What ordinary men can do: The bombing of Hiroshima

[Bozo Erectus]

They were young men hoping to help end World War II. But to their mission's critics, the crews that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan were part of a war crime.

Three men involved in the attack on Hiroshima shared with the BBC their memories of a day that has stayed with them for 60 years.

Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, 84
The day before the mission we sat through briefings on Tinian island where they told us who was assigned to which plane, and we ran through what we were going to do.

About 2pm we were told to get some sleep. But I don't know how they expected to tell us were we dropping the first atomic bomb on Japan and then expect us to sleep.

I didn't get a wink. Nor did most of the others. But at 10pm we had to get up again because we were flying at 2.45am.

They briefed us that the weather was good, but they were sending weather observation planes up so we would have the best information on targeting Hiroshima.

We had a final breakfast and then went down to the plane shortly after midnight.

There was a lot of picture-taking and interviewing going on - by the military - and it was a relief to get in the Enola Gay about an hour before we took off.

We flew in low over Iwo Jima while the bomb crew checked and armed Little Boy (the uranium bomb) and once we cleared the island we began climbing to our bombing altitude of just over 30,000 feet.

It was perfectly clear and I was just doing all the things I'd always done as a navigator - plotting our course, getting fixes to make sure we were on course and reading the drifts so we knew the wind speed.

As we flew over an inland sea I could make out the city of Hiroshima from miles away - my first thought was 'That's the target, now let's bomb the damn thing'.

But it was quiet in the sky. I'd flown 58 missions over Europe and Africa - and I said to one of the boys that if we'd sat in the sky for so long over there we'd have been blown out of the air.

Once we verified the target, I went in the back and just sat down. The next thing I felt was 94,000lbs of bomb leaving the aircraft - there was a huge surge and we immediately banked into a right hand turn and lost about 2,000 feet.

We'd been told that if we were eight miles away when the thing went off, we'd probably be ok - so we wanted to put as much distance as possible between us and the blast.

All of us - except the pilot - were wearing dark goggles, but we still saw a flash - a bit like a camera bulb going off in the plane.

There was a great jolt on the aircraft and we were thrown off the floor. Someone called out 'flak' but of course it was the shockwave from the bomb.

The tail-gunner later said he saw it coming towards us - a bit like the haze you see over a car park on a hot day, but moving forwards a great speed.

We turned to look back at Hiroshima and already there was a huge white cloud reaching up more than 42,000 feet. At the base you could see nothing but thick black dust and debris - it looked like a pot of hot oil down there.

We were pleased that the bomb had exploded as planned and later we got to talking about what it meant for the war.

We concluded that it would be over - that not even the most obstinate, uncaring leaders could refuse to surrender after this.

In the weeks afterwards, I actually flew back to Japan with some US scientists and some Japanese from their atomic programme.

We flew low over Hiroshima but could not land anywhere and eventually landed at Nagasaki.

We didn't hide the fact that we were American and many people turned their faces away from us. But where we stayed we were made very welcome and I think people were glad that the war had ended.

Morris "Dick" Jepson, 83
I was a young second lieutenant in the US Air Force and was designated as the weapons test officer on the Enola Gay.

Enola Gay returns after Hiroshima mission (photo: Smithsonian Institution)
For Dick Jepson, the Enola Gay flight was his first combat mission

The bomb was designed to detonate when it was about 1,500 feet - or about one-and-a-half seconds - above the ground to ensure the maximum possible destructive range.

To that end it contained a range of radar-designated electronics.

In the run-up to the mission I had spent five months at Harvard and three months at MIT studying radar design.

For several months I worked on developing the electronics that would allow the bomb to detonate above the ground, flying test missions over southern California.

The Manhattan Project [to build the atomic bomb] was compartmentalised so the thousands of people working on it could not know the full details of the plan, but I was in no doubt I was training for an atomic bomb drop.

On the day of the mission, I had to perform some final tests on the electronics that operated the bomb.

There was a box in the plane's forward compartment that connected to the bomb via a cable system.

My final job was to climb down into the bomb bay, crawl around the bomb and manually arm the device. I took out three testing plugs that isolated the bomb and put in three red firing plugs.

The most important thought in my mind was that this would detonate and end the war.

Unlike the others, this was the only combat mission I had been on, but there was only one point when I was apprehensive.

I knew how long it took for the bomb to fall and detonate - 43 seconds - so I counted but nothing happened. I just thought this was devastating.

But in the excitement I had counted too fast. That second, the crew reported a huge flash and it had gone off.

A few seconds later I felt the first blast wave.

There was a second shockwave and I knew by the delay that it had detonated at the right height - and this second wave was the force of the bomb bouncing back off the ground.

Everyone's thoughts turned to what devastation there would have been down below - we all had that thought on our mind because we had seen what the bomb could do.

