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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
On November 1, Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr., the man who piloted the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died at his Columbus, Ohio home at age 92. Throughout his adult life, he was a warrior. He bravely fought the Nazis in 1942 and 1943. He fought the Japanese in 1944 and 1945. And he spent the next 62 years fighting to defend the atomic bombings.
[1] Oliver Kamm, “Paul Tibbets and Enola Gay…About those Obits,” History News Network.
[2] In July 2007, the International People's Tribunal on the Dropping of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki found Tibbets guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Charges were also brought against 14 other Americans who bore responsibility for the atomic bombings.
[3] Michael Killian, “Two Pilots Log Their Memoirs,” Chicago Tribune, 5 November 1978, G11.
[4] Mike Hardin, “Just ‘Doing His Job' at Hiroshima, Globe and Mail (Canada, online), 6 August 1985.
[5] Mike Harden, “Still No Regrets for Frail Enola Gay Pilot,” Columbus Dispatch, 6 August 2005, 1.
[6] Greg Mitchell, “On the Death of ‘Hiroshima Bomb' Pilot Paul Tibbets,” Editor and Publisher, 1 November 2007. (on line)
[7] According to Tibbets, the incident occurred in early 1943. At a planning meeting for a bombing raid, Tibbets objected that, if his men followed instructions Norstadt's instructions to send the planes in at 6,000 feet, “it would be pure suicide.” Norstadt responded that perhaps Tibbets had flown too many missions and was scared to do it. Tibbets recalled, “In front of the assembly I immediately glared right straight back at him and told him I wasn't afraid to fly the mission—that I'd be glad to take and lead the whole mission if he'd fly as my co-pilot.” After that, Tibbets was quickly shipped out of the unit. “Tibbets, Top B-17 Pilot, Chosen to Get B-29s Started,” Chicago Tribune, 13 March 1968, 2.
[8] Wayne Thomis, “Tibbets Keeps Busy with B-29s—But Biggest Surprise is Ahead,” Chicago Tribune, 14 March 1968, 10. Other accounts indicate that the meeting in Colorado Springs occurred in September.
[9] Wayne Thomis, “U.S. Dropped A-Bomb Delivery on Target in My Lap: Tibbets,” Chicago Tribune, 15 March 1968, B1.
[10] Studs Terkel, Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times (New York: The New Press, 2003), 49.
[11] Eric Malnic, “Paul Tibbets, Pilot Who Bombed Hiroshima, Dies at 92,” Los Angeles Times, 2 November 2007, 1.
[12] Malnic, 1.
[10] Kay Bartlett, “The Man Who Dropped the Bomb: Thirty Years Later,” Dallas Morning Star, 3 August 1975, 1.
[13] Bartlett, 1.
[14] Andrea Stone, “For Air Crews, A-Bombings a Matter of Duty, USA Today, 17 April 1995, 6.
[15] Jacob Beser, Hiroshima and Nagasaki Revisited, (Memphis: Global Press, 1988), 32.
[16] Stone, 6.
[17] “The Outlook Interview: Jacob Beser Talks to Bruce Goldfarb,” Washington Post, 19 May 1985, D3.
[18] Daniel Yee, “Navigator Says ‘Easy Mission' of Enola Gay Led to End of WWII,” Associated Press (online), 6 August 2005.
[19] Beser, 38.
[20] Glen Martin, “Dropping the Bomb,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 6 August 1995. Ten years later, Van Kirk told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “If you had any brains, you knew it was an atomic bomb. We weren't a bunch of mushrooms flying in the dark.” Bill Torpy, “‘Our Objective Was to Shorten the War’: 60 Years Later, No Regrets over Hiroshima,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6 August 2005, E1.
