Re: Use of A-bomb, Bob Blakely wrote, in response to someone but I am
not sure who from the various nested >>s:
> > The idea was Truman's or of his staff, or both. Churchill approved of the
> idea, so did General MacArthur and the planes were sent off as soon as
> weather conditions allowed for it.
>
> So do I.
And so do I. Shortly after Pearl Harbor my father volunteered to go
into the Army, and within a few months he was gone. My earliest memory
(as a 6 year old kid) was walking with him to the subway station and
waving good-bye. I did not see him again until the war ended. He spent
the war years in Europe but would have been shipped to the Pacific if we
had had to invade Japan. When the newspapers announced the bombings and
the end of the war I, and many friends and neighbors -- all with
relatives over there -- were relieved and elated, and we celebrated.
Had we not used the bomb the war would have dragged out for quite a
while and casualties would have been very heavy -- on both sides, and
would have included many Japanese civilians. And, in my view, a
president who had a weapon that could end that war quickly and avoid
those casualties but who did not use it would have been a fool and
irresponsible. Harry Truman was no fool.
I am very sorry that so many civilians were killed. I am glad my
father, and my friends' fathers were not.
Bob Harris
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