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| Paul Tibbets (Hiroshima pilot) Dies |
| 2007-11-01 |
| 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. The plane and its crew of 14 dropped the five-ton "Little Boy" bomb on the morning of Aug. 6, 1945. The blast killed 70,000 to 100,000 people and injured countless others. Tibbets, then a 30-year-old colonel, never expressed regret over his role. "I'm not proud that I killed 80,000 people, but I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did," he said in a 1975 interview. "You've got to take stock and assess the situation at that time. We were at war. ... You use anything at your disposal." He added: "I sleep clearly every night." In 1976, he was criticized for re-enacting the bombing during an appearance at a Harlingen, Texas, air show. As he flew a B-29 Superfortress over the show, a bomb set off on the runway below created a mushroom cloud. He said the display "was not intended to insult anybody," but the Japanese were outraged. The U.S. government later issued a formal apology. Tibbets again defended the bombing in 1995, when an outcry erupted over a planned 50th anniversary exhibit of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution. The museum changed its plan and agreed to display the fuselage of the Enola Gay without commentary, context or analysis. He told the Dispatch in 2005 that he wanted his ashes scattered over the English Channel, where he loved to fly during the war. |
| Posted by:Glenmore |
| #19 I believe his grandson flys B-2s. A great American who saved many lives. Sad that he has no tombstone but shame on us that there is no memorial. |
| Posted by: JAB 2007-11-01 23:59 |
| #18 My grandfather and all 10 of his brothers served in the war. They were either tasked for the invasion (grandfather and a brother), recovering from wounds (including my favorite uncle who took a machine gun burst on Okinawa and would be in the hospital for the next 18 months) or expected to be shipped from Europe or stateside to fight in Japan. If the invasion did go ahead, there would have been a considerable pruning of my and many others' family trees. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-11-01 23:15 |
| #17 amen, RIP - my uncle, someone I always loved and admired, said he wouldn't have survived a Japan invasion, may he RIP as well, a truly honorable and hard-working man, Harold Johnson, Marine. If it saved only his life, IMHO, it was worth it, TY Paul Tibbets, American Hero |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-11-01 22:03 |
| #16 RIP General Tibbets. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-11-01 19:54 |
| #15 The museum changed its plan and agreed to display the fuselage of the Enola Gay without commentary, context or analysis. This, I respect. |
| Posted by: Drive by lurker 2007-11-01 19:09 |
| #14 it's GENERAL Tibbets It's difficult to imagine a more well-deserved promotion in rank. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-01 19:03 |
| #13 Second comment, at one time he lived a few blocks from me (Montgomery Alabama), gowing up we knew who he was, but didn't bother him any. Dad had great respect for him. said "Leave him alone, he saved my life". |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-11-01 17:53 |
| #12 Comment, it's GENERAL Tibbets, he was promoted after the mision, also thanks General, my father was one of those (Army Leutenant) standing by to enter Japan. Instead he lived to come home and father Me. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-11-01 17:49 |
| #11 ed, Point, your estimation & stats are more thought through and accurate because they are based on analysis rather than my off-the-cuff guesstimate. |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-11-01 17:39 |
| #10 rest in Peace Paul T. You saved perhaps a million Allied and Japanese lives on a tough demanding mission, possibly more. My Father who just passed away on July 30, 2007 and 3 of my uncles made it through WW II due in good part to those famous Atomic Bomb missions.. **************************** Dittos RBees.. and I'm proud as hell of every one of our Moms and Pops who pitched in for Flag and Country! |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-11-01 17:32 |
| #9 Estimates of US dead were 500,000-1,000,000 with an addition 1.5-3.0 million wounded. Using the Pacific battles as the model, that would give 4-8 million Japanese military dead and equal number of civilians. But that assumes Japanese civlians would comingled but not be armed (they were, even the children). So figure millions more armed dead Japanese. By the time the atomic bombs were dropped, Kyushu (the first invasion landing) had 900,0000 Japanese soldiers (and growing), considerably more than the 600,000 estimated by US intel. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-11-01 16:59 |
| #8 I feel that the Abombs saved Japan. Without it, not only would have an invasion killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Japanese, what was left of the infrastructure of Japan would have been ruined. We would not have had the motivation to rebuild it like we did for Germany to oppose a Soviet Union in Europe. Japan today would be a shadow of itself, broke and unimportant. Instead, it is a thriving example of a Asian capitalist democracy. It is vibrant, talented and a important player on the world stage, without threatening its neighbors militarily. Japan owes its current life to the destructive power of the Abombs that forced its government to finally admit it could no longer force any settlement from the US. Rest in Peace Mr. Tibbets. You did the world a huge favor. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-11-01 16:35 |
| #7 TU and AP Im not going to go over the details of my dads story, but suffice it to say that given his assignment, he had little expectation of surviving the invasion, so Im in the same position. Whatever my intellectual take on the decision to nuke may be, my gut reaction cant be seperated from that. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2007-11-01 16:21 |
| #6 My Dad was on Okinawa when the bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. Then came Nagasaki. Then Japan surrendered. All of his 1st MARDIV buddies were greatly relieved, because they would not be facing the invasion of the Japanese home islands. There were literally miles of rows of equipment on Okinawa, getting ready for the invasion. In the awful accounting of war, this terrible weapon in its own weird way, saved many Allied and Japanese lives. We also know now what these weapons will do to real live targets. Paul Tibbets was a great American who was given a dirty job to do, and he did it to the best of his abilities. We owe you a great debt of gratitude, Paul. My stepfather was an ordinance officer at Tinian for B-29 loads of conventional bombs and mines. He told me before he died that the area of the 509th Composite Group was the tightest off-limits area that he ever saw. They were serious about their security then. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-11-01 16:16 |
| #5 "I'm not proud that I kill 80,000 people..." but you saved so many thousands--HUNDREDS of thousands--more by doing so, Colonel! Godspeed, Colonel! |
| Posted by: Dar 2007-11-01 14:53 |
| #4 I was lucky enough to tour the Smithsonian Aircraft Restoration facility while the EG was in there. Sad part was that although the engines and aircraft was to be restored to operational status, there was an agreement in place that the aircraft and engines would never be powered up. It would be sweet to hear those radials one more time! |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2007-11-01 14:47 |
| #3 Rest in peace, Colonel Tibbets. A grateful nation bids you farewell. If Japan had the least shred of sense, they would mourn your passing as well. By your actions, you saved countless millions of Japanese lives from being wasted at the direction of their conscienceless wartime regime. I believe that it was someone here at Rantburg who mentioned how the USA is—to this very day—still issuing Purple Hearts minted during WWII in preparation for the massive losses America faced had we needed to invade the Japanese mainland. No small debt is owed Colonel Tibbets for precluding timely issuance of those medals. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-01 14:44 |
| #2 I had the privilege of hearing him recount the mission at a "roundtable" discussion in Columbus in 1990. Remarkably humble and matter-of-fact about his role in one of history's most important events. |
| Posted by: Mike 2007-11-01 14:34 |
| #1 A True American Hero. Thanks for what you did, colonel. I'm probably alive because of it. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-11-01 14:25 |