[21] Some accounts say Ferebee also learned that they would be carrying an atomic bomb. See, for example, “B-29 Reunion: Fliers Proud of Job but Regret Need,” Los Angeles Times, 7 August 1965, 1. Ferebee said he was asleep when Tibbets announced what kind of bomb they were carrying and recalled, oddly, that he never heard the words “atom bomb” until he returned to Tinian where a brigadier general approached him and reported, “The President has announced that you just dropped the first atom bomb.” Brad Manning, “Enola Gay Bombardier Was Quite Cool; Man Slept on Way to Drop A-Bomb,” Charlotte Observer, 5 August 1990, 1; Sharon Churcher and Bill Lowther, “'I never lost a moment's sleep after dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima…I saved millions of lives with a single press of a button on the Enola Gay’; On the 50th Anniversary of the Nuclear Attack on Japan, the Airmen Who Released the Bomb Break their Silence,” Mail (London), 16 July 1995, 49. In 1995, he explained, that all Tibbets “was allowed to tell me was that I was to develop the ballistics for a bomb that would destroy everything for miles. I had no idea what was to cause the explosion…” Churcher and Lowther, 48. Jeppson, who spent time in Los Alamos may also have known. See Ferguson, “Enola Gay Crew Member Jeppson Remembers Famed Flight,” Las Vegas Sun (online edition), 25 May 2000.
[22] Thomas Turner, “Only Texas Crew Member Recalls Hiroshima Bombing,” Dallas Morning News, 6 August, 1956, 7.
[23] Merle Miller and Abe Spitzer, We Dropped the A-Bomb (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, Company, 1946, v.
[24] He told an interviewer, “I wanted to do everything that I could to subdue Japan. I wanted to kill the bastards.” It is not clear whether his change of heart about civilian casualties reflected a hatred for the Japanese, fueled by pervasive stories of their wartime atrocities, that was shared by many Americans, or whether it was simply a reflection of the devaluation of life that often occurs in wartime. He did claim to have “classmates who were beheaded by some Japanese practicing their swordsmanship.”Richard Goldstein, “Paul W. Tibbets Jr., Pilot of Enola Gay, Dies at 92,” New York Times, 2 November 2007, C11; Kay Bartlett, “Pilot of 1st A-Bomb Plane: Quiet Man with No Regrets,” Chicago Tribune, 3 August 1975, 14.
[25] Copilot Cptn. Robert Lewis was furious when he saw Tibbets's mother's name on the plane. Already unhappy that Tibbets would be flying Lewis's plane with Lewis's crew, he reportedly yelled, “What the hell is that doing on my plane?” when he saw the name Tibbets had chosen. Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts, Enola Gay (New York: Stein and Day, 1977), 233. Tibbets's mother at lease initially got a kick out of having the plane named after her. When asked how she felt about it, Tibbets responded, “Well, I can only tell you what my dad said. My mother never changed her expression very much about anything, whether it was serious or light, but when she'd get tickled, her stomach would jiggle. My dad said to me that when the telephone in Miami rang, my mother was quiet first. Then, when it was announced on the radio, he said, ‘You should have seen the old gal's belly jiggle on that one.’” Terkel, 54-55.
[26] Miller and Spitzer, 11, 15.
[27] Miller and Spitzer, 26. Other accounts attribute that information to Parsons.
[28] Beser, 102.
[29] Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986), 701. Bombardier Tom Ferebee reacted more skeptically: “They did say it was the mission that should end the war, but they'd said that about every mission I'd ever flown.” Churcher and Lowther, 48.
[31] Gustav Niebuhr, “Enola Gay's Crew Recalls the Flight into a New Era,” New York Times, 6 August 1995, 10.
[32] Turner, 7.
[33] Beser, 96.
[34] Infield, 1.
[35] Ferguson, “Enola Gay Crew Member Jeppson Remembers Famed Flight,” Las Vegas Sun (online edition), 25 May 2000.
[36] David Remnick, “Hiroshima, With No Regrets,” Washington Post, 31 July 1985, D1; Gordon Thomas, “The Man Who Gazed into Hell…; Review,” Sunday Express, 31 July 1005, 55. Tension ran high between Tibbets and Lewis at this point. Lewis objected to the fact that not only was Tibbets flying Lewis's plane with Lewis's crew on this flight but Tibbets had named the plane after his own mother.
[37] Wayne Thomis, “Fateful Moment Arrives; Atom Bomb Dropped,” Chicago Tribune, 20 March 1968, 2; Douglas Martin, “Thomas Ferebee Dies at 81; Dropped First Atomic Bomb,” New York Times, 18 March 2000, 11; “B-29 Reunion: Fliers Proud of Job but Regret Need,” 1; Richard Goldstein, “G.W. Marquardt, War Pilot, Dies at 84,” New York Times, 25 August 2003, B6; Mullener, “Pearl Attack Led to Mushroom Cloud for Paul Tibbets,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans, online edition), 6 December 2000; Manning, 1. The Little Boy bomb was also occasionally referred to as “Lean Boy” or “Thin Man.” While some still measure the bomb's force at 15 kilotons, experts with the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima have alerted me that they will soon be raising the official estimate to 16 kilotons. Some estimates place the bomb's weight at 9700 pounds. See, for example, this.
