The Final Storm - Jeff Shaara [247]
In 1986 Tibbets retires, and in 1989 writes his memoirs. But he cannot escape the occasional outbursts of controversy and vitriol aimed at him for his role in the war, and he responds aggressively to some of the criticism against him in an updated edition of the memoir, published in 1998. He writes:
One must sympathize with any movement designed to reduce or eliminate human slaughter. Nuclear warfare is indeed inhuman and ought to be banned. By the same token, other forms of warfare, such as the dropping of fire bombs and the shooting of soldiers with cannon and rifles, are likewise uncivilized and should be outlawed. Those who try to distinguish between civilized and uncivilized forms of combat soon find themselves defending the indefensible. To suggest that one specific act of war is barbaric and thereby illegal is to imply that other forms of slaughter are acceptable and consequently legal.
Interestingly, those who protest most vigorously our use of the atomic bomb against Japan deplore the killing of so many people in just two raids. One is given the impression that a thousand planes rather than two, should have been used to accomplish the same result.
Though many reports over the years suggest that General Tibbets endured his later years in an agony of guilt, his own quote on the cover of his memoir best sums up his feelings: “To me, [the bomb] meant putting an end to the fighting and consequent loss of lives. In fact, I viewed my mission as one to save lives rather than take them. The intervening years have brought me many letters and personal contacts with individuals who maintain that they would not be alive if it had not been for what I did. Likewise, I have been asked in letters and to my face if I was not conscience stricken for the loss of life I caused by dropping the first atomic bomb. To those who ask, I quickly reply, ‘Not in the least.’ ”
He dies in Columbus, Ohio, in 2007, at age ninety-two.
Actually, the bomb is no more revolutionary than the first throwing stick or javelin or the first cannon or the first submarine. It is simply a new instrument added to the orchestra of death which is war.
—GEORGE PATTON
It is a sobering thought that our two bombs, feeble by today’s standards, were the curtain-raiser on what many view as the supreme human tragedy. Mankind’s best hope is that the prologue was so frightening that the main show will be canceled.
—GENERAL PAUL TIBBETS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEFF SHAARA is the New York Times bestselling author of No Less Than Victory, The Steel Wave, The Rising Tide, To the Last Man, The Glorious Cause, Rise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure—two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic The Killer Angels. Jeff Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University. He lives again in Tallahassee. Visit the author online at www.jeffshaara.com.
Jeff Shaara is available for select readings and lectures. To inquire about a possible appearance, please contact the Random House Speakers Bureau at rhspeakers@randomhouse.com.
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
T O THE R EADER
L IST OF M APS
S OURCES AND A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I NTRODUCTION
P ART O NE
1. T HE S UBMARINER
2. N IMITZ
3. A DAMS
4. U SHIJIMA
5. N IMITZ
6. A DAMS
7. A DAMS
8. A DAMS
9. A DAMS
10. U SHIJIMA
11. A DAMS
12. A DAMS
13. N IMITZ
14. A DAMS
P ART T WO
15. U SHIJIMA
16. A DAMS
17. A DAMS
18. A DAMS
19. P ORTER
20. A DAMS
21. U SHIJIMA
22. A DAMS
23. A DAMS
24. U SHIJIMA
25. A DAMS
P ART T HREE
26. T RUMAN
27. T IBBETS
28. H AMISHITA
29. T IBBETS
30. T IBBETS
31. H AMISHITA
32. T RUMAN
33. A DAMS
A FTERWORD
About the Author