Enola Gay!

[pampa14]

The following link provides a full report with photos and information about the "Enola Gay", undoubtedly the most famous B-29 bomber ever built and the protagonist of one of the main historical events of the Twentieth Century. Hope you enjoy and I count on your visit.


http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br ... a-gay.html

[Passenger]

Enola Gay indeed ended World War II. But then, let's not forget that the bombs killed 70.000 people on impact, another 70.000 within six months (from radiation) and another 100.000 (estimated) within five years (from cancer).

[Comet]

Was it Enola Gay or Bockscar (which bombed Nagasaki after Hiroshima had been bombed) which ended the Second World War? The Japanese also massacred innocent civilians and tortured POWs in experiments and by starvation.

[Stij]

Every war is a war too much and taking the decision to drop them was probably a very difficult one for the Americans.

If I'm not mistaken, the reason for dropping them was that they thought invading Japan would cost much more American AND Japanese lives. As well, the war had been going on for 4 years and 420.000 Americans were dead... they were fed up.

Remember as well that the bombing of Tokyo cost around 100.000 lives as well... So it's wasn't just the nuclear bombs... If there wouldn't have been nuclear bombs, they would have carpet bombed other cities resulting in just as much dead people... But then the Emperor maybe wouldn't have been as shocked and willing to surrender...

We'll never know...

Cheers,

Stij

[regi]

Nice reference to the emperor.
The general public seems not to ask the question: "why no bomb straight on Tokyo?"
Reason being: the west wanted to avoid the death of the emperor, to keep him as a puppet.
It was a political thing , to separate the military/fascist regime from the emperor. "Blame the military, not the emperor who was powerless.", is a bit the message.

[Stij]

Well, Tokyo was already destroyed by fire bombs during the night of 9 - 10 March 1944, the Imperial Palace was also heavily damaged (even though bombing it was forbidden).

You probably don't nuke something that has already been destroyed...

Stij.

[jan_olieslagers]

And - if we may wander off topic this far - I wonder if the nuclear bombing wasn't mostly a signal to Mr Stalin - "look here, Josep, we have it and it actually works, and if we can drop them on any city in Japan then we can drop them on Moscow, too. You had better keep quiet". There was no need to further ruin Tokyo to pass that message.

By summer 1945, Japan's defeat was unavoidable, and clear to see for all who had access to the information. From then on, Uncle Sam's main enemy was Russia and its expansionism. Which many in the UK had already warned against in the 1930's.

[regi]

The signal to Stalin has been a theory that lived for a long time but has been denied afterwards.
The main goal was to end the war with Japan asap. And it was a gamble because they were out of stock. ( I think they had 1 left for immediate use )
It would have been a nightmare if the emperor died, and the military would break up, spread all over Asia. That would mean not only conquor every island of Japan, but also Indochina, China, Mongolia etcetera. ( Compare it with the defeat of the KMT army in China, that evaded to Formosa, Burma and Thailand, creating there local warlord regimes.)

The proper surrender put the Japanese forces even in the awkward position as a peace keeping force in the occupied territories - to the great frustration of upcoming ( nationalistic and/or communist ) liberation groups and former colonial powers in Indochina, Burma, China, Indonesia.

Enola Gay brought horror to the innoscent ( the military was at the front ) . But in real politik we could consider this airplane as an angel of peace, how contradictory it may sound.

[pampa14]

Enola Gay, undoubtedly the most famous B-29 bomber ever built. The big question, his fame comes from an act of heroism or insanity? Click on the link below, answer this poll and leave your opinion. The link also contains a full report and photos about this important chapter of WW2. Be sure to visit and participate.


http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br ... a-gay.html


Cheers.

[Comet]

That is exactly the same thing you linked to in your earlier post: https://www.aviation24.be/forums/viewtopic ... 15&t=55028