TALKING
POINTS FOR THE B-29 STAMP
The
B-29 Superfortress has never been honored on a stamp.
General
MacArthur's staff estimated that our casualties would be two
hundred and fifty thousand to one million in the invasion of
Japan and that the Japanese would suffer three million.
Hundreds
of thousands of Americans, their children and grandchildren
are alive because of the B-29's part in ending World War II.
We don't want to celebrate the atom bomb. We don't want a mushroom
cloud on any stamp, only a picture of our beautiful silver bird.
The B-29 was the key to victory in the Pacific. It brought an
end to the most brutal war in history.
From
1945 to 1953, the B-29 protected America during the Korean War
and the years of the cold war as the bulwark of the Strategic
Air Command.
By
any measure, the B-29 is vital to America's history.
The
war's abrupt end spared the lives of more than 300,000 Allied
P.O.W.s. The Japanese had scheduled the execution of all in
the event of invasion.
The
B-29 was the world's largest, heaviest, fastest, highest flying
and most complex aircraft of its time.
Almost twice as large as a B-17, her sister aircraft, she could
carry twice the bomb load twice as far in two thirds the time.
It brought a hasty conclusion to more than a decade of slaughter,
slavery and unspeakable horror to millions of Far Eastern people
by the Japanese Army.
It made wonderful peacetime contributions to commercial air
travel and safety. It made common the use of pressurized cabins,
for passenger comfort, and airborne radar, which improved all-weather
flying, air navigation and air traffic control.
Most
other World War II aircraft have been honored with a commemorative
stamp. None of them contributed so much and so conclusively
affected the outcome of a war.
President
Clinton cancelled the B-29 stamp at the request of the Japanese.
Japan sought ways to avoid having to answer for its conduct
during the war. They decided to claim they were victims because
they were the only country on which Atomic Bombs were used.
Since then, and to advance their own cause, America's anti-nuclearists
have embraced the idea of Japanese "victimhood" which
unfairly associates the B-29 with Atomic Bombs.
The dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was voted the top
news story of the twentieth century.
On November 4, 1954 the last 8-29 in operation was retired at
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona. 2004 will be
the 50th anniversary of that event.
