and I didn't
 think about the human consequences of
that bombing
and that made me
rethink
my own
missions
realized that I had never
understood the human consequences
of the bombing missions that I was flying
realize that I was
bombing really indiscriminately
and all this talk 
which they still in talk about you know precision
bombing
acurate bombing we only bomb military
targets was all nonsense yes
then a a new device that norden bombsite
you know when you talk Hiroshima you
know there are people who can say
or to get into that discussion  but merely
to point out that there are people who say
that that that the Atomic bomb may have saved
you know millions of lives on both sides
but be that as it may
you participated in a bombing 
0:01:03.379,0:01:08.549
 afterwards you could find no legitimate
excuse for that bombing at all and it took
hundreds as I understand it of allies 
French lives on the ground 
I don't want to bypass Hiroshima
okay you because
it is still one of the great myths in American
culture
that we saved lives by
bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and we did not and I've done a lot of research
on that date
the  the most elaborate research job on
that done 
crew of scholars
makes it clear we did not save lives
 Japanese were about to surrender we killed
several hundred thousand people  unnecessarily
and %uh
but also something else about that 
those not belonging to hiroshima
but to bombing
in general I think
I I would ask people who say we had to do
it in order to save lives
I would say well
if it was in August nineteen forty five
and that you knew that we could
end  the war with Japan more quickly is
that's what's
it was about
and they get more quickly not immediately
is that
we knew it would end and the Japanese were on their way
to defeat but
ending it more quickly
by dropping the bomb
would you be willing to kill hundred thousand
American children
to end the war more quickly
well the answer to that is obvious
nobody would say yes
but you willing to kill hundred thousand Japanese
children
in order to
end the War
more more quickly what does that mean
what does that say about
the way we think about other people
what does that say about war what does it
say about a willingness to kill
other people because their lives are not as
important as the ours
okay I
 I could'nt let that go because it's
such an important
myth in
American culture
0:03:19.089,0:03:21.599
