Japan

How World War II Could Have Ended Without Hiroshima

Bill Thompson

Today, August 6, is the 80th anniversary of the day the United States became the first – and so far, only – nation to use a nuclear weapon in war.

The Enola Gay dropped a bomb codenamed “Little Boy” that destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

It was soon after the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki three days later that Japan surrendered. But could that surrender have happened without those two bombings?

We now know that in the spring of 1945 an American intelligence officer was tasked with getting messages to Tokyo, opening the door to a peaceful surrender.

That officer was then-27-year-old Martin Quigley, who was with the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS — the forerunner of the CIA.

Through complicated diplomatic maneuvers that sound like something out of a spy thriller quickly accomplished his mission.

So what happened?

Quigley explored that question in a 1991 book that he wrote, called Peace Without Hiroshima. He and I talked about it one summer day in 1991 when he was on a book tour.

So here now, from 1991, Martin Quigley.

Martin Quigley died in 2011. He was 93.

Pearl Harbor Remembered

Bill Thompson

On a quiet Sunday in early December, millions of Americans went about their usual routines.

Folks went to church. Children played out in the yard. Teenagers went to movies. Families went to dinner. People listen to football games on the radio.

And then everything changed.

On the radio came the horrible news that the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had been attacked by forces from Japan

And just like that, America was plunged into World War II.

Back in 1991 as the nation was preparing to mark the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, I took the opportunity to ask anyone I interviewed that year who was old enough to remember, where they were and what they were doing on that day.

You’re about to hear from men and women who on December 7th 1941 were children or teenagers or young men and women, but who later became major figures in American culture and society. Journalists broadcasters, actors, mystery, writers, military leaders and sports heroes.

You are also going to hear some words and terms and songs that by today’s standards are rude, offensive, and unacceptable. We were a nation that had just been punched hard in the face and our anger was fresh and raw.

Bob Greene

Bill Thompson
BG PAUL W TIBBETS JR

Tomorrow, August 6th, is the 75th anniversary of the first-ever use of a nuclear weapon in war, when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

At the controls of the B-29 called the Enola Gay was a young pilot named Paul Tibbetts.

After the war, Tibbetts returned to a very humble and private life in Ohio.

Bob Greene

As the 1990s were drawing to a close, Chicago Tribune columnist and author Bob Greene was finally, after years of trying, to get Paul Tibbetts to talk about his history-making flight.

The result was Greene’s book “Duty.”

So here now, from 2001, Bob Greene.

Paul Tibbetts died in 2007 at age 92.

Bob Greene is 73 now. He left thre Chicago Tribune in 2002. His last book was publsihed in 2009.