Hiroshima Day, 2007

For some reason I remember this date better than most, including birthdays, maybe because it's the same every year, unlike other dates that change to accommodate weekend recreation.

2006 post link.

2005 post link.

This year Dan Trabue publishes a few quotes, including this one.

"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons.

"The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."

Admiral William Leahy

Some of the old links may not still be active. I didn't check. It's not important. This is not an issue about which I expect to change minds. Most people live by Don't confuse me with facts...my mind is already made up.

Every year I think it over again, trying to justify the bombing of Hiroshima. And every year I almost make it. I am stopped cold in my mental tracks when I remember Nagasaki. We can argue about the first bomb, but not the second. That's the event that stains arguments attempting to justify the first.