Robert A. Lewis

Robert A. Lewis (October 18, 1917 - June 18, 1983) was a United States Army Air Forces Officer serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. He was the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress bomber which dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.

Early life

Lewis grew up in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, and attended Ridgefield Park High School there, graduating in 1937.

The Hiroshima bombing

On 6 August 1945 Captain Lewis was the co-pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress bomber which dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Normally the aircraft commander assigned to the Enola Gay, for this important mission he acted as co-pilot, assisting Enola Gay's new aircraft commander Colonel Paul Tibbets.

In 1990, an item described as the log from the Hiroshima mission was offered for auction by Christie's by Lewis' widow. The validity of the log could not be confirmed, as there were alternate claims for an authentic version of the Enola Gay's log. The log was bought at auction in 1971 for $37,000, and then purchased in 1978 by Malcolm Forbes for $85,000, for what was then a record price for an American autographed document.

Guest appearance

On May 11, 1955, Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Japanese minister who had been living in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing and survived the explosion of 6 August 1945, had traveled to the US with the Hiroshima maidens to get reconstructive surgery for them, and while there was the subject of an episode of the American show This Is Your Life. After meeting various friends, family members and former colleagues and parishioners, Reverend Tanimoto's special guest at the end of the night was Captain Lewis, by then retired, representing the crew of the aircraft that had so dramatically changed his life.

By that time, Robert Lewis was working as a personnel manager for Henry Heide Candy Company, a confectionery company. Lewis described the Enola Gay's flight and the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. When asked if he remembered his reaction on that fateful day, he remarked:

[In the official log] I wrote down the words, "My God, what have we done?"

In John Hersey's book Hiroshima, he writes of the interview and states that on the night, Lewis was drunk and nearly missed the show:

Years later, Marvin Green told a young journalist named Rodney Barker...that Lewis had panicked the show people by failing to turn up that afternoon for the rehearsal of all participants except Tanimoto. It seemed that he had expected to be given a fat check for appearing on the show, and when he learned that he would not, he had gone out bar crawling. Green said he had found the copilot in time to get a cup of coffee in him before the show.

Later life

In the 1950s, Lewis lived with his family in a home that he helped build in Old Tappan, New Jersey.

In the 1970's Mr. Lewis lived in a small cottage on Summit Road in the quiet Lake Mohawk community of Sparta, NJ. He was adored by neighbors and could be counted on for a salutation and a friendly smile on daily walks with his gray Scottish Terrier.

Lewis had lived in Smithfield, Virginia, for two years before his death of a heart attack at a hospital in Newport News, Virginia.

External links

• "Robert A. Lewis, 65, Co-Pilot on Mission Over Hiroshima," New York Times, June 20, 1983