It was with great interest that I read Gloria Cope’s letter in the Citizen of Friday, Aug. 7. I have not had the opportunity to visit Hiroshima as she has had. Kudos to her for doing that! I am squeamish and probably not capable of viewing the museum.
Dropping the atomic bomb on Japan (twice!) was not necessary to end World War II. In fact, the bombs did nothing to end the war — a statement that I realize will anger some readers.
Winston Churchill wrote in Triumph and Tragedy, “[Japan’s] defeat was certain before the first bomb fell, and [it] was brought about by overwhelming maritime power.”
If the Americans had accepted Japan’s urgent plea for peace, no further lives — Allied or Japanese — would have been sacrificed. The bomb did not end the war; it was already over.
(A wealth of information exists on the Internet. Searching for “why did the U.S. drop atom bombs on Japan in 1945?” will create hundreds of hits. I urge any skeptical readers to read some of them.)
Manuel Erickson
Mill Bay