WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The son of the U.S. pilot who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945 has criticized Washington for sending a delegation to Friday's ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the attack, a U.S. TV reported Thursday.
The attendance of a delegation led by U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos is an "unsaid apology" and appears to be an attempt to "rewrite history," Gene Tibbets, son of Brig. Gen. Paul Tibbets, who piloted the B-29 Enola Gay, was quoted as telling FoxNews on Wednesday.
Tibbets, whose father died in 2007 at age 92, said of the administration of President Barack Obama, "I know it's the anniversary, but I don't know what the hell they're trying to do. It needs to be left alone. The war is over," FoxNews said.
"It's making the Japanese look like they're the poor people, like they didn't do anything," he also said, arguing that the visit is an act of contrition that his father would never have approved. "They hit Pearl Harbor, they struck us. We didn't slaughter the Japanese — we stopped the war."
Having made similar comments to CNN and other media, Tibbets quoted many veterans as telling him in dozens of calls he says he gets every year around this time from them, "If it wasn't for your dad, I wouldn't be here," according to FoxNews.