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Last survivor of Enola Gay aircrew that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima dies aged 93 Last survivor of Enola Gay aircrew that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima dies aged 93
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The last surviving member of the crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima has died in aged 93. The last surviving member of the American crew who dropped the Hiroshima nuclear bomb that killed 140,000 people and triggered the end of the Second World War has died.
Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk died on Monday at the retirement home where he lived in Stone Mountain, Georgia, his son Tom Van Kirk said. Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk, 93, was navigator on board the US B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. 
He flew as navigator on the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb deployed in wartime over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. The blast and its after-effects killed 140,000. He died of natural causes at a retirement home in Georgia where he lived with his son Tom Van Kirk.
Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. That blast and its aftermath claimed 80,000 lives. Six days after the Nagasaki bombing, Japan surrendered. “I honestly believe the use of the bomb saved lives in the long run,” Mr Van Kirk said in a 2005. “There were a lot of lives saved. Most of the lives saved were Japanese.” Mr Van Kirk served in the military for a year after the war ended in 1945 and then became an expert in chemical engineering, later joining the US chemicals company DuPont where he stayed until his retirement in 1985.
But he added: “Atomic weapons don’t settle anything. I personally think there shouldn’t be any atomic bombs in the world – I’d like to see them all abolished.” The B-29 bomber 'Enola Gay' in Japan, after bombing Hiroshima (Getty) One of 12 crew members on the Enola Gay, he always defended the bombing, saying it accelerated an end to a conflict that would have cost many more lives.
The B-29 bomber 'Enola Gay' in Japan, after bombing Hiroshima (Getty) Recalling his fateful mission, Mr Van Kirk said that as the 9,000lb (4,000kg) bomb fell towards the sleeping city, he and his crewmates did not know whether it would actually work and, if it did, whether its shockwaves would destroy their aircraft. Two-fifths of Hiroshima’s population of 350,000 died in the attack and its aftermath. Three days after Hiroshima, a second nuclear device was dropped on Nagasaki, claiming 80,000 lives. Japan surrendered six days later.
They counted the 43 seconds they’d been told it would take to detonate, and heard nothing. “I think everybody in the plane concluded it was a dud. It seemed a lot longer than 43 seconds,” he said. “I honestly believe the use of the atomic bomb saved lives in the long run,” he said in an interview in 2005.
A funeral service will take place next week in his home town of Northumberland, Pennsylvania. He will be buried there next to his wife, who died in 1975.
AP