pilot who dropped A bomb died.

[jeanie]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-07-17-nagasaki-pilot_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA

when i read it, i put myself in his shoes.
i know it's his duty but knowing that if you depress the button, 70000 lives will be gone, i reckon you must have alot of courage and determination to do that.

 

[ah.zeep]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-07-17-nagasaki-pilot_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA

when i read it, i put myself in his shoes.
i know it's his duty but knowing that if you depress the button, 70000 lives will be gone, i reckon you must have alot of courage and determination to do that.

He was just the finger... the actual one pressing the button sits in some white house somewhere.

 

[smallaperture]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-07-17-nagasaki-pilot_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA

when i read it, i put myself in his shoes.
i know it's his duty but knowing that if you depress the button, 70000 lives will be gone, i reckon you must have alot of courage and determination to do that.

Do you know the true mean of war? To kill or be killed. Reminds me of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb.

 

[mrhobbit]

i think its a misconception? if i didnt remember wrongly, the A bomb was dropped by the "bomber" who also fitted the fuse into the bomb during flight, not the pilot who actually flew the plane.

haha just nitpicking though, thr person delivering or the person detonating the bomb both will have a sense of guilt(if you want to call it guilt) but they saw it as a means to end the war and saves more american lives.

he is a really brave man though, i wouldnt have dared to fly with it

 

[advrider]

he has lived a good life. bravo for him. may he rest in peace. :thumbsup:

 

[wanglk]

Rest in peace!

The A bomb killed some, but saved a lot. The Nanking Massacre alone had more than 200,000 civilians killed.

 

[hongsien]

Rest in peace!

The A bomb killed some, but saved a lot. The Nanking Massacre alone had more than 200,000 civilians killed.

Am not too sure about this, many historians, and my own history teacher at school told me that at the time Japan was already on the losing end.....

Russia was also working on the bomb, and this could have been also to signal Russia that the US was not afraid to use the bomb.....

Anyway, in a war actually everyone is losing, cause you are still killing.

I have always asked this myself: from all the targets why must you drop this bomb with this power onto a city with innocent people? Why not on an army target, or a harbour? Or drop into the sea in front of Tokyo as a warning to show the power?.......

The americans have a famous saying for civilians killed during war: 'causalties'.....(forgot the exact wording), I don't think this was 'casualties' as it was well known you would kill innocent civilians......

Hong Sien

 

[hongsien]

Rest in peace!

The A bomb killed some, but saved a lot. The Nanking Massacre alone had more than 200,000 civilians killed.

Had the Japanese not attack Pearl Harbour, I am not too sure if the americans had come to Asia to fight the Japanese, by the way:

it was the Russians who kicked out the japanese out of Manchuria, they don't get so much fame for this now.....it is the americans who get the fame for rescueing Asia.

HS

 

[karel]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-07-17-nagasaki-pilot_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA

when i read it, i put myself in his shoes.
i know it's his duty but knowing that if you depress the button, 70000 lives will be gone, i reckon you must have alot of courage and determination to do that.

actually it was the bombardier who press the button to release the bomb ..

 

[mystudio]

This is the latest, The pilot of the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb:

Pilot of Hiroshima bomber dies

 

[nuts]

jeanie's link at USAToday is dated 2004, which talks abt pilot who dropped bomb on Nagasaki
mystudio's link is the latest... the pilot who dropped the 1st atomic bomb on Hiroshima....

Anyway, spooky... I just finished watching Grave of the Fireflies ().... came in here and saw this....

 

[eikin]

I have always asked this myself: from all the targets why must you drop this bomb with this power onto a city with innocent people? Why not on an army target, or a harbour? Or drop into the sea in front of Tokyo as a warning to show the power?.......

It wasn't chosen without reasons. Hiroshima was the western headquarter of the Japanese Imperial Army. WW2 history is a big mess ... anyway no one wins in a war, everyone's a loser.

 

[night86mare]

It wasn't chosen without reasons. Hiroshima was the western headquarter of the Japanese Imperial Army. WW2 history is a big mess ... anyway no one wins in a war, everyone's a loser.

couldn't agree more

what do you stand to win, in the long run?

Only the phoenix arises and does not descend. And everything changes. And nothing is truly lost.

 

[wanglk]

Am not too sure about this, many historians, and my own history teacher at school told me that at the time Japan was already on the losing end.....

Hong Sien

Agreed that everybody is in the losing end during war. But one thing I do believe is that the A bomb helped in ending the war earlier, somehow. And as eikin mentioned, the 2 targets were not chosen blindly. I am not trying to defend the Americans , if they just purely trying to kill more people or create the impact as large as possible, they would rather drop the bomb in Tokyo or Osaka. If I remember correctly, Nagasaki was a major heavy industry centre and a lot of war machines were from there.

 

[jeanie]

oppps...sorry.
should be this link

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/latest/2007/11/01/hiroshima-bomb-pilot-dies-89520-20047703/

 

[MichaelLee]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-07-17-nagasaki-pilot_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA

when i read it, i put myself in his shoes.
i know it's his duty but knowing that if you depress the button, 70000 lives will be gone, i reckon you must have alot of courage and determination to do that.

if he did not press the button, there would be more than 70,000 lives gone in SEA. Given this comparison, he may not have to hesitate to press the button at all.

 

[redstorm]

if he did not press the button, there would be more than 70,000 lives gone in SEA. Given this comparison, he may not have to hesitate to press the button at all.

Well, if US did not use the atomic bombs, the final assault would be on Japan and the projected casualties was more than 1,000,000. I guess the bombs were a lesser of both evil. Besides, the Russian were massing huge number of troops also in anticipation of a landing on Japanese soil and should that happened, we could see a politically divided Japan like Germany after the war and the americans didn't want to see this happen.

 

[Big Kahuna]

I watch a program about this recently on history channel....The truth is....non of the crews except one actually know about the scale and effect of this bomb (it was just completed the test at US Nevada dessert), they were told to speed off as fast as they can once the bomb is drop :sweat:

 

[jsbn]

i think its a misconception? if i didnt remember wrongly, the A bomb was dropped by the "bomber" who also fitted the fuse into the bomb during flight, not the pilot who actually flew the plane.

haha just nitpicking though, thr person delivering or the person detonating the bomb both will have a sense of guilt(if you want to call it guilt) but they saw it as a means to end the war and saves more american lives.

he is a really brave man though, i wouldnt have dared to fly with it

The point is not whether they are brave or not.

The fact is that the bomb itself is so friggin' top secret to the point where the CO of the Squadron did not even know what kind of bomb they are carrying until like a few nights before it and the actual extent of the bomb damage. All they know is that the bomb they are carrying is 'very new, very powerful'.

The entire concept of Nuclear Fusion and Atomic Weapons is so new back in 1945 that no one knew the extent of it (except those involved in the actual test at Nevada).

Its almost like, if we goto war one day and SAF decided that the next day is the final day of the war and orders your Commando Battalion to manpack and deploy a 'new weapon' which u have absolutely no prior knowledge of it. All u are told to do is to set the weapon near a major arms factory, head back 20km and press the red button.

 

[xtemujin]

It's time for the pilot to meet his creator.