It's sign of our exceptionalism we're concerned about morality in war

To The Daily Sun,

Some people apparently think it would have been more moral to end WWII by killing 30,000,000 or more Japanese people via conventional means than by dropping the atomic bombs which killed fewer than 200,000. How it can be more moral to kill 100 times more people, or any more people, than necessary to end a war is beyond me.

People who condemn our use of the atomic bombs apparently have no understanding of the devastation, cost, and war weariness in WWII or have been influenced by anti-American propaganda.

Dropping the atomic bombs was a factor, if not the factor, influencing the Japanese to surrender without requiring an invasion which history and war planners believed would have resulted the deaths of at least 30,000,000 Japanese and the wounding of 1,000,000 Americans, 150,000 fatally.

I realize that no one celebrates being bombed, but a bombing which avoids or helps avoid the killing of another 30 million people is something that rational people should be grateful for. Many American soldiers slated for the invasion of Japan were grateful for the bombs that they felt probably saved their lives and the lives of many of their friends.

Most current Americans fail to appreciate the cost of WWII. Sixty to eighty million people were killed; over half were Allied civilians. In WWII, on average, more American soldiers died every month than in the whole 14 year-long Iraq war. Two and one-half times as many Americans died in the battle for Okinawa than in the Iraq war. By the time of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, telegrams had been delivered to almost every city, town, village, and neighborhood announcing the death of one of the over 400,000 American soldiers who had been killed. No American wanted to get the word of another American relative, neighbor, or friend being killed.

It is a sign of American exceptionalism that we are concerned about morality even in war; our opponents never have been. Our opponents had no qualms about using new or superior weapons to ours or to mistreating American POWs. Our WWII opponents would certainly have used the atomic bombs to further their aggression if they had created them first.

Our country didn’t develop or use the bombs to enslave people. Americans shouldn’t be influenced by ignorant people or anti-American propaganda to condemn their use. Americans should be proud and happy that we used the bombs to end aggression, to end enslavement, and to minimize the killing.

Don Ewing

Meredith