Such a terrible waste, such a loss of life.' Theodore 'Dutch' Van Kirk, of Northumberland, Pa., later said that 'I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run, but I pray no man will have to witness that sight again. troops who were then preparing for the invasion of Japan.Ĭapt. It had hastened the end of the war and saved the lives of U.S. Lewis, Caron and the others, however, would later say they had no regrets about dropping the bomb. 'I honestly have the feeling of groping for words to explain this or I might say, my God, what have we done?' Everyone on the ship is actually dumbstruck even though we had expected something fierce.' ''If I live a hundred years, I'll never quite get these few minutes out of my mind.
He was keeping a log of the flight, scribbling on the backs of old War Department forms. It was about that time that Tibbets turned the airplane around, so that everybody could get a look at it.' Flames in different spots would be springing up. 'And fires, I could see fires spring up through this undercast, or whatever you would call it, that was covering the city. It looked like bubbling molasses, let's say, spreading out and running up into the foothills, just covering the whole city.' I could see the city, and it was being covered with this low, bubbling mass. 'As we got further away, I could see the city then, not just the mushroom, coming up.
