Last Surviving Enola Gay Crew Member Who Nuked The Japs Over Hiroshima Dies

[Steve_McGarrett]

I wished I would have got around to shake this brave American patriot's hand for a noble deed he did for the United States of America. He and the Enola Gay crews actions saved America from sending in up to a million servicemen from having to invade the Japanese homeland.


Last surviving Enola Gay crewman dies in Stone Mountain | www.ajc.com

 

[Sunni Man]

I wished I would have got around to shake this brave American patriot's hand for a noble deed he did for the United States of America.

I fail to see the instant murder of 80,000 innocent civilians with no military value as a "noble deed" or even the least bit heroic. ...

 

[Mad Scientist]

My Wife's Grandparents were at Hiroshima. Her Grandpa said: "It had to be done!"

Here's a thread I made about it a while back.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/history/238808-my-wife-s-grandparents-were-hiroshima-survivors.html

 

[Luddly Neddite]

These men had to live with the knowledge of what they had done - the horrendous murder of hundreds of thousands of innocents for no reason at all.

For all time, this will be a stain on humanity and on the US.

May he rest in peace and know that he was not to blame for the terrible decision made by his superiors who never had to face the consequences for their crimes.

 

[LoneLaugher]

It didn't have to be done.

 

[JWBooth]

And at the judgement he shall have to answer for innocent children, women, and men.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Here he talks about the bombing:

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. Where was the morality in the bombing of Coventry, or the bombing of Dresden, or the Bataan death march, or the Rape of Nanking, or the bombing of Pearl Harbor? I believe that when you're in a war, a nation must have the courage to do what it must to win the war with a minimum loss of lives.

I think it was justified. What would the death totals be if an invasion of the Japanese mainland had happened instead? I also think that it's thanks to Hiroshima and Nagasaki that the world will never see a nuclear bomb used in war ever again.

 

[JWBooth]

The Nips were done, they had no fuel supplies, faced a total blockade, and unrest at home.
It wasn't necessary for any other purpose other to impress Stalin.

 

[R.C. Christian]

The incendiary bombing of Tokyo was far worse.

 

[blackhawk]

If the U.S. had to invade Japan it's self military planners estimated the death toll would have been well over a million if anyone thinks that number is inflated look at the death toll in the battles of Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa then look at the population of Tokyo and keep in mind anyone who could carry any type of weapon no matter their age would be sent into battle. As destructive and harsh as they were the atomic bombs likely saved lives on both sides.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

No. There's never a good reason to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Like Bush and Iraq - its just wrong.

The US should better than this and I'm very sorry we're not.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

If the U.S. had to invade Japan it's self military planners estimated the death toll would have been well over a million if anyone thinks that number is inflated look at the death toll in the battles of Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa then look at the population of Tokyo and keep in mind anyone who could carry any type of weapon no matter their age would be sent into battle. As destructive and harsh as they were the atomic bombs likely saved lives on both sides.

[MENTION=36422]blackhawk[/MENTION]

If you should ever decide to use basic, 6th grade punctuation, grammar and syntax, would you let us all know?

Until then, I'll just asssume you want to be ignored.

 

[R.C. Christian]

No. There's never a good reason to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Like Bush and Iraq - its just wrong.

The US should better than this and I'm very sorry we're not.

Oh, a little sensitive are we?

Let's put this into perspective to make it less palatable for you.

The US spared Hiroshima from regular bombing so that the the data from the nuclear event would produce cleaner data to measure the power of the weapon.

But a fraction of the 255 million people killed by their own governments in the 20th century.

 

[shart_attack]

My Aunt Harriet told me when I was a kid that Hiroshima was George W. Bush's fault.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Read John Hershey's Hiroshima and watch the documentary that has played on HBO.

There is never a reason or excuse for killing hundreds of thousands of innocents to get a military victory.

Damn. Its just so typical of the RWs to whine and cry about the son of a terrorist who was killed by a US drone but applaud the wanton murder of hundreds of thousands in Shamanism and/or Iraq.

Oner terrorist is training should have been spared but they're all wet over the decimation of a city or county.

The right is just plain sick.

 

[blackhawk]

I suspect if any one of us had been in the marines back then fighting the Japanese across the pacific from island to island we might feel very different about this.

 

[Godboy]

It didn't have to be done.

Really? What would you have done to defeat Japan? Tell us how you would have gotten them to surrender with less loss of life.

 

[Godboy]

Read John Hershey's Hiroshima and watch the documentary that has played on HBO.

There is never a reason or excuse for killing hundreds of thousands of innocents to get a military victory.

Damn. Its just so typical of the RWs to whine and cry about the son of a terrorist who was killed by a US drone but applaud the wanton murder of hundreds of thousands in Shamanism and/or Iraq.

Oner terrorist is training should have been spared but they're all wet over the decimation of a city or county.

The right is just plain sick.

Japan was killing hundreds of thousands of people, and they werent stopping. What would you have done to make them stop killing hundreds of thousands of people?

 

[R.C. Christian]

I hate it when people judge things out of context. Lone Lunatic would have begged for it to have been done had lone lunatic been a sentient being during WWII.

I could apply similar thinking to the Civil War. People just don't get into the context of history as well as they should.

 

[Jarlaxle]

If the U.S. had to invade Japan it's self military planners estimated the death toll would have been well over a million if anyone thinks that number is inflated look at the death toll in the battles of Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa then look at the population of Tokyo and keep in mind anyone who could carry any type of weapon no matter their age would be sent into battle. As destructive and harsh as they were the atomic bombs likely saved lives on both sides.

Estimates were 5-6 million Japanese dead...and that's not even figuring the famine that would have resulted that winter! (Even with US supplies, 1945-46 was a lean winter.)