Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., who died at his Columbus, Ohio home earlier today at age 92, was one of the thousands of people across the country who are somehow forever thrust into the media spotlight. And perhaps it never bothered him at all.

“I never lost a night’s sleep over it,” Tibbets is quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying about piloting the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb ever used in war, on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945.

The thinking in Washington at the time–among the very few who knew–was that using nuclear weapons against Hiroshima and, three days later, against Nagasaki, would shorten the war and save thousands of American lives. It did.

But as the New York Times reports, the morality of killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians to ensure Japan’s surrender–which occurred Aug. 15, 1945–has never stopped being questioned.

We’ll always ask ourselves about it, as we should.

“I made one great mistake in my life–when I signed a letter to President [Franklin D.] Roosevelt recommending that an atomic bomb be made,” the late trailblazing physicist Albert Einstein is quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times.

Many Americans alive today would no doubt agree with that statement.

Tags: Albert Einstein, atomic bomb, California, Enola Gay, Franklin D. Roosevelt, hiroshima, Japan, Jr., Long Beach, Los Angeles Times, Nagasaki, new york times, Paul W. Tibbets, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas

Tim

I wouldn't be so quick to assume the ignorance of people.

Bob

Knew his name, never forgot it, and got to meet him when I was a kid. God Bless you, General TIbbets.

JD

My father was a US Marine in WW2. He made three island invasions on Tarawa ,Pelieliu and Iwo Jima. Afterwards he fought in Burma and China.
If not for Paul Tibbets and his crew, my father more than likely would have been killed in Japan. Dad is long gone, but survived by 8 children and 17 grandchildren. Thank you Mr. Tibbets and rest in peace Sir.