I ' ll _ t herIY, We Have Your Message' Even in this age of
credulity, I don't think there has been a bigger hoax than the case of the alleged Hiroshima pilot, Major Eatherly. Cele- brated in a poem by Mr. John Wain, by liberal crusaders and, above all, in the martyrology of the anti-bomb movement, Eatherly was sup- Posed to have led the nuclear strikes against the Japanese cities. As a result, it became accepted as fact that he had sought out through crime the punishment he felt he deserved, and had been victimised by the American military authorities, who were accused of having hounded the gallant pilot into gaol and asylum. In Lord. Russell's words, Eatherly's fate was 'symbolic Of the suicidal madness of our time.' The truth is, of course, as we now know from a lengthy and diligent dissection of the whole case by the
American writer, William Huie, that Eatherly was never within 200 miles of the doomed cities, desperately wanted the 'honour' of dropping the Bikini bomb, and was never greeted as a return- ing war-hero in his home-town. He felt no guilt whatsoever about Hiroshima, only indignation at not achieving greater recognition from the Air Force. So far from being revolted by the violence of war, he began his post-1945 career as a gun-runner. What is most appalling about the whole case-history, of which I am sure much will be heard in the future, is not that Eatherly was exploited. It is that throughout the whole episode, until Mr. Huie came along—no one had bothered to look at Eatherly's USAF record, open for public inspection all the time.
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