1 The Enola Gay, the giant four engine superfortress, was named after the mother of its pilot, Colonel Paul W. Given the alternative, I think the US decision to use the nukes was justifiable. At the approach of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM) planned an exhibit with its centerpiece, the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Bombing two cities is bad, but what would have been left of ANY city in Japan after the B-29's were through with them?
He had given up aviation and had not flown in. The only time I ever flew with my grandfather was with Fifi, said Tibbets IV. Paul Tibbets Jr., who piloted the B-29 Enola Gay when the aircraft and its crew dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, helping end World War II.
The US could have also carpet-bombed Japan, as there were airbases in the Pacific island now capable of hosting the B-29 et al. In 1998, Tibbets IV, flew Fifi with his grandfather, retired Brig. Operation "Downfall", the planned US invasion of Japan, had casualties estimated in the MILLIONS for the US, and TENS of millions for the Japanese. Some people dubbed Claude Eatherly a traitor. Another officer on that plane, Captain Robert Luis, illegally sold the flight log of Enola Gay for a whopping sum of three lakh ninety-one dollars (391,000 USD). Based on the fierce fighting on the Pacific islands, can you IMAGINE how strong the Japanese resistance would have been on their home turf? The loss of life - for both sides - would be nearly incalculable. Paul Tibbets, the pilot of Enola Gay, who actually released the bomb over Hiroshima, justified the bombing to the end of his days. Yes, 100K+ Japanese died in the bombings, and the world has forever changed.īut consider the toll on lives and humanity of the alternative: a conventional bombing and invasion of Japan.