[38] Mullener, “Pearl Attack Led to Mushroom Cloud for Paul Tibbets,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans, online edition), 6 December 2000.
[39] Stephen Walker, Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 260; Van Kirk later downplayed the impact of the shock wave, recalling, it “wasn't bad—about six Gs. But of course, it gets bigger and bigger with the passing of the years, like all war stories.” Martin, “Dropping the Bomb,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 6 August 1995.
[40] Sam Heys, “A Fateful Dozen 40 Years Later,” Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution, 5 August 1985, B1.
[41] Torpy, E1.
[42] W. H. Lawrence, “5 Plants Vanished,” New York Times, 8 August 1945, 1.
[43] Richard Goldstein, “Paul W. Tibbets Jr., Pilot of Enola Gay, Dies at 92,” New York Times, 2 November 2007, C11; Malnic, 1.
[44] Adam Bernstein, “Paul Tibbets Jr.; Piloted Plane that Dropped First Atom Bomb,” Washington Post, 2 November 2007, B7.
[45] In declining an interview in 2005, Tibbets explained, “I haven't got anything else to add. I've only got one story to tell.” Christina Almeida, “Navigator Says ‘Easy Mission' of Enola Gay Led to End of WWII,” Associated Press (online), 6 August 2005.
[46] Malnic, 1.
[47] Rodney Chester, “Result Excellent: Mission Over,” Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia), 6 August 2005, 27; Jacquin Sanders, “The Day the Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima,” St. Petersburg Times, 6 August 1995, 1; Beser, 111.
[48] John Platero, “Retired Colonel Looks Back at Dropping of A-Bomb on Hiroshima,” Los Angeles Times, 1 August 1982, 2.
[49] Manning, 1.
[50] Churcher and Lowther, 48.
[51] Burt A. Folkart, “Co-Pilot on First Atomic Bomb Run Dies,” Los Angeles Times, 21 June 1983, E17.
[52] Niebuhr, 10.
[53] Walker, 262.
[54] Goldstein, “G.W. Marquardt, War Pilot, Dies at 84,” B6.
[55] Miller and Spitzer, 42-45.
[56] Nigel Fountain, “Obituary: Richard Nelson: The Man Who Told the President about Hiroshima,” Guardian, 7 February 2003, 24.
[57] Paula Kerr, “08:15, Aug 6, 1945: Hiroshima 60 Years On: I Dropped the Bomb; We Vaporised 50,000 People in 43 Seconds Enola Gay Navigator's Ist,” Sunday Mirror, 31 July 2005, 41.
[58] For the higher estimate, see Walker, 272; Van Kirk wrote “Cloud Gone” in his navigator's log when they were more than 250 miles away. Jesse Hamlin, “Frozen in Time: Enola Gay's Navigator Takes Atomic Artifacts to Auction Block,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 27 May 2002.
[59] Turner, 7.
[60] Miller and Spitzer, 47.
[61] Miller and Spitzer, 48.
[62] Kerr, 41; Sanders, 1.
[63] Hamlin, “Frozen in Time: Enola Gay's Navigator Takes Atomic Artifacts to Auction Block,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 27 May 2002.
[64] Miller and Spitzer, 50.
[65] Henry Allen, “Reunion of the Enola Gay,” Washington Post, 11 August 1980, B2; Michael Olesker, “Jacob Beser Remembered Lives Lost—and Saved,” Baltimore Sun (online edition), 28 June 1992.
[66] Miller and Spitzer, 50.
[67] Thomis, “Fateful Moment Arrives; Atom Bomb Dropped,” 2.
[68] Miller and Spitzer, 57-59.
[69] The best source on this is Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Harvard, 2005).
[70] Robert H. Ferrell, ed. Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1980), 53.
[71] Gar Alperovitz, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb: And the Architecture of an American Myth (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), 124.
[72] Beser, 98, note 7.
[73] “Copilot: God Forgive Us,” Dallas Morning News, 10 August 1975, 2.
[74] Cindy Horswell, “Regrets? Yes—But No Guilt,” Houston Chronicle, 10 August 1985, 1.
