Hiroshima Paul dies at 92

Pilot of B-29 bomber that dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima dies at 92

COLUMBUS, Ohio: Paul Tibbets (seen in picture, right), who piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died after six decades of steadfastly defending the mission. He was 92.

Tibbets died Thursday at his Columbus home after a two-month decline caused by a variety of health problems, said Gerry Newhouse, a longtime friend.

Throughout his life, Tibbets seemed more troubled by other people's objections to the bomb than by having led the crew that killed tens of thousands of Japanese in a single stroke. The attack marked the beginning of the end of World War II.

Tibbets grew tired of criticism for delivering the first nuclear weapon used in wartime, telling family and friends that he wanted no funeral service or headstone because he feared a burial site would only give detractors a place to protest.

And he insisted he slept just fine, believing with certainty that using the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved more lives than they erased because they eliminated the need for a drawn out invasion of Japan.

“He said, ‘What they needed was someone who could do this and not flinch — and that was me’,” said journalist Bob Greene, who wrote the Tibbets biography, Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War.

“I'm not proud that I killed 80,000 people, but I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did,” he said in a 1975 interview.

“You've got to take stock and assess the situation at that time. We were at war. You use anything at your disposal.”

“What Mr Tibbits did should never be forgiven,” said Takashi Mukai, whose mother, a nurse, suffered lifelong effects of radiation as she treated bombing victims. “His actions led to the indiscriminate killing of so many, from the elderly to young children.”