But it was the right thing to do.

Dr Harold Agnew, 85
I had come from working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos and my abiding memory is of it being a very exciting time, working with all the best scientific minds of the day.

I describe myself as a 'grunt' at that time, I did what I was told to do. But I was part of a great undertaking.

For the Hiroshima mission I was on board The Great Artiste, a second B-29 that had tailed the Enola Gay to the bombing zone.

We'd flown alongside them all the way up there and were about four or five miles off to one side of Hiroshima, dropping gauges with parachutes that would measure the yield of the bomb.

After we dropped our gauges I remember we made a sharp turn to the right so that we would not get caught in the blast - but we still got badly shaken up by it.

I don't think anyone realised exactly what would happen. It was the only uranium bomb to be dropped.

My honest feeling at the time was that they deserved it, and as far as I am concerned that is still how I feel today.

People never look back to what led up to it - Pearl Harbour, Nanking - and there are no innocent civilians in war, everyone is doing something, contributing to the war effort, building bombs.

What we did saved a lot of lives in the long run and I am proud to have been part of it.

After the war I returned to the University of Chicago to continue my studies and later rejoined Los Alamos, where I eventually became director of the laboratory.

About three-quarters of the US nuclear arsenal was designed under my tutelage at Los Alamos. That is my legacy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4718579.stm

Strangely enough, I dont blame these men for the actual act of dropping the bomb. They were military men with orders. Pilots in war or peace time dont get the option to veto missions they dont agree with. What really troubles me is that all these years later, they still feel no remorse. How is that possible? How can ordinary men commit such horrific acts, and feel nothing? If the world is filled with ordinary men like these, is their any hope for humanity?

 

[farting bob]

If they were ordered to drop it, fair enough, but i agree, even in a time of war, dropping a bomb that kills tens of thousands instantly, you expect to feel some remorse.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Keiko Ogura was eight years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. She still lives in the city.

I wanted to go to school, but my father said 'I have a very strange feeling today - you shouldn't go to school, stay with us'.

That morning I was on the road near the house and all of a sudden I saw a flash of blueish white light - a magnesium-like flash and soon after a big sound with dust, and I was blown away and fell on the ground.

I found myself lying on the ground near the house. I thought the house was just in front of me but I couldn't see it because everything had become so dark and many pieces of wood and roof tiles and rubbish were falling on my head.

And in the darkness there was a strong, strong wind like a typhoon. I couldn't open my eyes but tried to get back to my house and in the darkness I heard somebody was crying - my brother and sister.

I was 2.4km from the hypocentre but houses nearer the hypocentre had caught fire and were burning.

I saw long lines of refugees, just quiet, I don't know why they were so quiet. There were long lines, like ghosts.

Most of them were stretching out their arms because the skin was peeling off from the tips of their fingers. I could clearly see the hanging skin, peeling skin, and the wet red flesh and their hair was burned and smelled, the burnt hair smelled a lot.

And many people, just slowly passed by the front of my house.

Parched

All of a sudden a hand squeezed my ankle. I was so scared but they said 'get me water'. Almost all the people were just asking 'water', and 'help me'.

I rushed into my home where there was a well and brought them water. They thanked me but some of them were drinking water and vomiting blood and [then] died, stopped moving. They died in front of me. I felt regret and so scared. Maybe I killed them? Did I kill them?

And that night, 6 August, my father was so busy looking after the neighbours, but when he came back he said: 'Listen children - you shouldn't give water, some of the refugees died after drinking water. Please remember that.'

Then I felt so guilty, and I saw them many times in my nightmares. I thought I was a very bad girl - I didn't do what my father said - so I kept it a secret. I didn't tell anybody this story until my father died.

There was black rain falling, black rain mingling with ashes and rubbish and oil, something like that. It smelled bad and there were many spots on my white blouse - sticky, dirty rain.

In the morning people were moving, brushing away flies from their skin. My house was full of injured people.

But as a little girl I was so curious. I wanted to see what the city looked like. My house was at the bottom of a hill - I climbed up the hill, near our house, and then I saw the whole city. I was so astonished - all the city was flattened and demolished. I counted just a couple of concrete buildings.

In denial

The next day some of the buildings were still burning, and the next day, and the next day, and for three or four days I climbed the hill to see what the city was like.

I have a brother-in-law. He was living almost at the centre of the city - his family was very close to the hypocentre. Until now his family members were missing and he didn't want to recognise they were all gone, so he refused to say and report the family's names to the officials and he didn't want to visit Hiroshima.

Right now, he is living far away in Tokyo, and only last year he decided to report to Hiroshima city that his family members - his mother and sister - had passed away.

And there were so many people [who saw] so many dead or dying, but actually, most of them made up their mind not to tell anyone about what they saw.

