Saturday marks the 71st anniversary of the United States’ atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, the event that initiated the end of World War II.

Ray White of Bowling Green was 10 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped from the belly of the Enola Gay. It was days later that he learned of the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing, and even later before he discovered it came from the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber on which his uncle by marriage, Tom Ferebee, was the bombadier.

“Our war department was planning an invasion of Japan,” White said in an interview in June. “We knew something drastic had to be done. … My understanding from Uncle Tom was that (President Harry S.) Truman had personally ordered the dropping of the bomb… . I know (Ferebee) never lost any sleep from it.”

White said he remembers attending a family funeral with Ferebee.

“We were having trouble with Iran at the time and my cousin asked, ‘Uncle Tom, if they ordered you to drop the atomic bomb on Tehran would you do it?’ … He turned and said, ‘Of course. I’m a soldier and would do it.’ “

Ferebee did, however, regret the death toll caused by the bomb, according to his March 17, 2000, obituary in the Los Angeles Times.

“I’m sorry an awful lot of people died from that bomb, and I hate to think that something like that had to happen to end the war,” he said on the 50th anniversary of the bombing in 1995, according to the obituary. “People have to go back and study the history of the war and the attitude of the people at that time. Everybody wanted the war to end. That’s what I wanted the most. I wanted the bomb to work and end the war.”

Most sources estimate the death toll at between 80,000 and 146,000 people who died either immediately from the bomb or later from its effects.

The Enola Gay’s pilot, Paul Tibbets, eulogized Ferebee at the funeral, White said. Tibbets hand picked Ferebee for the mission, citing his bravery.

White said Ferebee, who retired in 1970 as a colonel, didn’t talk too much about the mission.

“He did say that he had been interviewed on Tokoyo television after WW II about dropping the bomb,” White said.

President Barack Obama in May visited Hiroshima.

“We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell. We force ourselves to feel the dread of children confused by what they see. We listen to a silent cry. We remember all the innocents killed across the arc of that terrible war and the wars that came before and the wars that would follow,” according to a transcript of Obama’s speech published by The New York Times. “Mere words cannot give voice to such suffering. But we have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again.”

In regard to Obama’s visit to Japan, White said he had no objections.

“I know how we felt during the war, but that was a long time ago,” he said.

— Follow City Editor Robyn L. Minor on Twitter at @bowserminor or visit bgdailynews.com.