Enola Gay: The Bombing Of Hiroshima (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
ALAMOGORDO, 16 de julio de 1945Aquella fría mañana de lunes, muchos de los 425 técnicos y científicos reunidos en la zona de pruebas extendían cuidadosamente sobre sus manos y rostros lociones de protección solar, empleando como iluminación los zigzagueantes rayos que intermitentemente quebraban la oscuridad anterior al amanecer. Aunque algunos de ellos se encontraban a 32 km de distancia de su fuente, temían que el destello, cuando llegara, pudiera provocarles quemaduras similares a las de los rayos solares. Pero éste podría ser el mal menor de sus efectos secundarios. Todos sabían que la radiactividad que acompañaría al destello podía matar. Si les alcanzaba, no habría loción ni poción alguna que impidiese la contaminación. Y como nadie sabía con seguridad cuáles serían los límites exteriores de una incontrolada reacción nuclear en cadena, era concebible que la destrucción pudiera extenderse más allá de la zona de tierra semidesértica que Groves y los científicos llamaban Lugar S y los nativos Jornada del Muerto. Incluso aquellos científicos que creían que la primera explosión atómica del mundo no se extendería muy lejos, compartían la sensación de estar dando un gran salto a lo desconocido. A unos 15 km de distancia del Campo Base donde Groves y Oppenheimer pasaban la mayor parte de aquellas tempranas horas, la bomba atómica, con su núcleo de plutonio, se alzaba sobre un andamio de estructura de acero de 30 metros de altura. Este punto en el desierto fue designado con el nombre en clave Zona Cero. En aquellos instantes, con la prueba programada para las dos de la madrugada, todo el mundo esperaba que no hubiera más adversidades. Pero el tiempo empezó a empeorar (...) Era una preocupación más para Groves, ya bastante incómodo por la ausencia de Tibbets en Alamogordo. Y porque, a causa del tiempo, el B-29 que Tibbets había ordenado que estuviese en el aire en el momento de la explosión, se hallaba aún en tierra. Ahora no había manera de saber qué efectos produciría la bomba sobre el avión que la dejara caer sobre Japón. Aparte de la ausencia de Tibbets, Groves estaba muy "molesto" por la forma en que algunos científicos presionaban a Oppenheimer para que demorase la prueba (...) La prueba se retrasó (...) Finalmente se programó la explosión para, aproximadamente, las 5.30 (...) Oppenheimer y todos sus ayudantes esperaban ansiosamente en un bunker de cemento. Groves se encontraba en una estrecha trinchera, a poca distancia del director científico...Una llamarada verdosa surgió de la tierra y ardió contra la nube de vapor de la base, iluminando tétricamente la oscuridad durante un breve instante (...) Una segunda llamarada estalló en cascada (...) A las 5.29.45, todo sucedió repentinamente. Pero fue demasiado rápido para que los observadores pudiesen distinguirlo; ningún ojo humano puede captar millonésimas de segundo; ningún cerebro humano puede registrar semejante fracción de tiempo. Nadie, por tanto, vio la auténtica llamarada de fuego cósmico. Lo que vieron fue su cegadora reflexión sobre las cercanas colinas (...) Muchos de los observadores se quedaron petrificados, enraizados a la tierra por una mezcla de terror y miedo reverencial ante la inmensidad del espectáculo. Oppenheimer recordó una línea del Bhagavad Gita, el sagrado poema épico de los hindúes. "Me he convertido en la muerte, la destructora de mundos." GORDON THOMAS, Enola Gay. Ediciones B, 2005.
In 1944 Air Force pilot Colonel Paul Tibbetts was approached by General Leslie Groves about assembling a unit for a super secret mission with possibilities of ending the war. He was given no guarantees for his personal safety or that it would even happen, only that if it worked he would be a hero, and if not he was on his own. He assembled his unit, which eventually became known as the 509th Composite, with men he knew and trusted and set up training in Wendover, a forsaken desert spot on the Utah/Nevada border, a place he deemed perfect because his men would hate it. While he knew some particulars about the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb, none of his men were given any information. This book follows the progress of the project mostly from the point of view of those involved with Col. Tibbetts as well as a number of Japanese individuals in Hiroshima through the dropping of the bomb from the B-29 Enola Gay, with some brief details of the men's lives after the war. Also included is some information on FDR and Truman and their early involvement. This book tries very hard to keep an objective view of the events which ended the war with Japan and avoids vilifying anyone. It presents the facts and recollections of those involved giving a good idea of what it was like at the time and some insights into the various personalities. It's an engrossing and easy read and the build up to the bomb is exciting and tense. Unfortunately, it falters at that point and the mission and aftermath are treated only in the lightest manner and details are few, making it feel somewhat anti-climatic. Nonetheless, an excellent book I highly recommend for those interested. There are a number of photos, but mostly just of the various individuals involved. The maps included, however, are very useful. About as good as the more recent and limited "Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima," which gives a good overall picture of most of those involved (particularly the scientists), but is more focused on the time from the first test to the use of the bomb and it's effects.
What do You think about Enola Gay: The Bombing Of Hiroshima (2006)?
With all the atrocities that Japan committed during the Second World War, it is galling for some Japanese lunatics to make Hiroshima as a shrine for peace. Kapal ng mga mukha!For the record, Japan was THE aggressor of that terrible war. And their atrocities are also for the record: Korea, Manchuria, Nanjing, the Bataan Death March, the Rape of Manila, the mistreatment of Allied POWs.And Japan had no intention to surrender until the Soviet Union declared war on them and the US delivered the coup de grace of the atomic bombs. And the excuse that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were civilian areas? WTF. Those cities contained military installations. And there were almost no civilians in Japan at that time, as almost all were active in the war effort.So was the use of the Bombs to effect the surrender of Japan necessary and justified?Hell, yeah! The Bombs ended the war and spared lives-both American and Japanese-that would have been lost in a longer, more brutal conflict that was Japan's making.
—Michael Gerald Dealino
This is really one of the best WWII books I have ever read. In a very modern style, it tells the story from several points of view, cutting back and forth: Tibbet's crew and the 509th Composite Group, the submarine captain that will sink the Indianapolis after it delivers A-Bomb parts, Japanese soldiers and civilans in and around Hiroshima. This also goes into detail on things I only knew of briefly, such as the American POWs in Hiroshima and the (overblown) insanity developed later by an Enola Gay crewman. It really seems from this book Japan was definitely on the ropes at the time of the nuke attacks: A growing dove coalition, inability to mount an effective air defence, and the impending entry of Russia into the Pacific Theatre, along with growing awareness of the futility of the Japanese war effort. Also, in telling the engineering side of the story, nuclear bombs were definitely "in the air" and an unfortunate next step in military technology whether the United States developed them or not or needed them to either defeat Japan or send a message to Red Russia.
—Tom Schulte