Private Yutaka Nakagawa was a 20-year-old soldier and veteran of the Indonesia campaign, stationed in Hiroshima when the bomb fell on 6 August 1945.

I was in the barracks on the night of the 5 August. There was a warning of an air-raid. But I was in bed. A B29 was flying over the city and dropped hundreds of leaflets.

The leaflets said Japan would be defeated. The officers said don't touch the leaflets - they could be poisoned. Our officers collected them up so we didn't read them.

When the bomb fell - I was asleep. But when I awoke I saw the aftermath - some of my fellow soldiers were horribly burned
Yutaka Nakagawa

On the night of the 5 August there were warnings of air raids so I had to take our unit's communications equipment to a bunker 2km from our barracks.

All through the night I was moving this equipment so in the morning I was allowed to rest. When the bomb fell I was asleep. But when I awoke I saw the aftermath - some of my fellow soldiers were horribly burned.

In the city, the citizens of Hiroshima were trying to reach the Ota river to drink water. The banks of the rivers were covered with dead bodies.

Cries for water

Some time later I returned to the barracks. Inside the barracks were civilian victims, lying on the ground.

When I approached they cried out for water but our officers said: 'Don't give them water - if you do that they'll die immediately'.

But there was a pond inside the barracks - water reserved for fire-fighting - I saw black, burned bodies in the water - it was like a nightmare.

Even now I cannot believe the things that I saw. There are lots of memorials in Hiroshima - like the atomic bomb dome - but for me the most vivid image of the atomic bomb is the memory of those burned bodies.

I wonder if the men who flew the missions have religious beliefs? The surviving crewmen are all old men, very near to death. What will they say to god? What do they think god will say to them?

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Wether or not we like it, the bombs did save more lives than they took away. Not just American soldiers, but Japanese soldiers and civillians alike. Though this does not detract from the terrible nature they were...

 

[h4ppy]

Those men are all heros. Oh and I'm proud that my country was the first to build and the only to use an atomic bomb. America, leading the way as usual!

 

[blackheart]

I don't think they were ordinary men when they dropped the bomb, given their circumstances.

 

[Strider]

There have been thousands of soldiers that were put in asylums, because of the "remorse" they felt after a war.

Trust me, there better off the way they are.

 

[Warman17]

Dropping the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki was no worse than the massive firebombings that cities like Dresden and Tokyo felt. However it was better than n the sense that the firebombings were only ment to destroy Japan and germany's capabilities of fighting. The nuclear attacks were made specifically to force the Japanese to surrender.

I don't think nuking two cities is the most moral decision, but is was far more moral than many of the actions seen by the total war carnage that we call world war two. I see the nuclear bombings as a necessary evil, the same I see war in general as a necessary evil. I can not applaude the actions that the men took or the country took for that matter, but I can see the justification in it and so I don't condemn it either.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the nuclear attacks were justified and I think thats how they can sleep at night, fell safe with themselves.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Strangely enough, I dont blame these men for the actual act of dropping the bomb. They were military men with orders. Pilots in war or peace time dont get the option to veto missions they dont agree with. What really troubles me is that all these years later, they still feel no remorse. How is that possible? How can ordinary men commit such horrific acts, and feel nothing? If the world is filled with ordinary men like these, is their any hope for humanity?

US propaganda at the time sold the Japanese as dishonorable enemies that weren't worth pity. It was easy to do, as they had attacked the US with the treachery of Pearl Harbor. I would not have felt remorse either, if I was in those pilots' shoes. Japan certainly didn't hesitate to commit genocide so there was no reason to hesitate to do this.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Those men are all heros. Oh and I'm proud that my country was the first to build and the only to use an atomic bomb. America, leading the way as usual!

When I read this, at first I was angry at you. How could anyone be proud of genocide? Then I thought some more, and I pitied you. How could someone be so unfeeling? I thought some more, and then I envied you. How wonderful it must be to be so untouched by the suffering of your fellow man. It must be like a shot of heroin - ahhhh, no pain. Then I thought still more, and now Im back to pitying you. Because a person with no empathy for human suffering can no never grow as a person. I pity you, because after all, youre just an ordinary man.

US propaganda at the time sold the Japanese as dishonorable enemies that weren't worth pity. It was easy to do, as they had attacked the US with the treachery of Pearl Harbor. I would not have felt remorse either, if I was in those pilots' shoes. Japan certainly didn't hesitate to commit genocide so there was no reason to hesitate to do this.

All of that is true. But we're all now 60 years into the future. These men have lived entire lifetimes since the event. Still, even now, the pain and suffering they caused means nothing to them. These wrinkled, hunched over old men are frozen in time. They havent grown since the moment they pressed the buttons that dropped the bombs and inflicted suffering right out of Hell on countless innocent men, women and children. Especially the children. How can they live knowing they incinerated and horribly maimed and disfigured little children, without warning. One moment theyre playing, or studying in school at thier desks, and the next, theyre screaming in agony in pitch blackness, not knowing what just happened. The lucky ones were vaporised instantly. These unfeeling robots who some hail as heroes are as alien to me as bacteria we might find on Mars. I could live a thousand years, and I would never understand them.

