Paul Tibbets, you ask? Yes, Paul Tibbets was the commander of the Enola Gay which dropped the first nuclear bomb in recorded human history over an inhabited area. The man became 92 years old before he died 2 days back in his home, but despite his age – it seems – he grew no wiser:
If you give me the same circumstances, hell yeah, I’d do it again. (quote from 2005)
He only took orders, you say?! True, but after seeing the misery he created for Japanese at this moment in history as well as until now through the abnormities created by the lasting radiation he could have expressed regret. Too late for him now.
// Oliver
And if it weren’t for the bravery of Paul Tibbets and his crew, and his commanding officers, all the way to the Chief Executive, we would be speaking Japaneze right now and saluting to the Japanese Flag.
You know that the Japanese were actually sending “signals” that they wanted to capitulate before the bombs were dropped and that the Japanese couldn’t use official channels for that because of their code of honor and the Tenno (Japanese emperor) and so on? And by chance you’ve also heard of the fact that the Japanese had looted a sh*tload of gold and other treasures during their wars in S/E-Asia before the 2nd WW, which would have had to be shared with the Soviets if they had invaded Japan along with the US?
Despite, Tibbets said there were three bombs overall. While the one on Hiroshima was dropped after the Japanese had attempted to find a modus of capitulation where their Tenno could save the face (through inofficial channels, of which records exist nevertheless), the third one got never dropped because of the capitulation. Yet the question remains why the heck was there a need for a second or (which luckily never happened) a third bomb?
// Oliver
PS: Nevertheless I find it cool to get an opinion on that topic from someone else. 🙂