Nagasaki Bomber War Hero Dies

[AssKissinger]

CHICAGO - Fred Olivi, who copiloted the plane that dropped

the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, has died. He was 82.


Olivi, a native of Chicago, died Thursday at a rehabilitation center in a Chicago suburb, officials at Panozzo Bros. funeral home said Saturday. He suffered a stroke in August.

The crew of the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, on Aug. 9, 1945, the crew of the B-29 bomber nicknamed Bockscar dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered six days later, ending World War II.

"While thousands died, I feel sure the bomb had to be dropped because if the Americans had been forced to invade Japan, it would have been a bloodbath," Olivi told the Chicago Sun-Times in a 1995 interview.

Olivi was one of many veterans angered by an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution for the 50th anniversary of the bombings.

"It's slanted more in sympathy to the Japanese than it is to us," he said in a 1994 interview.

Olivi enlisted with the Army Air Forces immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. "He always wanted to fly," said his older brother, Emil Olivi. "The Air Corps gave him a chance, and he took it."

After the war, Olivi served in the Air Force Reserve, flying with a troop transport squadron based at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport until 1971. He ended his service as a lieutenant colonel.

Olivi also worked full-time as a manager of bridge operations and maintenance for the city of Chicago until he retired in 1988.

In the mid-1960s, Olivi married Carole McVey, whom he met in high school. She died in 1998.

Until his stroke, Olivi traveled around the country touring air shows, giving speeches, visiting museums and selling his self-published book, "Decision at Nagasaki."

Besides his brother, survivors include six nieces and nephews

[AssKissinger]

Another crew member died.

Pilot Whose Bomber Dropped A-Bomb on Nagasaki Dies

Sun Jul 18,11:16 AM ET Add U.S. National - Reuters to My Yahoo!



BOSTON (Reuters) - The pilot of the U.S. bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan in the last days of World War II died in a Boston hospital on Friday.



Charles W. Sweeney, who later rose to the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force, died of natural causes at Massachusetts General Hospital, his son, Joseph, said on Sunday. He was 84.


Sweeney was 25 when he and the crew of a B-29 bomber known as Bock's Car circled over Nagasaki several times on August 9, 1945, before a break in the clouds allowed them to release their 10,000 pound nuclear weapon, nicknamed "Fat Man."


Some 70,000 were killed.


His son said Sweeney remembered thinking that he had an enormously sensitive mission to perform and that he had better not bungle it.


Three days earlier the Enola Gay, another U.S. bomber, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Sweeney was involved in that attack as well, flying a plane that aided the Enola Gay, his son said.


"He was calm, cool, and collected. Flying was his life and he flew everything from bombers to fighter jets," his son said.


Sweeney later went on to work in his own business and continued to serve in the reserves after the war.


He is survived by his former wife, Dorothy, and 10 children

[AssKissinger]

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20050617p2a00m0dm001001c.html

American's censored Nagasaki A-bomb report unearthed after 60 years




LOS ANGELES -- A controversial report and photos a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist produced on the aftermath of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki have been unearthed almost 60 years after U.S. military censors forbade their publication, the Mainichi has learned.


The late George Weller was the first foreign reporter to reach Nagasaki after it was subjected to an atomic attack on Aug. 9, 1945, but Occupation censors refused to allow the publication of his stories and photos that told of conditions in the city and the pain suffered by those with radiation sickness.