Mac-Coleman

6 August 2013 –

Sixty-Eight Years Ago Today

On 6 August 1945, Colonel Paul Tibbets, commander of the 509^th Composite Group flying a B-29 Superfortress, which he named the Enola Gay after his mother, dropped the world’s first operational atom bomb on the city of Hiroshima.  Over 80,000 people were killed that day, with another 70,000 dying in the next few months from radiation poisoning.  The age of nuclear weapons began. 

Three days later, Major Charles W. Sweeney, flying another B-29 named Bockscar, dropped the second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki.  Another 75,000 were killed that day with hundreds of thousands more dying in the following months.  The age of nuclear weapons in combat ended three days after it started.  Five days later, Japan announced its surrender to allied forces.  World War II stopped. 

In 1997-99, I was the commander of the 315^th Intelligence squadron at Yokota Air Base, Japan.  A civilian in my squadron was an ethnic Japanese, American citizen.  He was born in the United States but spent World War II in Hiroshima.  Gary’s parents were Japanese citizens living in the United States in 1941.  Because of a mix-up, they were thought to be associated with the Japanese consulate in Los Angeles, thereby having diplomatic status.  His family was repatriated to Japan, where they lived on the mountainside outskirts of Hiroshima.

I asked Gary about the war.  His mother worked in the city on a construction gang.  His father worked in a tool factory.  Since Gary was a foreigner with a heavy accent, his school mates ostracized him at first.  But, he soon became a VIP because he had two—that’s right, two—leather baseball gloves.  I finally asked him about 6 August 1945.    

He softly said that his mother had switched work days with another on her gang in the city to be with her sick husband.  That morning, the air raid siren blared.  His mother, sister, and he went to a Shinto shrine further up the hill to wait out the raid.  His father stayed in bed.  It was just another Sunday in Hiroshima. 

Gary said that bombers never attacked Hiroshima itself; they usually focused on the naval facilities nearby.  He expected many bombers in the sky; but, that day, he could only see one, maybe two.  Then, the entire sky lit up with millions of lightning bolts.  Gary saw the blast race across the city and up the hill.  It hit the shrine and nearly toppled it.  The force deafened him for the rest of the day.  His family was unhurt; his father survived the collapse of their house while sleeping under heavy bed covers.  The mushroom cloud of dirt and dead city stayed in the sky for two days.  The rain finally pulled it back to earth.  Gary’s war was over. 

I then reverently asked Gary if he would share his opinion of the US’s decision to drop an atomic bomb on his city.  Was it a moral decision to do so?  Gary quickly said that it absolutely was the moral decision because it shortened the war.  He told me that everybody in southern Japan was being trained to violently resist the impending invasion of the home islands.  Women and children were taught how to sharpen the handles of their rakes and hoes and to use them as weapons against the American soldiers who were sure to come.  They were told that the emperor expected them to fight house by house to ensure that the Americans would not succeed.  Gary expected his entire family to die along with millions of other Japanese to stop the Americans.  Gary said that stopping the war with an atomic bomb saved millions of lives on both sides.   An examination of the invasion plans bears out his projected casualty numbers. 

When American soldiers arrived after the peace treaty, Gary, an American citizen, got a food ration card and much-needed medical attention for his family.  Later, he returned to the U.S., earned a college degree, and then worked for the U.S. government in Japan for forty-five years.  He now lives in Marin County, California, with his wife. 

I believe Gary. America did the right thing—the horribly right thing—sixty years ago today.  No apologies.  As in all wars, lots of remorse.  Our leaders must make the hard decisions for at least another sixty-eighty years so that no one will use nuclear weapons again.