AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2011 - 28

PROFICIENTPILOT

BY BARRY SCHIFF

Dropping the bomb

entioning certain types of military aircraft often conjures thoughts of single missions for which they were most famous. The North American

The decision to use the atomic bomb was made jointly by President Harry S Truman and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Another central figure in the mission was Col. Paul Tibbets, aircraft commander of the Enola Gay. (The airplane was named for his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets.) Tibbets believed that an atomic attack on Japan would end the war and save millions of lives in the process. Truman advised him after his flight to Hiroshima, “I’m the guy who sent you. If anybody gives you a B–25 Mitchell reminds us of the Doolittle Raid on hard time about it, refer them to me.” After witnessTokyo (April 18, 1942), and you cannot think of the ing with “shocked horror” the destructive power he Barry Schiff Boeing B–29 Superfortress without being reminded unleashed from the belly of the Enola Gay, Tibbets sold his aviation of the role it played in America’s use of the atomic returned from Hiroshima believing that the conflict publishing business, bomb to end World War II. The “Superfort” was the was over. Not quite. Aero-Progress, to only airplane capable of performing that historic The Japanese minimized the loss of an entire city Jeppesen in 1963. mission. So it was that upon completion of my and refused to agree to unconditional surrender. feature article about the B–29 (“The Lady has a HisThree days later, the second atomic bomb was delivtory,” page 65), I thought it remiss not to include my ered by another B–29, Bockscar. This was intended to thoughts about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August imply that we had an endless supply. We didn’t, although a third 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, the two most violent bomb might have become available in September. The hostiliacts of war ever committed. Or were they? ties continued even after Nagasaki’s destruction, and additional Perhaps the deadliest attack on Japan took place on March B–29s were used to drop incendiaries, high explosives, and 10, 1945. During a single raid, 325 B–29s each delivered seven mines on Japanese targets. On August 15, 1945, the Japanese tons of incendiary bombs. Because of the 28-mph wind blow- finally agreed to our terms of surrender. The killing was over. ing over Tokyo that dark morning, thousands of fires developed Many have suggested that instead of attacking Hiroshima into a firestorm and then into a fierce wave conflagration. This and Nagasaki with atomic weapons, the United States should “tidal wave” of fire consumed 16 square miles of Tokyo and took have instead made a pre-announced detonation off the coast more than 100,000 lives. (The bombing of Dresden, Germany, of Japan to convince the Japanese that further resistance was might have been more lethal, depending on which death toll futile. However: 1) a fireball and towering cloud at sea might one chooses to accept.) This and subsequent raids, however, not have been sufficiently impressive; 2) such an announcedid not force Japanese capitulation. (In June 1945 the Air Force ment might have tempted the Japanese to make an attempt to began dropping leaflets that warned Japanese citizens to evacu- destroy the bomb-carrying airplane before it could deploy its ate prior to subsequent bombings.) payload; 3) the bomb could have been an embarrassing dud; Plans were underway to invade the Japanese home islands. and 4) there were only two bombs available. The initial invasion, codenamed “Operation Olympic,” was To this day, the subject of our having used atomic warfare to include 800,000 troops making a four-pronged assault on remains contentious and controversial. When the Enola Gay’s Kyushu on November 1, 1945. A second amphibious landing, fuselage was placed on exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National “Operation Coronet,” was planned for Honshu five months Air and Space Museum in 1995, three activists threw ash and later (April 1946) and would have involved more than 2 mil- human blood on the exhibit. This followed an earlier incident lion Allied troops. The Japanese were preparing for invasion by in which a protestor threw red paint over the gallery’s carpeting. arming its civilian population, mobilizing its schoolchildren, It bothered Tibbets that many considered the atomic bomb fortifying caves, constructing underground defenses, building unnecessarily barbaric. “What they didn’t understand,” he said, “suicide air strips,” and so forth. It was reasonable to assume “was that the bomb was not dropped in anger. We did it because that Japan would defend its homeland with even greater tenac- we were determined to stop the killing. It was about the lives ity and fanaticism than it did the Pacific islands, which required saved, not the ones lost.” Tibbets’ last will and testament specithe sacrifice of so many brave Americans. Conservative esti- fied that he not be buried for fear that his gravesite would serve mates indicate that a conquest of the Japanese homeland by as a lightning rod for anti-nuclear activists. He arranged instead conventional means would have cost substantially more than for his ashes to be scattered over the English Channel. May he a million Allied and Japanese lives. Significantly more Japanese rest in peace. would have been killed than died during the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It just would have taken longer. Visit the author’s website (www.barryschiff.com). 28 • SEPTEMBER
2011

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2011

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