On July 28, 2014 (July 2, 2014 in the lunar calendar), Theodore Van Kirk, the last pilot of the US military bombing of Hiroshima, passed away. Photo: Theodore Van Kirk US media reported that Theodore Van Kirk, the last living member of the mission team that carried out the atomic bomb bombing of Hiroshima, Japan during World War II, died in the United States on July 28, 2014. He was 93 years old. Van Kirk expressed his distaste for the atomic bomb and war in interviews before his death, but insisted that the decision to drop the bomb on Japan was correct because it accelerated the surrender of Japanese militarism and "saved lives" in the long run. Van Kirk's son, Tom Van Kirk, confirmed that the elderly man died of natural causes at his home in Rock Mountain, Georgia, on the 28th. The family is scheduled to hold a funeral on August 5 in his hometown of Northumberland, Pennsylvania, and bury Van Kirk next to the tombstone of his late wife. Van Kirk participated in nearly 60 bombing missions during his service, but a bombing mission over Hiroshima made him famous. On August 6, 1945, the US military dispatched the B-29 bomber "Inola Gay" to carry out a special bomb dropping mission over Hiroshima. Among the crew members, Van Kirk, then 24, was responsible for navigation and collaborated with 11 other Air Force members to drop bombs. Bombers dropped an atomic bomb codenamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. As of the end of that year, the number of people killed by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima City was approximately 140,000, more than one-third of the city's population of 350,000. Three days later, the US military dropped an atomic bomb codenamed "Fat Man" on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. On August 15, Japan officially announced its surrender. "One Throw" goes into history. Van Kirk did not tell the outside world about the mission for a long time after retiring. In 2005, in an interview with the Associated Press, he described his experiences before and after dropping the bomb. He said that the mission was completed very successfully. He was responsible for guiding the bomber to the designated position in the darkness, and the actual arrival time was only 15 seconds later than planned. When the bomber dropped the atomic bomb, he and other bomb crew members just wanted to avoid the blast. Van Kirk recalled that they did not know the principle of atomic bomb explosion at the time, nor whether the shock wave would "tear the bomber to pieces." So, after dropping the bomb, they started counting until they reached the 43rd number. They had previously been told that the atomic bomb should explode 43 seconds after being dropped. "I think everyone on the plane thought it was a dud, and it seemed to take a lot longer than 43 seconds." Van Kirk said. Then he saw dazzling lights, then a wave of shock that the bomber could clearly feel, and another wave of shock. "Long 43 Seconds" Atomic Bomb "Saved Lives" Debates from all walks of life about whether the United States should use the atomic bomb against Japan continue to this day. Van Kirk believes that neither war nor the atomic bomb can solve the problem, but it is indeed "necessary" to use the atomic bomb for Japan. According to Van Kirk, the United States was also preparing to launch a landing operation on Japan. Compared with the US military's expectation of casualties on both sides caused by Japan's long-term indiscriminate bombing and landing operations, the atomic bomb was a decision to choose the lesser of two evils and "saved lives." "To be honest, I think the use of atomic bombs saved lives in the long run, saved many lives, and the vast majority of the lives saved were Japanese," Van Kirk said. The atomic bomb made him hate war."The entire experience of World War II shows that war has solved nothing, and the atomic bomb has not solved anything. I personally think there should be no more atomic bombs in the world, and I hope to see them all destroyed. After the end of World War II, Van Kirk continued to serve in the military for a year, then went to college for further study, earned a degree in chemical engineering, and worked for chemical giant DuPont until his retirement in 1985. His son Tom said that like many World War II veterans, Van Kirk was reluctant to mention his military experience for a long time and did not speak until later in his life. "I didn't even know he had participated in that mission until I was 10 years old and saw some newspaper clippings from previous news in my grandmother's attic," Tom told the Associated Press on the 29th."I know that he is regarded as a war hero, but we only regard him as a great father. Theodore Van Kirk, left, part of the crew of the Enora Guy