General Tibbets To Highlight Saipan’s 60th Anniversary Event
Retired General Paul Tibbets, the man who piloted the Enola Gay, will return to the islands which launched his flight on August 6, 1945 – a flight that changed the course of history. General Tibbets will be the keynote speaker at the 60th Commemoration of the Battles of Saipan and Tinian, an event to be held on both islands in mid-June, 2004.
The Mariana Islands, specifically Saipan, Tinian and Guam, were key pieces of real estate for American troops in World War II. The land battle began on June 15, 1944, when U.S. Marines and Infantry fought through a hail of bullets to set foot on Saipan. The battle raged for weeks until Saipan was finally declared secure on July 9th, at a cost of more than 3,000 American lives, over 30,000 Japanese, and over 900 of the local population.
Once the islands were secured and runways constructed, the Americans could launch B-29 Bomber raids against mainland Japan. At one point, Northfield on Tinian became the busiest airport in the world, with planes taking off every 45 seconds. Yet the Japanese were undeterred and vowed to fight the Americans with every citizen of Japan.
The decision to use America’s “secret weapon” was left up to President Harry Truman. If the U. S. could avoid an invasion of the Japanese homeland, it was estimated that 1 million American lives would be spared. So on August 6, 1945, Paul Tibbets and his crew took off from Tinian in the Enola Gay bound for Hiroshima. The resulting explosion, coupled with the similar bombing of Nagasaki three day later, convinced the Japanese that continuing the war was futile. They unconditionally surrendered to the Americans on September 2, 1945, thus bringing and end to World War II. The Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of World War II will be held on Saipan and Tinian from June 10th through June 16th, 2004. Many veterans of the campaign, their families and friends, historians and others interested in the War in the Pacific will be returning to honor the men and women of America’s “greatest generation”. To learn more about the event or to find out how to attend, visit www.worldwarii.info.