[75] Frederick Olivi, “Pilot on Plane Which Bombed Nagasaki Recalls Necessity for Using A-Weapon,” Dallas Morning News, 8 August 1960, 10.
[76] John Powers, “A Rain of Ruin,” (Part 2), Boston Globe Magazine, 6 August 1995, 16; Peter Goldman, “Forty Years On,” Newsweek, 29 July 1985, p. 40 ff.
[77] Bartlett, 1.
[78] Heys, B1.
[79] Terkel, 53.
[80] Mira Oberman, “Pilot of Hiroshima Bomber Dies,” Agence France Press, 1 November 2007.
[81] Chester, 27.
[82] Kamm, “Paul Tibbets and Enola Gay…About those Obits,” History News Network.
[83] Bartlett, “Pilot of 1st A-Bomb Plane: Quiet Man with No Regrets,” 14.
[84] Niebuhr, 10.
[85] Bernstein, B7.
[86] Infield, 1.
[87] Eugene L. Meyer, “Target: Smithsonian; The Man Who Dropped the Bomb on Hiroshima Wants Exhibit Scuttled,” Washington Post, 30 January 1995, D1.
[88] “Nazis, Japan both A-Bomb Targets: Pilot,” Japan Times (on line), 8 August 2002.
[89] Chester, 27.
[90] Bartlett, “Pilot of 1st A-Bomb Plane: Quiet Man with No Regrets,” 14.
[91] Robert S. McNamara, “International Court Could Help Clarify the Rules for War,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10 August 2003, 11.
[92] William Lowther, “It Was the Only Choice,” Herald (Glasgow), 3 August 1995, 13.
[93] Mitchell, “On the Death of ‘Hiroshima Bomb' Pilot Paul Tibbets,” Editor and Publisher, 1 November 2007. (on line)
[94] Vernon Scott, “‘Scott's World’ A-Bomb Pilot: ‘I'd Do It Again,’” United Press International, 24 November 1980.
[95] Scott Winokur, “Why Dutch Dropped the A-Bomb,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 4 April 1995.
[96] Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell, Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995), 230-231.
[97] Bartlett, “The Man Who Dropped the Bomb: Thirty Years Later,” 1.
[98] Lee Leonard, “A-Bomb Pilot Recalls Hiroshima 40 Years Later,” United Press International (on line), 3 August 1985.
[99] Bartlett, “Pilot of 1st A-Bomb Plane: Quiet Man with No Regrets,” 14.
[100] Meyer, D1.
[101] Terkel, 53.
[102] Lifton and Mitchell, 176.
[103] Scott, “‘Scott's World’ A-Bomb Pilot: ‘I'd Do It Again,’” United Press International, 24 November 1980.
[104] For a discussion of the deeper consequences of the atomic bombings, see Peter J. Kuznick, The Decision to Risk the Future: Harry Truman, the Atomic Bomb and the Apocalyptic Narrative, Japan Focus, 23 July 2007.
[105] “Children of Hiroshma,” Irish Times, 30 July 2005, 3.
[106] Martin, “Dropping the Bomb,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 6 August 1995.
[107] Kerr, 40.
[108] Duncan Mansfield, “Enola Gay Navigator Confident in Bomb's Use,” Asssociated Press, 9 June 2000 (online).
[109] Martin, “Dropping the Bomb,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 6 August 1995.
[110] Mansfield, “Enola Gay Navigator Confident in Bomb's Use,” Asssociated Press, 9 June 2000 (online).
[111] Martin, “Dropping the Bomb,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 6 August 1995. When asked, in 2005, by NBC news anchor Brian Williams whether he felt any “remorse,” Van Kirk replied without hesitation, “No, I do not have remorse! I pity the people who were there. I always think of it, Brian, as being the dropping of the atom bomb was an act of war to end a war.” John McCaslin, “Inside the Beltway,” Washington Times, 30 March 2006, 10. Twenty years earlier he had assured a questioner that he had not lost a night's sleep over the bomb in 40 years. Goldman, “Forty Years On,” Newsweek, 29 July 1985, 40.
