![]() With its big bomb, Enola Gay is dangerously overloaded. It is also the name of his mother, immortalised in ways neither of them could possibly imagine. Beneath him is the name of his plane, Enola Gay. The B-29 dazzles under floodlights like some Hollywood premiere. By tomorrow the news will be splashed across the world. 6 hours, 49 minutesīefore departure, the air crews are subjected to a battery of photographers. To the president, the one solution to the even greater carnage of an invasion of the Japanese home islands is now hanging inside a B-29 bomb bay on the other side of the world. At least 12,000 Americans and 107,000 Japanese soldiers were killed. Still fresh is the memory of Okinawa, the island south of Japan, captured in June after three months of brutal fighting. Estimates of casualties vary, but one thing is certain: the Japanese will fight to the bitter end. The first, Operation Olympic, is scheduled for 1 November the second for March 1946. Just a few weeks previously, his joint chiefs of staff had presented their timetable for the projected invasion of Japan. His decision to use the bomb is not made without misgivings, but President Truman sees no real alternative. Yesterday, he received word that the atomic mission was set to depart at 02:45 Tinian time. ![]() Meanwhile, 9,000 miles away, on board the USS Augusta in the mid-Atlantic, US President Truman emerges from Sunday service.
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