On August 6, 1945 the crew of a B-29 bomber the Enola Gay had a mission to accomplish
and they executed it with professionalism, courage and precision. At 8:15 in
the morning, Hiroshima time their mission introduced the world to nuclear
weapons and the devastating power they unleash. As airmen, the crew was flying thousands of
feet over the target they were tasked to destroy, which removed the “personal
element” of killing the enemy. In Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s book On Killing: The Psychological Cost of
Learning to Kill in War and Society, he describes how distance from your
enemy plays a role in coping mentally with what you have done. According to
Grossman’s theory, the further you are from seeing the enemy die, the less
personal the act is, the easier it is to cope.
On May 11, 1955, This
is Your Life, a live broadcasted television program, introduced the
co-pilot of the Enola Gay Robert L.
Lewis to a survivor from Hiroshima, Kiyoshi Tanimoto. Lewis was an emotional
wreck, the comfort of distance was removed and it is apparent when you view the
show that he is horrified by what he participated in. Lewis’ emotional
statement, “My God, what have we done?” demonstrates the amount of remorse that
man was living with. I would never have agreed to go on that show. I hope Lewis
gained some sense of comfort from that experience.
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