[112] Eugene L. Meyer, “Comrades in Controversy; Hiroshima, Nagasaki. They Were Just Two Missions,” Washington Post, 3 September 1994, D1. When asked, as he often was, if he would again participate in the atomic incineration of Hiroshima, he responded in 1995, “Under the same circumstances—and the key words are ‘the same circumstances’—yes I would do it again. We were in a war for five years. We were fighting an enemy that had a reputation for never surrendering, never accepting defeat.” “It's really hard to talk about morality and war in the same sentence. In a war, there are so many questionable things done.” Niebuhr, 10.
[113] Yee, “Navigator Says ‘Easy Mission' of Enola Gay Led to End of WWII,” Associated Press (online), 6 August 2005. Nor, apparently, was he ready to disavow the military. At the time of that anniversary, he was trying to convince a grandson to attend the Air Force Academy, but the boy's parents didn't want him to join the military in wartime. Torpy, E1.
[114] Kerr, 40.
[115] Mansfield, “Enola Gay Navigator Confident in Bomb's Use,” Asssociated Press, 9 June 2000 (online).
[116] Martin, “Dropping the Bomb,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 6 August 1995.
[117] Winokur, “Why Dutch Dropped the A-Bomb,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 4 April 1995.
[118] “Richard Nelson, 77, Crewman on Hiroshima Mission in ‘45,” New York Times, B11; Fountain, 24.
[119] Sam Heys, “Enola Gay's Flight Engineer Leads Lonely Life,” Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constiution, 5 August 1985, B1; Tom Bennett, “Wyatt E. Duzenbury, 79, Flight Engineer on A-Bomb Mission,” Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution, 2 September 1992, D5.
[120] Turner, 7; “Radar Operator on Plane that Dropped Hiroshima Bomb Is Dead,” Associated Press (online), 3 July 1984.
[121] “Hiroshima Blast Had ‘Fiery Red Core,” Los Angeles Times, 6 August 1978, 16.
[122] Walker, 318-319.
[123] “Atomic Bomb Crewman Dies of Leukemia at 46,” Los Angeles Times, 26 April 1967, 2; “Robert Shumard Dead; A-Bomber at Hiroshima,” Washington Post, 26 April 1967, B8.
[124] Beser, 114.
[125] Julie Carr Smyth, “Pilot of Plane that Dropped A-Bomb Dies,” Associated Press, 1 November 2007.
[126] Ferguson, “Enola Gay Crew Member Jeppson Remembers Famed Flight,” Las Vegas Sun (online edition), 25 May 2000.
[127] Walker, 318.
[128] Sam Heys, “An Event that Linked a Crew for Life,” Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution, 5 August 1985, B4.
[129] Almeida, “Navigator Says ‘Easy Mission' of Enola Gay Led to End of WWII,” Associated Press (online), 6 August 2005.
[130] Manning, 1; David Perlmutt, “Enola Gay Bombardier Tom Ferebee Dead at 81,” Charlotte Observer, 18 March 2003, 1.
[131] Bartlett, “Pilot of 1st A-Bomb Plane: Quiet Man with No Regrets,” 14; “Thomas Wilson Ferebee,” San Francisco Chronicle (online), 17 March 2000.
[132] Churcher and Lowther, 48.
[133] Platero, 28.
[134] Manning, 1.
[135] Perlmutt, 1.
[136] Manning, 1; Perlmutt, 1.
[137] Bartlett, “Pilot of 1st A-Bomb Plane: Quiet Man with No Regrets,” 14.
[138] Perlmutt, 1.
[139] Clyde Haberman, “Japanese Recall Attack that Wasn't,” New York Times, 9 August 1985, 8.
[140] “American Bombardier Said Seeking to Visit Nagasaki to Apologize,” Associated Press, 17 July 1985.
[141] Horswell, 1.
[142] Lifton and Mitchell, 232.
[143] “Atomic Bomber Dies,” United Press International, 10 March 1989; Horswell, 1.
[144] Miller and Spitzer, 5.
[145] Goldstein, “G.W. Marquardt, War Pilot, Dies at 84,” B6.
[146] Mike Carter, “Survivors of Nuclear Bomber Group to Dedicate Peace Monument,” Associated Press, 30 July 1990.
[147] Goldstein, “G.W. Marquardt, War Pilot, Dies at 84,” B6.
[148] Carter, “Survivors of Nuclear Bomber Group to Dedicate Peace Monument,” Associated Press, 30 July 1990.
[149] Emma R. Stickgold, “Charles Sweeney: Pilot Dropped Nagasaki A-Bomb,” Boston Globe, 18 July 2004, D18.
