Tibbets: No regrets over Hiroshima

“Absolutely nothing.”

This was the response of retired Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets when asked if he has any regrets at all over the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing that killed over 140,000 people.

Tibbets, then a colonel who piloted the Enola Gay that dropped the A-bomb on Aug. 6, 1945 on Hiroshima, said he followed the order with full resolve.

“That’s why I went there. My mind was bent on it and I did it successfully. I didn’t falter,” said Tibbets in an interview during a commemoration ceremony on Saipan this week.

He said in previous media interviews that even Japanese authorities believe that the bombing had to happen to prompt the Japanese government to surrender and bring the war in the Pacific to a quick end.

During his trip to Saipan and Tinian this week, Tibbets and two other Enola Gay crewmen, navigator Theodore Van Kirk and weaponeer Morris Jeppson, met with several Japanese citizens, who now comprise the largest bulk of tourists visiting the CNMI.

In commemoration rites on Tinian, Shigeharu Shoha, 64, of Okayoma, Japan said he feels no bitterness toward the crewmen.

“It’s the past. I have no bad feeling,” he said.

Shoha said he actually saw smoke from Hiroshima during the bombing. “I was 5 years old at that time. I saw smoke. My place is just very near Hiroshima. It’s a neighboring [place],” he said.

Meanwhile, Tinian school students said they went to the commemoration ceremony at North Field Wednesday to see Tibbets and other veterans in person.

“We came to observe. What they did is very important because if Americans didn’t win, we would be speaking Japanese now,” said Louvele Borja, 14, who was quick to add that this does not mean that she dislikes the Japanese; rather, “I like the opportunities we have right now with the U.S.”

Mary Ruth Lazaro, 14, said she would want to ask Tibbets how it felt to drop the bomb when he knew that many people would die.

Virginia Wedding, 12, said she too would like to meet the man who dropped the bomb. “I don’t really feel very good about war, but it’s a good thing that we won.”

Tibbets, the commanding officer of 509th composite group of 12 men, took off from the North Field at past 2:30am on Aug. 6, 1945.

The plane, loaded with Little Boy, a 12-ft long and 28 inches in diameter atomic bomb, flew over Iwo Jima, adjusted course, and headed northwest to the target, Hiroshima.

At 9:15am (8:15am Hiroshima time), the group dropped the bomb and made a 159-degree diving turn to the right.

The bomb reportedly exploded at 1,890 ft above the ground; its shock wave raced toward them. A mushroom cloud boiled up at 45,000 ft high, three miles above them and rising.

Below, Hiroshima City “disappeared completely under a blanket of smoke and fire.”

By then, Tibbets’ team had flown back to Tinian where they were warmly greeted by top U.S. military brass.

Three days after, U.S. forces launched another attack plane from Tinian, piloted by Chuck Sweeney, carrying a more complex type of atomic bomb called “Fat Man.” It hit Nagasaki at 11:02am on Aug. 9, destroying a third of the city and killing about 150,000 people.