It’s that time of the year when there is a lot of gnashing and grinding of teeth over President Truman’s decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan during World War ll. I for one am tired of the naysayers who in retrospect would have sacrificed God knows how many more American troops in order to save the lives of an enemy that was sworn to die killing us.
I don’t know about you, readers, but I lived through WW ll. I remember the terror of it all, the nightly blackouts, the fear that we could be a country without freedoms like the right to free speech and the right to vote. Japan and Germany wanted to take that away from us.
I remember seeing grieving widows watching their loved ones return home in boxes and families being reunited with loved ones who were missing arms, legs, eyes and yes, even their own sanity. We were viciously and cruelly attacked by the Japanese who killed nearly 1,500 Americans on a peaceful Sunday morning at Pearl Harbor, should we have let that pass?
I remember listening to President Truman on the radio as he told us what had been done in Hiroshima and I remember hearing people shouting with joy that this awful, terrible war could soon be over. I remember hearing mothers say, “Maybe Ronnie, or Jim or Stan won’t have to be part of the invasion of Japan.” They were so relieved…and then I remember how it took many days after the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki before the Japanese finally surrendered and everyone wondered what it would take to find peace.
Had we not dropped those bombs, our troops would have been met by 2 million well-armed japanese troops and nearly 2,000 Kkamakazi planes that had already taken a heavy toll on our Navy. It has been said that we would have suffered a million casualties had we invaded Japan but there are some who say the figure is much too high. Ok — .would it have been acceptable to invade Japan if we only lost 500,000, 200,000, 20,000? How many American lives should we have given up in order to avoid using the bombs? It is quite easy to sit back 60 some years after the war and criticize President Truman, but if you lived through that time, as I did, you probably would have been right out in the middle of the street of your home town celebrating the end of the war as did everyone in America.
Usually I am a bleeding heart liberal, but not in this case. Japan deserved what it got and Americans deserved a quick end to the war. Do you doubt that the Japanese or the Germans would have used the bomb if they had it? If you are going to have a bleeding heart then let it bleed for the half a million American soldiers who died fighting for your right to criticize President Truman. Let it bleed for the estimated 70 million people who died worldwide because of Japan and Germany’s treachery. You weep for the Japanese, I weep for all the people they killed, injured and tortured. Having said that, I strongly defend your right to exercise your opinion no matter how wrong I think you are. I defend it because that’s what all those Americans died for and who am I, or who are you to say we should have let more of them die in order to save people in the nation that would have killed every one of us if they had the opportunity. Truman did the right thing, he saved American lives and that’s what the President of the United States is supposed to do. ‘ He swears to that when he is sworn in. Should he have violated his oath of office? Nuff said.
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