William Mandel wrote:
The atomic murder of tens of thousands of civilian children, women, and
mmen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not what ended the war, ....
JW reply:
I agree with you, William, but this is not the issue and you never did
answer my question which was:
Hiroshima was a valid military target being an Army headquarters, and
neighboring Kure was a major naval base, so one could make an argument
for bombing it. What if the pilot truly believed that by dropping his
weapon he would save upwards of a million American lives? (the estimates
on the invasion of Japan, another needless exercise in my opinion, were
horrendous). Is he more of a war criminal for bringing a quick end to
the war, or for refusing and maybe dragging the war on for who knows how
long at great cost of life on both sides?
Remember, the question here is not whether the bombing of Hiroshima was
right or wrong, but whether the pilot was wrong and a war criminal if he
truly believed that he was saving lives by doing so.
Whether there was actually good reason to bomb Hiroshima or not is not
the issue. For the sake of this point you must assume that from all of
the information provided to him the pilot believed in good faith that
there was.
-- Jerry West Editor/publisher/janitor ---------------------------------------------------- THE RECORD On line news from Nootka Sound & Canada's West Coast An independent, progressive regional publication http://www.island.net/~record/
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