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29 Jul 2014 22:16 #204259
by chairman
The last surviving crew member of the bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan in 1945 has died at age 93.
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29 Jul 2014 22:17 #204260
by chairman
The last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay, the US bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan in 1945, hastening the end of World War II and moving the world into the atomic age, has died at age 93.
[/size]Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk died of natural causes on Monday at a retirement community in the US state of Georgia, his son Tom Van Kirk said.Van Kirk navigated the flight that dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The bomb instantly killed about 78,000 people. By the end of 1945, the number of dead had reached about 140,000 out of an estimated population of 350,000.
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29 Jul 2014 22:19 #204261
by chairman
Three days later, the United States dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered on August 15,1945, bringing World War II to an end.
[/size]The Pennsylvania-born Van Kirk flew missions in Europe during the war and visited Nagasaki in the aftermath of the atomic blast there. He studied chemical engineering after the war and became an executive with DuPont.He said the Hiroshima mission was relatively easy, with no anti-aircraft fire coming from the ground. The big worry was whether the plane would blow up after the bomb detonated, he told Georgia Public Broadcasting.He said that 43 seconds after the bomb was dropped, he saw a flash from the blast. A shockwave then came and shook the aircraft.Whether the United States should have used the atomic bomb has been debated ever since. Van Kirk told the Associated Press news agency that he thought it was necessary because it shortened the war and eliminated the need for an Allied land invasion that could have cost more lives on both sides.
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Livvy
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30 Jul 2014 17:02 #204453
by Livvy
This is one of those things that shocks you when you find out about it, as even though we like to think it was ages ago, there's still men and women who lived through it out there.
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bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan in 1945 has died at age 93
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