Comments on: Remembering Paul Tibbets

Schieffer: The Pilot Who Dropped The Bomb On Hiroshima Means Something

[enriquecaliente]

I''m 56 years old and know from history, that an invasion of Japan would have cost millions of lives for both the invading forces and more for the Japanese. The war had to be stopped and the bomb did it. It was a different time and feeling. Look at the number of American''s lives lost in the invasion of Iwo Jima alone. "30,000 marines of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions, landed. By sun down, the Americans had already incurred 2,420 casualties.
The Allied forces suffered 25,000 casualties, with nearly 7,000 dead. Of the 21,000 defenders, only 1,000 were taken prisoner.

Invading Japan proper would have cost so many more lives on both sides.

Tibbets did his job and saved many lives on both
sides. May he rest in peace.

[bwessels]

Do not forget Pearl Harbor, which was not attacked under a declaration of war. Do not forget kamikazes, the original "suicide bombers." Think about the fact that neither bomb fell on Tokyo.

War is ugly, heinous business. An attack of this magnitude makes us confront that reality head-on. The unpleasant truth does not alter the fact that it prevented hundreds of thousands of less headline-gripping deaths.

[godofredo29]

His hangar was next to ours when he was head of Executive Jet.

[squidly8]

FeelFree1, you obviously don''t know any history. The Japanese murdered millions of Chinese citizens - old men and women, fetuses cut from the wombs of their mothers, infants used for bayonet practice. They were killed simply to subjugate the population and for the entertainment of the Japanese soldier.

Read some history and then make an intelligent comment!

[myidoncbs]

The claim that dropping TWO bombs on Japan saved more lives than they took is highly controversial. The Soviet''s declaration of war against Japan was a decidingly influential factor in their decision to surrender. The overwhelming majority of the dead were civilians-- men, women, children, little babies, etc.

Here''s what Leo Szilard, Manhatten project protege of Albert Einstein had to say about using the atomic bombs:

"Let me say only this much to the moral issue involved: Suppose Germany had developed two bombs before we had any bombs. And suppose Germany had dropped one bomb, say, on Rochester and the other on Buffalo, and then having run out of bombs she would have lost the war. Can anyone doubt that we would then have defined the dropping of atomic bombs on cities as a war crime, and that we would have sentenced the Germans who were guilty of this crime to death at Nuremberg and hanged them?"

[red1530]

May he rest in peace.

[ianlou]

Paul Tibbets must have been tough as nails to be able to maintain a healthy outlook and live a balanced, normal life with so many strong opinions bombarding him, pro and con his entire life for doing his duty 62 years ago.

[yahshua3]

Good bye Paul. Sadly you were charged with an assignment that would altematly kill many but end a war that many know would not have ended. It was and still is hard for many, especially here in the U.S. to fully understand why the bomb was even considerd, and then eventually used. No one, and that includes Paul, "Dutch" Van Kirk, and the others on board the Enola Gay wanted to have such a distructive end to the war especially when it killed so many. But, in the end it also saved millions and it is that which we need to focus. Many would not be here today if the bomb had not been dropped. So good bye Paul and your memory will forever linger with us.

[feelfree1]

So long Paul Tibbets.

You slaughtered thousands, so that dozens could live in peace.

[susanhelit]

Having the courage to make the hard choice, take the difficult option - that is heroic. Not black and white, comic book heroic, but real world heroic - far better. It''s easier to be the hero when the world will agree with you - not so easy to be the hero when it means so much death and destruction, but prevents even worse devastation. Taking that step, knowing you will be the villian to some or many, to make the right decision - that is courage.


More Japanese, and more Americans would be dead without the bomb - we''d have won, but the cost would have been higher on both sides. This was a shortcut - a high cost, but it made it clear to Japan that they could not win. Had they surrendered when told about it, been willing to surrender when the first bomb went, they could have chosen to save Japanese lives. But other than our surrender, we had no path to save them.