Sixty years ago at this very time the Enola Gay dropped the worlds first atomic bomb to be exploded in anger over the city of Hiroshima, Japan killing 10's of thousands instantly and eventually 242,437 citizens of Hiroshima. Hiroshima had an estimated population of 350,000 at the time.

It was essentially an act of terror but we don't call it that because our side did it. It had the desired result with the surrender of Japan on August 15th, 1945 and endless debate has been entered into as to whether this rapid conclusion of the war justified the means. (It always comes back to that doesn't it; an argument over whether the ends justified the means.)

So what is the difference between killing 242,437 innocent civilians with an atomic bomb and killing approximately the same number with bayonet and bullet, as the Japanese army did in Nanking in 1937? Nothing of course except that the deaths of the 200,000 - 300,000 chinese killed by the Japanese are laid upon the consciences of a division or more of Japanese soldiers. The deaths of the 242,437 civilians who died from this single bomb rest upon the consciences of the 12 airmen who flew the Enola Gay on that fateful day.

Those amongst you who are of gung-ho inclination may well think that these airmen were fortunate to be able to serve their country in such a fashion and they may have thought exactly the same thing. Clearly however, one has to be a complete psychopath to not feel the weight of 242,437 innocent souls upon ones conscience regardless of how justified the cause. None of these airmen understood fully the power of the device they were carrying until it detonated. As the plane flew away it was hit by a shock wave from the explosion, Co-pilot Robert Lewis looked over his shoulder, he turned to the Pilot, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Tibbets and said "Look at that! Look at that! Look at that!"

Then when the full realisation came upon him he said

"My god! What have we done? If I live for 100 years I will never get this out of my mind."

There were many casualities of this terrible war, and amongst them were the airmen of the Enola Gay.

(Suffix: As I was writing this piece one of my dogs set up a mournful howl in the back yard. It was picked up by some of the neighbouring dogs as well. It is not his normal behaviour, it was quite eerie. What an appropriate auditory backdrop while I was writing.)