Ferebee, who dropped the first atomic bomb ever on Japan’s Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945 and retired from the US military 30 years ago with the rank of colonel, never said he felt guilty but did express sorrow for the deaths of 80,000 people and for the 75,000 people who were injured. Ferebee was chosen to fly the airplane named “Enola Gay” because he was the “best bombardier.” The other bombardier, Paul Tibbets, who died in November 2007, also noted that he did not feel regret for what he did. He noted that he felt sorry that so many people had died but that it was war. “Unfortunately people die. If we hadn’t killed them they were going to kill us,” he said, and noted that there wasn’t a single night where he lost sleep because he was the pilot of Enola Gay or because he dropped the atomic bomb. But Tibbets was wrong because the Japanese people who were defending their country did not aim for the mass killing of Americans.The exact number of how many people died in the US’s atomic bombing of Hiroshima and then Nagasaki three days later is still unknown. The two countries and different resources have different figures. But it is estimated that at least 45,000 people were killed in Nagasaki. Nagasaki bombardier Kermit Beahan died in 1989.
It’s still a topic of debate why the US dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan. The obvious reason was to make Japan surrender. But there’s also the argument that the US hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bombs to intimidate the Soviet Union, which it would encounter after the war. A far more serious claim has been made recently. According to this vocal minority, Japan had informed the US that it wanted to surrender but President Truman was so determined to use the atomic bomb that he ignored Japan’s offer.
The two most brutal wars in history took place in the first half of the 20th century. The exact number of people who died in these wars is unknown. According to one claim, 57 million people died in World War II alone. That means if we take into account the two wars and the ensuing regional wars then around 100 million died in the 20th century. These millions of people were not just soldiers who were fighting; perhaps most of them were innocent civilians, in other words women, children and elderly people.
It is the first time that such destructive and deadly wars are taking place. Certainly wars are waged to kill “enemies.” But in the last two centuries, wars have been killing more civilians than soldiers in combat. This is the outcome of producing advanced technology war equipment. We have horrific war machines that can’t make the distinction between “fighting soldier-innocent civilian.” When you use an atomic bomb or a simpler chemical weapon everyone around the point target dies as well. In addition to people, animals and plants die; in other words, all living organisms are destroyed. A bullet may miss the target, but a nuclear weapon cannot differentiate targets. And today there are enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world a couple of times. These weapons are audited by politicians and the military. A portion of them can press the button on a war machine due to a secondary purpose like President Truman if it was necessary. A portion of military officers who kill thousands of people in seconds would just like Ferebee and Tibbets express no regret or guilt but simply express their “sorrow.”
The reason I am explaining all of this is because Iran, which has upset the West with its nuclear program, has accepted Turkey and Brazil’s offer. According to the offer, Iran is going to ship 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium to Turkey where it will be stored while France and Russia ship fuel rods to Iran. The swapping of uranium with fuel for a research reactor will prevent Iran from possessing uranium enriched to the level of a nuclear bomb. But Washington doesn’t think that’s enough, arguing that it does not trust Iran. Shouldn’t it first look at itself? Which countries ruined the lives of hundred of thousands of people just 65 years ago?
