No Apology for Hiroshima

I don't want to start another argument about using the atom  bomb, but if Obama sending a representative to the Hiroshima ceremony is in any way an apology or an indication that the United States was wrong to drop the bomb, then I agree that is an insult to every American but especially to the servicemen who were being ordered to invade Japan.  How often have I heard a veteran say something like, "the bomb saved my life," or "I would not be here if Truman hadn't dropped the bomb."

The bomb was a weapon used to save lives and end the war, which it did. Some estimate that Hiroshima lost 140,000 lives and Nagasaki lost 80,000.   Ending the war without the necessity of an invasion saved the lives of 300,000 white slaves who were to be executed.  Perhaps as many as one million or even two million Americans would have been killed.  The Japanese had a very effective weapon of their own, the kamikaze.  Sending one plane and one pilot against a ship carrying  hundred, or thousands, of  Americans was a good exchange, Japan thought.  Perhaps only those who were at Okinawa could appreciate how effective the suicide attacks were.  Japan had less than 400 planes at Okinawa, 340 miles from Japan, but l0,000 or more ready to defend against an invasion on the mainland.

It is not as if japan wasn't already suffering from our bombing attacks.  We had destroyed more than 50 cities and  killed more than half a million with our low level nighttime bombing raids.  Japan's leaders did not care; it took the shock of the atom bomb to get them to surrender.  Then, as only Americans do, we rebuilt the nation with compassion and money and now Japan is our ally.