Col. Paul Tibbets was the pilot in command of the Enola Gay (a B-29 bomber named for his mother) that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. The city had a population of about 350,000 at that time. The explosion immediately killed about 70,000 of those residents, destroying most of the city’s buildings. Tens of thousands more died in the weeks afterward. Tibbets was interviewed on camera, not long after he returned (August 19th).
Russell Baker was a young 19-year-old naval pilot originally from Virginia who was training to go overseas in the summer of 1945. He later became a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times who recalled his coming of age during the Great Depression and World War II in a famous memoir, Growing Up (1982).
“On August 9 the second atomic bomb was dropped at Nagasaki. Next night I wrote to my mother. “Well, today, to all intents and purposes, the war ended. The feeling of extreme elation which I had expected, existed for a bare moment, then life subsided back into its groove and it was just another day….” I didn’t confess that I hated the war’s ending. I knew she had been praying to God to save my skin; I could hardly tell her I was sorry her prayers had been answered… Still there was no hint in either my mother’s correspondence or mine that the arrival of the nuclear age interested us much. My mother, also excited about premature news that the war was over, had less cosmic things on her mind. The night after the Nagasaki bombing she wrote: “I’m still hoping that you’ll go to college when the war is over and study journalism; that is, if you’re still interested in that kind of work. Don’t lose hope and get married at this stage of the game.” (Russell Baker, Growing Up, p. 230)
Churchill, Truman and Stalin at Potsdam, July 1945
John Lewis Gaddis of Yale University is one of the nation’s leading historians of the Cold War era. In this excerpt, he challenges the widely-held view that President Harry S Truman never hesitated and never questioned his decision to authorize the dropping of two atomic bombs on the Japanese in 1945.
“It took leadership to make this [containment of atomic war] happen, and the most important first steps came from the only individual so far ever to have ordered that nuclear weapons be used to kill people. Harry S Truman claimed, for the rest of his life, to have lost no sleep over his decision, but his behavior suggests otherwise. On the day the bomb was first tested in the New Mexico desert he wrote a note to himself speculating that ‘machines are ahead of morals by some centuries, and when morals catch up perhaps there’ll be no reason for any of it.’ A year later he placed his concerns in a broader context: ‘[T]he human animal and his emotions change not much from age to age. He must change now or he faces absolute and complete destruction and maybe the insect age or an atmosphereless planet will succeed him.’ ‘It is a terrible thing,’ he told a group of advisors in 1948, ‘to order the use of something that …is so terribly destructive, destructive beyond anything we have ever had …. So we have got to treat this differently from rifles and cannon and ordinary things like that.’” (John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War, p. 53)
Allie
In Chapter 15, we follow Russel Baker’s life during World War II. In 1943, hungry for glory, Russel applies to be part of the Navy Air Corps, because he thinks that he will become a war hero. Before he can go into combat, he has to do fifteen months of training. During these months, Russel learns how to swim and how to fly, and is on a mission to lose his virginity. It ends up being that before he finishes his training, the war finishes. When the atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he feels no guilt or happiness. He is merely disappointed; he “longed desperately to become a death-dealing hero. [He] wanted the war to go on and on” (288). The letters of Lucy and Russel, written on the days following the bombings, seemed normal. Lucy talked of her two daughters, a softball game, her husband trimming the blueberry bushes, sending Russel candy and books for his birthday, how happy she was that he would be coming home safely. Russel talked of skipping captain’s inspection. The only time Russel spoke of the atomic bombing was the day after Nagasaki, talking of the end of the war in a detached way: “The feeling of extreme elation which I expected, existed for a bare moment, then life subsided back into its groove and it was just another day” (290). Russel was still consumed with his lack of medals and glory. It’s strange that the droppings of the atomic bombs were momentous events in history, but Russel and Lucy seemed to be more concerned with their own lives.
Alexis
Baker’s description of World War II seemed to contrast greatly from what most textbooks portray the war. This may be due to his age during the time of the war but his lack of knowledge on the conflict portrays him as ignorant since we discussed the importance of newspapers and radio keeping Americans informed constantly. It seems so interesting that the atomic bombs dropped in Japan were not more pivotal in America, or at least for the Bakers. I would think that this would be similar to our reaction to 9/11 however the Bakers seemed unaffected. Most textbooks portray Americans reaction to the bombings as horrified, especially from photography from the time (I always associate the bombings with the photos of Japanese children running naked because their clothing had burned off). Again, this may be due to the Baker’s financial situation and cannot afford the means necessary to stay informed about the war, or possibly the distance from the war (in direct contrast to 9/11 which hit America at home and affected Americans directly). It also seems strange that Russell’s mother, living in urban Baltimore, was unaffected by the “Rosie the Riveter” movement as she was not involved in helping the soldiers at war while at home. It is nice to see a different perspective from textbooks that often portray one side of the story. Also I appreciated Baker’s last comments at the end of Chapter 15 where he compares American’s understanding of the bombings on Japan and the understanding of the great devastation it caused as well as the many lives it took from innocent people in Japan.