Paul Tibbets died at 92

that man is a bad ass who saved millions of American's lives. I would gladly go to his funeral and prevent any protesters. I know his mission saved my life. my grandfather was supposed to be among the first wave of Marines to hit mainland Japan.

Shub wrote: Wow, that's a shame to hear. He was a hero.

Indeed.

Anyone who says otherwise needs to be shot... in the kneecap... and be beheaded with a keyboard (multiple ones, since the sawing would be too much for just one).

Though we killed too many innocent Japanese that day, think of all the Japanese lives that the war's end has saved.


Edited by Tolgak - 01 November 2007 at 5:02pm

It should be illegal to protest a funeral, free speech or not.

It should be one of those loopholes, like school.

That's a tough load to bear, but my grandfather was already training for the invasion of the Japanese Home Islands when they dropped the bomb. Considering they had school children training with sharp sticks, invasion of mainland Japan would have resulted in resulted in massive casualties on both sides.

I just wrote a short essay on him yesterday for my history class...He had a pretty interesting career before The Bomb too, you should check it out...

Dune wrote: It makes me shiver that we call him a hero for dropping a bomb. Now I don't blame him for his actions, it was what the military ordered. However, calling the destruction of Hiroshima a lifesaver is quite ironic. Well, only to people who view life as equal.

It's true that it's a lifesaver, for both sides if you think about it.  If we did not have the capability of doing that, we would've invaded Japan, which would be very costly for both sides.  The Japanese would fight until death defending their homeland, and the U.S/Russia would keep fighting at all costs to end Japan.

Mehs wrote: Dune wrote: It makes me shiver that we call him a hero for dropping a bomb. Now I don't blame him for his actions, it was what the military ordered. However, calling the destruction of Hiroshima a lifesaver is quite ironic. Well, only to people who view life as equal. It's true that it's a lifesaver, for both sides if you think about it.  If we did not have the capability of doing that, we would've invaded Japan, which would be very costly for both sides.  The Japanese would fight until death defending their homeland, and the U.S/Russia would keep fighting at all costs to end Japan.

That's all hersay. In fact, most statistics showing that Operation Downfall would have caused up to 1,000,000 American casualties is hersay as well. Fact it, it was a quick, easy, and for the Americans, painless way to end the war and keep a hold of Japan instead of Russia. There are just as many important people that still argue that the bombs were not necessary.

To revert back to my first point however, I do not see this man as a hero.

Dune wrote: I do not see this man as a hero.

I have to agree, and I'm kind of shocked to see some people hailing him as such.

Not to insult the dead or anything, but how is Mr. Tibbets a hero excatly? He only dropped a bomb as thousands of other pilots did in the years before. He was a brave man that fought for his country as many others did. RIP

Mephistopheles wrote: Tolgak wrote: Shub wrote: Wow, that's a shame to hear. He was a hero. Indeed.Anyone who says otherwise needs to be shot... in the kneecap... and be beheaded with a keyboard (multiple ones, since the sawing would be too much for just one). That's the American way that Mr. Tibbets was defending. Killing those who disagree with you! Make sure free speech is only for the select few who have the "right" opinion. The "saving lives" thing can be debated. Because Japan was going to surrender before we dropped those anyways. The only situation was if they would have a conditional surrender. I have my doubts that there would have actually been an American invasion on mainland Japan had the bombs not been dropped. Afterall more Japanese were killed from the firebombings. So they knew our might and what cost it would be to go up against us. If another week had gone by would we still have gotten an unconditional surrender? Who knows. That's why I say it's up for debate. We can't know but only speculate. HOWEVER it was more than just Japan. We did it as well to show Germany (and the rest of the world, really) what we had in our tressure chests.

Well, I should have nixed the hero part and replaced it with brave.

What I meant was that protesting his funeral is something I don't see as justified in any way. As for killing the protesters, I thought you'd see (in the humour I attempted) I was emphasizing my disagreement with the protesters.

The nukes IMO were playing it safe. The Japanese could've been planning to hold out that surrender for as long as possible as far as we know. There was disagreement within the leadership as to what the country should do, including a plan to take out as many of their opponents as possible in a final stand in order to reduce some of the harsh ramifications of the surrender agreement of the time. The leadership held out their differences in these opinions 'till the bombs forced them to end the conflict immediately.

The surrender could have played out with much less loss of life or much more, but it was better to prevent the latter option ASAP rather than to risk extending the conflict.