[150] Powers, 16.
[151] Sue Major Holmes, “Atomic Warfare Unit Reuniting 50 Years after Bomb with US-Enola Gay,” Associated Press, 3 August 1995.
[152] “Abe Spitzer, B-29 Crewman,” New York ‘times, 29 May 1984, D19. His brother Murray captured the irony when he said Abe “was killed only two minutes from his home after he survived two of the most dangerous missions in the world.”
[153] Rodney Barker, Hiroshima Maidens: A Story of Courage, Compassion, and Survival (New York: Penguin, 1985), 8-12. During the show, the two hibakusha were displayed from behind a screen and Tanimoto's wife and four children were brought on stage to surprise him.
[154] I'd like to thank Koko Tanimoto Kondo for sharing this story with me and scores of my students on our trips every summer to Hiroshima and for providing me a copy of the This Is Your Life show on which she and Lewis appeared. For her account, see Koko Tanimoto Kondo, Hiroshima: The Memory of 60 Years After the Day (Tokyo: Riyonsha Publisher, 2005), 113-119.
[155] Walker, 318.
[156] Folkart, E17.
[157] Ronnie Dugger, Dark Star: Hiroshima Reconsidered in the Life of Claude Eatherly of Lincoln Park, Texas (Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1967), 88-89.
[158] “Pilot at Hiroshima Finds Guilt Easing,” New York Times, 20 December 1960, 12.
[159] “Raiders Seize Huge Pile of War Supplies,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 2 March 1947, 1.
[160] Dugger, 129.
[161] “AF Hero Awaiting his Trial,” Dallas Morning News, 21 March, 1957, 1.
[162] James Ewell, “Dallas Store Holdup Denied by Atomic Attack Pilot,” Dallas Morning News, 15 March 1959, 3. Most who met him during these years found him to be sincere and likable. Los Angeles Times news stories reporting his mental problems described him as “pleasant” and “affable. “Atom Bombers' Guide Sent to Mental Clinic,” Los Angeles Times, 12 April 1959, 29; “Hiroshima Scout Flier Sent Back to Hospital,” Los Angeles Times, 14 January 1961, 15. The Dallas Morning News added “amiable.” “VA Hospital Won't Press for Return of Eatherly,” Dallas Morning News, 6 December 1960, 5.
[163] John Mashek, “War Hero Given Lunacy Hearing,” Dallas Morning News, 11 April 1959, 1.
[164] “Psychiatrists' Tests Planned for Eatherly,” Dallas Morning News, 13 April 1959, 14.
[165] Hideko Sumimura et al to Claude Eatherly, 24 July 1959; Claude Eatherly to Gunther Anders, 22 August 1959, copies in Burning Conscience: The Case of the Hiroshima Pilot, Claude Eatherly, Told in his Letters to Gunther Anders, with a Postscript for American Readers by Anders (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1961), 25-26, 30-32.
[166] “Pilot at Hiroshima Finds Guilt Easing,” New York Times, 20 December 1960, 12.
[167] J. Y. Smith, “C. R. Eatherly, Had Role in Bombing of Hiroshima,” Washington Post, 7 July 1978, D6.
[168] Claude R. Eatherly to Ralph Yarborough, 10 August 1960, copy in Burning Conscience, 84-85.
[169] “Hiroshima Scout Flier Sent Back to Hospital,” Los Angeles Times, 14 January 1961, 15; Thomas Turner, “Eatherly Still Mentally Ill, Not Incompetent, Court Says, Dallas Morning News, 13 January 1961.
[170] “Hiroshima Pilot Is Under Arrest,” Washington Post, 27 September 1964, 12; “Maj. Eatherly, A-bomb Figure, Judged Insane,” Los Angeles Times, 8 December 1964, 4.
[171] Bertrand Russell, “Preface,” Burning Conscience.
[172] Foster Hailey, “2,000 March to U.N. to Recall Hirshima Bombing,” New York Times, 7 August 1962, 1.
[173] Smith, D6; Joseph B. Treaster, “Claude Eatherly, Hiroshima Spotter,” New York Times, 7 July 1978, B2. For a good brief assessment of the Eatherly case, see Lifton and Mitchell, 234-236. For a fuller assessment, see Dugger.
[174] Hardin, “Just ‘Doing His Job' at Hiroshima, Globe and Mail (Canada, online), 6 August 1985.
