japanese actually expected WW2 to end in a huge conflagration, and saw no problem with dying to the last person, even if in defeat, as the uultimate moral victory.  Thus the kamikaze pheomenon as the war continued to deteriorate from the Japanese viewpoint.  If Hirohito had exhorted his people to soldier on after Nagasaki, they would have.  And war would have dragged on again, with the USA dropping a new bomb on Japan every couple of months, as soon as Oak Ridge could produce enough fissile material for another bomb.  Perhaps Hirohito figured that if he did not order a surrender, the Imperial Palace would be the next target.  :-\\

You see much the same situation today with suicide bombers and their ilk.  Die for the greater glory and all that stuff.


No.  I would say the fighting forces and the military had that point of view.  I think the mothers, babies, and grands were, just like Paul Warfield Tibbets, the people of the World Trade Center, and all of us here, pawns in the game.  This was a sad sorry episode in the history of mankind.

I was a work about a year ago and a guy came in with a t-shirt with a depiction of the bomb that said Made in USA tested in Japan.  My head still spins thinking about it, and his head was spinning and he was a bit irate about being pressured by all to take it off or cover it up(which he did).

I was a work about a year ago and a guy came in with a t-shirt with a depiction of the bomb that said Made in USA tested in Japan.  My head still spins thinking about it, and his head was spinning and he was a bit irate about being pressured by all to take it off or cover it up(which he did).


Back in '84 I was working for a company that was bought by a Japanese company, at at one of our plants, right before a tour by the new owners, somebody painted a "Made In the USA... Tested in Japan" mural on one of the walls in our plant.

Later a group of us got to visit the memorial in Hiropshima at Ground Zero.  Was definitely a sobering experience.  There are still some wooden objects that are preseved in their charred state.

But "our" Japanese were philospohic about all of that and in private conversations admitted that the Japanese people of WW2 had brought it all on themselves.  They were not happy about The Bomb, but they also realized that it never would have been dropped but for Japan;s intransigence.

I had one older gent who worked for me.  He had to go to the hospital to have an old war injury worked on... He had caught a bayonet during hand-to-hand combat on some Pacific island in WW2.  He kept that information a very close "secret".  Somehow our Japanese gys found out about it (including the combat part) and they sent him a nice bunch of flowers and wished him a speedy recovery.

But "our" Japanese were philospohic about all of that and in private conversations admitted that the Japanese people of WW2 had brought it all on themselves.  They were not happy about The Bomb, but they also realized that it never would have been dropped but for Japan;s intransigence.



I feel the time has come to differentiate the people from the policy and/or policy makers. The people of the World Trade Center did not "bring it on themselves, the Catholics in Ireland during the starvation did not "bring it on themselves", the native Americans on the Trail of tears did not "bring it on themselves", just as the Japanese of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not "bring it on themselves".  Until we, the everyday people, learn to differentiate between us and our so called leaders, and the similarities of our lives as the rank and file people just trying to have our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we will be open to the terrorist acts of those hungry for power and their blind followers and apologists.