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Theodore Van Kirk was the navigator aboard the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima 65 years ago. Now the sole survivor of the crew, how does he live with the deaths of 200,000 people?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ma ... rew-member

An interesting read.

Can't say I blame him. We were at war and there's a good argument that it saved American lives.

Also, here's a great book by Paul Fussell outlining the reasons for dropping the bomb to shorten the war. It's also a very entertaining read:

http://www.amazon.com/Thank-Atom-Bomb-Paul-Fussell/dp/0345361350

How do they figure that he was responsible for the deaths of 200,000 people? I've NEVER heard that number before.

Fumanchewd wrote:How do they figure that he was responsible for the deaths of 200,000 people? I've NEVER heard that number before.

That's probably the count including the long term effects from radiation: cancer, leukemia, disease, etc. Acute deaths from and immediately after the bombing in 1945 may have been as high as 166,000:

http://www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa1.html

Regardless, I'd like like to see the sources for the newspapers article.

JeffSFO wrote:Can't say I blame him. We were at war and there's a good argument that it saved American lives.

There's an excellent argument to be made that it save many Japanese lives as well. Total casualties for a conventional invasion of Japan would have been many times the number of deaths caused by the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

JeffSFO wrote:Can't say I blame him. We were at war and there's a good argument that it saved American lives.

Not just American, but British and Canadian lives as well. After the defeat of Germany, the British and Canadians were busy preparing for a combat landing operation in both Japan and Singapore.

Jan

MD11Engineer wrote:

JeffSFO wrote:Can't say I blame him. We were at war and there's a good argument that it saved American lives.

Not just American, but British and Canadian lives as well. After the defeat of Germany, the British and Canadians were busy preparing for a combat landing operation in both Japan and Singapore.

Jan

Indeed. I should have said Allied but got caught up in making my point.

Well, I think the reason for Japan surrendering was a double blow:
At the same time when the Americans dropped the nuclear bombs, the Russians were starting a massive offensive against the Japanese Kwantung Army in northern China. It took the Russians three months to get their troops and equipment back to Siberia from Europe (which was what Stalin agreed on in IIRC Teheran), but once they were in position, the Russians used the tactics which worked well against the much better prepared Germans: Massive artillery barrages and bombing by tactical bombers follwed by massive armoured attacks. The Japanese lost a whole army in less than two weeks. I think the effect of having two cities flattened at home, while at the same time a whole army got destroyed within days finally did it for the Japanese.

Jan

JeffSFO wrote:

Fumanchewd wrote:How do they figure that he was responsible for the deaths of 200,000 people? I've NEVER heard that number before.

That's probably the count including the long term effects from radiation: cancer, leukemia, disease, etc. Acute deaths from and immediately after the bombing in 1945 may have been as high as 166,000:

http://www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa1.html

Regardless, I'd like like to see the sources for the newspapers article.

I am aware of the numbers and it is nowhere near 200,000. Its quite the stretch. The acute deaths were the majority of the deaths.

Here is the guy that survived being in both cities when they were bombed. He died last January at the age of 93. He did die of stomach cancer though so I guess we could tally him into the atomic bombs deaths as well.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html

Not like it was his choice to make in the first place.