[175] “Pilot of Plane that Dropped Hiroshima Bomb Dies,” USA Today (online), 1 November 2007.
[176] Chuck Bell, “Pilot of Enola Gay Denies Remorse Over Bombing of Hiroshima,” Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution, 20 May 1990, D12.
[177] Bartlett, “The Man Who Dropped the Bomb: Thirty Years Later,” 1.
[178] Heys, “A Fateful Dozen 40 Years Later,” B1.
[179] Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell, “Hiroshima Films: Always a Political Fallout,” New York Times, 30 July 1955, H9; Lifton and Mitchell, Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial, 366.
[180] In 1980, Tibbets discussed the movie with an interviewer, explaining, “That movie was written and produced for the simple reason that the Strategic Air Command was having a high divorce rate because of the demands placed on its people. Gen. Curtis LeMay said we had to make a propaganda film to show that even though it's tough, people do stay married.” Jerry Buck, “TV Talk: Paul Tibbets and “Enola Gay” on NBC,” Associated Press, 20 May 1980.
[181] J. Anthony Lukas, “Reds in India Assail Hiroshima Pilot,” New York Times, 17 May 1965, 2; “Reports from Abroad,” New York Times, 23 May, 1965, E5. The paper described his calm demeanor when he dropped the bomb, observing, “Had he any element of humanity or qualms of conscience, his face did not betray it as he cold-bloodedly, brutally released the bomb.”
[182] Goldman, “Forty Years On,” Newsweek, 29 July 1985, article begins p.40, but not clear what page this is.
[183] “B-29 Reunion: Fliers Proud of Job but Regret Need,” 1.
[184] Michael Olesker, “A-Bomb Vets Anxious for Sign of Appreciation,” Baltimore Sun (online edition), 19 August 1999; Allen, B2.
[185] “The Outlook Interview: Jacob Beser Talks to Bruce Goldfarb,” D3.
[186] Olesker, “Jacob Beser Remembered Lives Lost—and Saved,” Baltimore Sun (online edition), 28 June 1992.
[187] Olesker, “Jacob Beser Remembered Lives Lost—and Saved,” Baltimore Sun (online edition), 28 June 1992.
[188] Beser, 102.
[189] Beser, 57-59.
[190] Beser, 157.
[191] Heys, “A Fateful Dozen 40 Years Later,” B1.
[192] Beser, 178.
[193] Meyer, “Comrades in Controversy; Hiroshima, Nagasaki. They Were Just Two Missions,” D1.
[194] Rudy Abramson and David Smollar, ““Inside the Manhattan Project: Bomb Builders Recall Tense Race with Nazis,” Los Angeles Times, 5 August 1985, 1.
[195] Anthony Fabiola, “60 Years After A-Bomb, Old Foes Meet Over a Deep Divide,” Washington Post, 7 August 2005, 1.
[196] Michael Olesker, “Bomb Dropped Pikesville Man into History,” Batimore Sun (online edition), 9 August 2005.
[197] Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughter-House Five (New York: Dell, 1966), 14-15.
[198] Ferguson, “Enola Gay Crew Member Jeppson Remembers Famed Flight,” Las Vegas Sun (online edition), 25 May 2000.
[199] Manning, 1.
[200] “‘Enola Gay' Pilot Drops Fake A-Bomb for Show,” Dallas Morning Star, 11 October 1976, 10; John Saar, “Hiroshima Rerun an ‘Insult,‘” Washington Post, 14 October 1976, 3; “Hiroshima Protests Show on Atom Attack,” New York Times, 13 October 1976, 4; “U.S. Apologizes to Japan in Reenactment of A-Blast,” Los Angeles Times, 14 October 1976, 1; “Japan Receives Apology for Texas ‘Bomb' Show,” Dallas Morning News, 15 October 1976, 4. “Repeat Performance Scheduled for ‘Bomb,’” “Dallas Morning News, 28 August 1977, 11; “A-Bomb Reenactment Dropped from Show,” Dallas Morning News, 29 September 1977. The Dallas Morning Star reported a smaller crowd number over 18,000. In Tokyo, 28 year old secretary Tanaka Hisako exclaimed, “I'm really angry. It's ridiculous, racists (sic) and discriminatory. I'm really surprised that people like that still exist in the States.” Saar, 3.
