Truman in the summer of 1945 when he authorized the use of the world’s first atomic bomb. This was the situation that confronted American President Harry S. Japan’s leaders hoped to prevail, not by defeating American forces, but by inflicting massive casualties and thereby breaking the resolve of the American public. American casualties on Okinawa weighed heavily on the minds of American planners who looked ahead to the invasion of Japan. At least 110,000 Japanese soldiers and more than 100,000 Okinawan civilians, a third of the island’s prewar population, also perished in the campaign. By comparison, US forces suffered 49,000 casualties, including 12,000 men killed in action, when facing less than 120,000 Japanese soldiers during the battle for the island of Okinawa from April to June of 1945. These frightening figures portended a costlier battle for the United States than any previously fought during the war. Additional reports correctly surmised that the Japanese military intended to execute all American prisoners in Japan in the event of an Allied landing. Instead, American intelligence intercepts revealed that by August 2, Japan had already deployed more than 560,000 soldiers and thousands of suicide planes and boats on the island of Kyushu to meet the expected American invasion of Japan. Although an estimated 300,000 Japanese civilians had already died from starvation and bombing raids, Japan’s government showed no sign of capitulation. It appeared to American leaders that the only way to compel Japan’s unconditional surrender was to invade and conquer the Japanese home islands. Japan, however, refused to submit to the terms outlined in the Allies’ Potsdam Declaration. Museum curator Ryo Koyama said, "The records contain vivid testimonies by each and every crew member (of the Enola Gay) and has historic value.Top Image: The devastated downtown of Hiroshima with the dome of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall visible in the distance. National Archives photo.īy July 1945, Germany had surrendered, and the war in Europe was over. The museum is considering releasing the audio tapes and having experts analyze the recordings after getting approval from the people concerned. The pilot also said he saw the mushroom cloud from the bomb through the aircraft's window. "If you can imagine yourself inside a tin building and somebody comes along on the outside and hits it with a hammer, you get the sound effect," he recalled. So I got this lead taste in my mouth and that was a big relief - I knew she had blown."Īfter dropping the bomb, the Enola Gay made a rapid evasive right turn but the shockwaves hit the fuselage, according to Tibbets. And this was because of the fillings in my teeth. Tibbets is quoted as saying in the records that at the moment of the explosion, "I got the brilliance, I tasted it. The "Little Boy" uranium bomb detonated at 8:15 a.m. 6, 1945 and made its way to the target - the T-shaped Aioi Bridge in the Hiroshima city center. base on Tinian Island in the Pacific in the early hours of Aug.
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This indicates that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was indeed a highly confidential mission. When asked why the crew members carried handguns, Tibbets explained that they were for protection, and revealed that they had cyanide tablets, too, to kill themselves to avoid capture by the Imperial Japanese Army in case the aircraft crashed.
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9, 1945, was also included.Īccording to the donated records, the interviewer asked in detail how the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. A memoir written by Jacob Beser, who was aboard both the Enola Gay and the Bockscar, the B-29 that dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. The tapes contain voices of five people, including Tibbets and Thomas Ferebee, the bombardier who pushed the button to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. A memo left with the items suggests that they are copies of records made for the 1977 book "Enola Gay: Mission to Hiroshima" written by British authors Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts. They were donated to the museum in June last year by the bereaved family of a Japanese person who had owned them. The records include 27 tapes spanning about 30 hours, and 570 pages of transcripts. Museum officials say the existence of those tapes and transcripts had never before been confirmed, adding that they are important as they depict in detail the situation inside the bomber and the psychological state of the crew. Tape recordings of testimonies by Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbets and others are shown at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima's Naka Ward, on July 20, 2018.