Seventy-five years ago this August the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay took off from Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean and dropped its atomic payload on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It marked the first time in the history of mankind that such a weapon was used.
I visited Tinian while on a photojournalism assignment several years ago. The concrete runways were still visible though overgrown with vegetation on which goats grazed. Long and flat, Tinian had proved the ideal airstrip from which to launch the heavy Superfortress bomber. On Aug. 6, 1945, the single bomb destroyed nearly the entire city and brought an end to the war with Japan.
The Enola Gay was named after the mother of the B-29 pilot, Col. Paul Tibbets. The bomb was code-named Little Boy.
Perhaps due to its dark place in history, Tinian possessed an unsettling vibe. I included Tinian as a setting in my newly-released novel, the yakuza Japanese underworld thriller Pacific Poison.
Pacific Poison is racking up five-star reviews on Amazon where it's available in ebook and paperback.
Here are the links:
US Amazon
UK Amazon
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