Enola Gay

The song is named after the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress bomber that carried "Little Boy", the first atomic bomb to be used in an act of war, dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, killing more than 100,000 of its citizens. The lyrics to the song attack the decision to use the bomb and suggest that the bombing was unnecessary ("It shouldn't ever have to end this way"). The phrase “Is mother proud of Little Boy today?” refers to the nickname of the uranium bomb. The phrase “It's 8:15, and that's the time that it's always been” refers to the precise time of detonation over Hiroshima at 8:15am. The song was also released during a major controversy surrounding then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's decision to allow US nuclear missiles to be stationed in Britain. Watch the video and see what you think? For the exam, think about......are nuclear weapons ever justified? Was America right to drop the atomic bomb? What would religious believers say and why? DB