[201] Akihiro Takahashi interview with the author, August 5, 2005 in Hiroshima, Japan. For other accounts see Yuki Tanaka's introduction to Takahashi-san's testimony, which was posted at Visualizing Cultures of MIT: ‘Introduction to the Testimony of Atomic Bomb Survivor Akihiro Takahashi' in Ground Zero 1945: A School Boy's Story, posted at Visualizing Cultures.
[202] “Postwar 60: Large Gap Between Japanese, Americans on A-Bomb Attacks,” Japan Economic Newswire, 26 July 2005. Tadatoshi Akiba, who went on to become Mayor of Hiroshima, served as translator for that meeting and had a less generous view of Tibbets's response.
[203] Greg Mitchell, “On the Death of ‘Hiroshima Bomb' Pilot Paul Tibbets,” Editor and Publisher, 1 November 2007. (on line)
[204] Andrea Stone, “A-Bomb Exhibit Cut/On View: Fuselage of B-29/ Hiroshima Diesplay Ends in Rancor,” USA Today, 31 January 1995, 1.
[205] Martin Harwit, An Exhibit Denied: Lobbying the History of Enola Gay, (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1996, 289.
[206] Harwit, 295.
[207] Thomas B. Allen, “Atomic Bomb Five Decades Later, the Enola Gay Ignites a Dispute in the Ashes of Hiroshima,” Globe and Mail (Canada) (online edition), 6 August 1994.
[208] Meyer, “Target: Smithsonian; The Man Who Dropped the Bomb on Hiroshima Wants Exhibit Scuttled,” D1.
[209] Harwit, 325.
[210] C. J. Clemmons, “WWII Vets Needn't Apologize, Says Hiroshima Bombardier,” Charlotte Observer, 16 October 1994.
[211] Stone, “A-Bomb Exhibit Cut/ On View: Fuselage of B-29/ Hiroshima Diesplay Ends in Rancor,” 1.
[212] Meyer, “Comrades in Controversy; Hiroshima, Nagasaki. They Were Just Two Missions,” D1.
[213] Stone, “A-Bomb Exhibit Cut/ On View: Fuselage of B-29/ Hiroshima Diesplay Ends in Rancor,” 1.
[214] David E. Sanger, “Enola Gay and Little Boy, Exactly 50 Years Later,” New York Times, 6 August 1995, XX3.
[215] Sanger, XX3.
[216] Rowan Scarborough, “Smithsonian Opens Enola Gay Exhibit; Veterans Elated with New Show,” Washington Times, 28 June 1995, 3.
[217] “Review of A-Bomb Controversy Sought,” Daily Yomiuri, 21 October 1994, 2.
[218] Satoshi Isaka, “Atomic Bombing Perspectives Roil Emotions, Debate,” Nikkei Weekly, 12 December 1994, 1.
[219] “Enola Gay Pilot Wants Ashes Scattered Over English Channel,” Associated Press, 8 August 2005. For an informed discussion of the controversy surrounding the new exhibit, see, Lawrence S. Wittner, “The Enola Gay Exhibits, the Hiroshima Bombing, and American Nationalism,” Social Alternatives 24(2005), 38-42.
[220] Malnic, 1.
[221] “Magazine to Honor Hiroshima Bomber,” Las Vegas Sun (online edition), 23 September 1998.
[222] “Prevent Nuclear War, Hiroshima Pilot Urges,” New York Times, 12 November 1978, 17.
[223] Remnick, D1.
[224] “Hiroshima Pilot ‘Wouldn't Hesitate to Do It Again,” Washington Post, 6 August 1982, 10.
[225] Hardin, “Just ‘Doing His Job' at Hiroshima, Globe and Mail (Canada, online), 6 August 1985.
[226] Bernstein, B7; Terkel, 54.
[227] Mike Harden, “Paul W. Tibbets, Jr./1915-2007; Pilot Didn't Regret A-Bomb,” Columbus Dispatch 2 November 2007, 1.
[228] Goldstein, “Paul W. Tibbets Jr., Pilot of Enola Gay, Dies at 92,” C11.
[229] Harden, “Paul W. Tibbets, Jr./ 1915-2007; Pilot Didn't Regret A-Bomb,” 1.
[230] Harden, “Paul W. Tibbets, Jr./ 1915-2007; Pilot Didn't Regret A-Bomb,” 1.
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