By Phill Courtney, Guest columnist
Redland Daily Facts
"Hiroshima, Nagasaki: lessons learned and yet to be learned"
"Seventy-one years ago this month, World War II was ended by what could be described, in objective definitions alone, as two of the most massive terrorist attacks in history: the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic weapons..."
"...terrorism...can be defined as a way to emotionally influence an audience for the purpose of obtaining an objective."
"Terrorism is terrorism, regardless of its motivations, which can be viewed as both benevolent and malevolent depending on who’s doing the viewing."
"When looked at this way, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were classic examples. The Japanese people—and, most important, their emperor—were terrorized into surrendering; thereby obtaining what is now widely seen as a benevolent end: the additional lives that were potentially saved by avoiding an invasion of Japan."
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"...while I’m sympathetic to those who favored their use, including several World War II veterans I’ve talked to, we might remember that there is no consensus now, nor was there even back then, as to whether or not they should have been used."
"...President Harry Truman had no doubts...never had a second thought...and maintained that he hadn’t lost a moment’s sleep over the tens of thousands of non-combatants he’d ordered incinerated, calling the bombings “the greatest thing in history.”
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"...a couple of other presidents...Herbert Hoover said that “the use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul,”
"...Dwight Eisenhower..."the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing..."
"...Admiral William D. Leahy, former chief of staff to presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Truman...“we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the dark ages...wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”
Read the whole article at the RedlandDailyFacts online.
Phill Courtney is a resident of Redlands. He can be reached at pjcourtney@earthlink.net.
http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/events/20150821/hiroshima-nagasaki-lessons-learned-and-yet-to-be-learned
Work against the ocean of darkness,
Daniel Wilocx
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