Memories of August

1st September 1945,

 Dear Diary,

                       Truly, the month of August has been the longest month for me. Is this why we fought for the war for? So that we can kill innocent people and not for justice and liberty of the oppressed? When I signed up for the United States Army Air Forces, I did not realize the extents I would have to go to. I just thought I have to bomb the Japanese as payback for what they did at pearl harbour and liberate the territories they had unjustly conquered. and perhaps fight for justice and liberty for the oppressed peoples. But in during last the year all my hopes had vanished. it was a dirty war, a war not fought for any glory, justice or peace but for power. I saw most of our firebombing missions in Japan, they not only targeted military facilities but also civilians. What war that is being fought for justice involves the killing of innocent civilians? It is a violation of the doctrine of just war as dictated in our holy scriptures. What we were basically doing was killing innocents in order to fulfil the power agenda of a few politicians.

    However, it got worse after March as our bombing raids began to increase more and more, we were only killing the Japs and their women and children but not winning the war. As our army battled in Okinawa and Iwo Jima, they were suffering heavy losses as these yellow-skinned devils were tough and had a lot of fight in them. Therefore our leadership made the final call. This is where I come in and this is where my story begins. In December 1944, I was drafted to the top-secret 509th Composite group under Colonel Tibbets, I did not know what was in store for me then.  What followed were weeks of rigorous training of dropping pumpkin-bombs over Mountain Home, Idaho. I was confused then as Tibbets was extremely secretive about our mission. I was thinking that why was this amount of rigorous training necessary for a single bomb drop. After all, I had been part of many bombing missions, they had all involved multiple bombs which were sure to hit the target. I was also thinking about the point of the mission, as I had never seen such secrecy before. 

    Then finally  I got my answer in March as we were transported to a top-secret airbase in the Tinian Islands and a general briefed us. His speech was direct and crisp. He said, " Gentlemen, this monkey business with Japan has been going for many years now. This war has cost us a lot of young, American lives and therefore it has to end now!! Therefore because of the hard work of our scientists, we have developed a new weapon, the atomic bomb that we will use to end the war now!!!" After the speech, we were stunned. Will the war actually end? We thought will our sacrifice bear fruit? We began our training with full force and vigour. Then finally on August 7, the day arrived and my mission was to drop the bomb over a city called Hiroshima. I was excited to say the least as I sat in the cockpit of my plane, Enola Gay. I knew that this would be the most eventful day of my life. As I flew my plane over the city and dropped the bomb, while returning, I could see a great mushroom cloud developing over the horizon. I did not know then what it meant. Later when I read the news reports, I was horrified. The war had ended but at what cost? I was and will be personally responsible for what happened on that fateful day. We won the war but I know that we did not win it for the right reasons. and neither did we fight for the right causes.