There has always been so much debate over whether what the US did against Hiroshima was one of humanities greatest atrocities or justified but whatever side of the debate you fall on, 140,000 people died instantly, mostly innocent civilians.
During his lifetime Van Kirk had been asked many times if he regretted what his team did that day and he said: I have never apologised for what we did to Hiroshima and i never will. I was proud to be on the Enola Gay'.
Van Kirk also said that he never lost a night's sleep over the deaths in Hiroshima so he was obviously a product of decades of brainwashing by the US military that the two nuclear weapons used on Japan were justified.
I would like to think that during his last few moments the image of a hundred thousand incinerated people entered his mind and the realisation that he is directly responsible for probably the greatest number of deaths by a human in so short a time.
I do hope that after a lifetime of showing no regret or remorse, this realisation filled his mind and was his last thought as he slipped away.
3 comments:
Always one of the finest bits of propaganda that one. We justify obliterating 140,000 people in the blink of an eye, and then did it again a few days later, because of something that nobody can prove was or wasn't going to happen.
That's a lot of dead people for an uncertainty whatever way you slice it.
Equally i can say there is no way there would have been more killed and be just as right. My way makes it morally bankrupt to use the a-bombs, your way justifies it so stalemate but as Japan were actively seeking an end to the war, it does lean towards we have this bomb and we are going to use it regardless.
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