The pilot of the U.S. plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, asked Pope John XXIII privately in the early 1960s to offer support to the city, relatives of the pilot have told Kyodo News.
Charles Sweeney, a devout Catholic who piloted the B-29 Bockscar in the attack, also made donations to a Catholic-affiliated orphanage in Nagasaki due to his concern for war orphans after visiting the city in September 1945, Sweeney's daughter and brother told Kyodo News ahead of Sunday's 70th anniversary of the bombing.
Before his death in 2004, Sweeney consistently claimed that the atomic bombing was necessary, as it brought World War II to an end.