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One can thoughtfully reflect on the awful destructive power of the atomic bomb while understanding the indispensable role it played in world history. No contrition is needed for an act that preserved hundreds of thousands of lives. No apology is necessary for sparing Japan the unspeakable horror of an invasion to end the war. These are the lessons the president should carry with him to Hiroshima. God willing, wise men will continue to prevail if faced with the question of whether to use them. Since then, the United States and other nations have reduced their stockpiles of nuclear warheads. POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, mediaĭuring the 71 years since Hiroshima, the world has occasionally marched toward the nuclear abyss and wise men decided against the annihilation that attends the use of such weapons. He knew that his keen eye and steady hands helped spare untold lives on both sides of the conflict. These facts were not far from my uncle’s mind that Aug. 6, and they were near the surface of his consciousness in all the years after. The alternative to Hiroshima would have been one of the bloodiest, if not the bloodiest, slaughter in human history.
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But tragic as the bombing of Hiroshima was, it was also necessary. The power unleashed by the splitting of the atom was monumental. The nuclear attack on Hiroshima was terrible. The Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated as many as 134,556 dead and missing Americans. A study for the office of War Secretary Henry Stimson put the figure at 400,000 to 800,000 dead GIs, with Japanese fatalities reckoned between 5 million to 10 million military personnel and civilians. In addition to combat casualties, the more than 27,000 American POWs held by Japan were subject to immediate execution should the U.S. invade. For months before the bombing, the War Department had been preparing for an invasion of Japan, the planning for which included casualty figures.
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He never second-guessed Truman’s decision and took pride in knowing the critical job he performed in bringing the war to an end.įour days after that single bomb destroyed Hiroshima, Japan offered its surrender. He was always calm and confident in answering critics. While he is distinguished in his hometown of Mocksville, N.C., he was occasionally accused, in later years, of having blood on his hands. He always said he never tossed and turned at night over his role in the mission.
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As the bombardier, peering through his Norden bombsight, he was the last man to see Hiroshima in any detail before it was leveled, making his perspectives on the event somewhat unique. He was the bombardier aboard the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb, and that in doing so, ushered in the nuclear age.Īs President Obama prepares for his visit to Hiroshima on Friday, I recall my uncle’s personal reflections. His order to attack Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, was carried out in no small part by my uncle, Maj. Paglia’s father was among many thousands spared because of President Truman’s decision to launch a nuclear strike against Imperial Japan. One is Salon columnist Camille Paglia, who in answering a letter from a reader in her April 21 column, mentioned her father’s service during the war, explaining how he and his Army unit, which was slated for an invasion of Japan, were “spared from certain decimation by the two atomic bombs and Japan’s surrender.” Millions of Americans have a personal or family connection to World War II.