 

[Winner]

We were pleased that the bomb had exploded as planned and later we got to talking about what it meant for the war.

War criminal. He should be executed, as well as those who helped him and those who gave that order.

Please no nonsense about that it was necessary etc. It wasn't. US gov. hasn't even tried to show the Japanese the destructive power of the new device, for example on some purely military target or in safe distance from a big coastal city. They used it twice, they attacked civilian targets and they killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. It was a war crime and nothing can change that.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Should we also execute the hundreds of thousands of British and American pilots who took part in the fire bombing of German and Japanese cities that killed more people than the two atomic bombs put together?

 

[luiz]

Attacking civilians is wrong, period. That said it is undeniable that overall the 2 nukes saved more lifes than they claimed, though I'm certainly not the one to condone this sort of logic.

What I don't understand is why the two atomic bombs are widely considered the second greatest crime of WW2, and singled out of other allied attrocities. IIRC more people died at the firebombings in Tokyon than in Hiroshima. Not to mentions Dresden. And not to mention the countless civilians slaughtered by the soviets in their march to Berlin.

It is hypocritical to single out Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Just because those boms were nuclear doesn't make it a crime worse than others. Ithink it is time to re-examine the whole Allied war effort and put things in perspective.

 

[Winner]

Should we also execute the hundreds of thousands of British and American pilots who took part in the fire bombing of German and Japanese cities that killed more people than the two atomic bombs put together?

No, we should execute their commanders, especially the "Bomber" Harris.

 

[Evil Tyrant]

Why should they feel remorse? I doubt the Japanese or the Nazis would feel much sorrow if one of them had been the first to develop a nuke and used it on two American cities. But we were the first to develop them, and naturaly we used them. We were at war with Japan at the time and given the choice of either invading a country where every inhabitant was ready to die fighting us, or destroying two cities and their inhabitants with nukes, I would definitely use the nukes. In the end, casualties for both sides would probably have been far worse had we invaded the old fashioned way.

 

[Bugfatty300]

No, we should execute their commanders, especially the "Bomber" Harris.

You seem to think Van Kirk, the Navigator of the Enola Gay B-29, should be executed for war crimes.

Why not all of them?

And I though "I was just following orders" was a BS excuse?

 

[Winner]

You seem to think Van Kirk, the Navigator of the Enola Gay B-29, should be executed for war crimes.

Why not all of them?

And I though "I was just following orders" was a BS excuse?

Because what they did is so far beyond the human standards. Drop the bomb, because they were ordered to. OK, it is illegal order and they should refuse it, but I'll ignore that for now. But the fact they actually felt happy (!!!) after mass sadistic murder, that is so inhuman, barbarous... I don't know what to say. They were the same as the SS guards in Nazi extermination camps, in some sense.

 

[feline_dacat]

I don't feel that anyone should be proud of anything that caused death of innocent people. I'm no history expert, but even if these atrocious attacks were justified - whether it be Pearl Harbour, Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc... - its still quite sick to be proud of it. Its something that was necessary then so be it. Its like being proud that a rabid animal was put down!

 

[Bugfatty300]

Because what they did is so far beyond the human standards. Drop the bomb, because they were ordered to. OK, it is illegal order and they should refuse it, but I'll ignore that for now.

But the bombing of civilian populations in Germany and Japan with conventional weapons was an illegal order, right? Execute them as well.

And those conventional bombing killed just as many people as the two atomic bombs.

But the fact they actually felt happy (!!!) after mass sadistic murder, that is so inhuman, barbarous... I don't know what to say. They were the same as the SS guards in Nazi extermination camps, in some sense.

Ohh now I see.

Only the ones who were pleased that their bombs exploded should get the death penalty?

Seriously though, I can't imagine him saying that sentence while laughing and slapping his knee. I just don't see the "happiness" in it. It was just the truth.

If that one comment makes you so angry then you should see what some Japanese veterans say about killing people in China. Eat your heart out Wafen SS.

 

[King Alexander]

The bomb didn't need to be dropped: Japan was already defeated by then, and it was a matter of days or weeks before it'd surrender: just read/be informed by Japanese officials/documents and learn that they planned to surrender very soon.
The only thing to do is the US could have kept bombing the Japanese military targets. The bomb didn't save "thousands of soldiers' lives", that's a myth.

The Manhattan Project was extremely expensive, and the goverment/military wanted to see IN REAL CIRCUMSTANCES the results of the project, pure and simple. They wanted to test the bomb BEFORE the war was over, and also to send a message to the USSR.