Obama’s visit to Hiroshima

As we celebrated Memorial Day last weekend, President Obama spoke about peace and a nuclear-free world in Hiroshima, Japan. To his credit, our president didn’t apologize for President Truman’s decision to end WWII by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“We come to Hiroshima to ponder the terrible forces unleashed in the not-so-distant past,” Obama said. “We come to mourn the dead.”

That’s fine as far as it goes, but I wish the president had garnered some degree of reciprocity from Japan’s leaders. After all, their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, brought us into WWII, and they’ve never apologized for Pearl Harbor or other atrocities they committed. I’d like to see the Japanese prime minister place a wreath at the Arizona Memorial, where 2,400 Americans died on Dec. 7, 1941.

Despite those who claim we didn’t have to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to end the war, I’m firmly convinced President Truman made the right decision to use nuclear weapons to force Japanese warlords and the Emperor to give up and surrender. Yes, the bombs killed more than 200,000 people in Japan, but they also saved hundreds of thousands of American and Japanese lives. An American invasion of the Japanese homeland would have resulted in many more deaths on both sides.

While acknowledging the horrific death toll in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, President Obama urged world leaders to pursue a world without nuclear weapons. That’s a noble goal but we must also be mindful of current threats to our national security. China and Russia are taking aggressive actions in the Mideast and South Asia, and radical Islamic terrorists have vowed to kill as many Americans as possible. Therefore, we must remain strong and vigilant in a dangerous world.

Back to the issue of whether President Truman made the right decision when he ordered the destruction of two Japanese cities, I recently read an essay titled “Hiroshima Saved My Life,” by WWII veteran Stanley Weiss, who’s the founding chairman of Business Executives for National Security (BENS). On Aug. 6, 1945, Weiss was a soldier on a troop ship headed for the anticipated invasion of Japan. Instead, Truman dropped the atomic bombs, Japan surrendered and the young soldier’s troop ship turned around, probably saving his life.

“The atomic bombs that America dropped on Japan . . . took more than 200,000 lives,” he wrote, “but they probably saved mine.” He went onto become an anti-nuclear advocate and co-founded the Citizens Party, which ran an anti-nuke candidate against Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election. Two years later he co-founded BENS, which seeks “to prevent the use of even one nuclear weapon while working to reduce the world’s nuclear stockpiles.”

“President Obama’s visit (to Hiroshima) was so important — to remember what happened yesterday so we can prevent what might happen tomorrow,” Weiss wrote. “(But) nobody who lived through the Second World War . . . will look back on the end of the war with anything but gratitude and relief.”

Weiss noted Japanese school children aren’t taught the true story of WWII and warned against those “who seek to position 1945 Japan as a victim, and not the aggressor it was.” Japanese students need to learn about Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March and the Rape of Nanking. I recall a visit to Pearl Harbor a few years ago, where I was shocked to see young Japanese tourists laughing and smiling at the Arizona Memorial. It was an unpleasant experience. I hope you had a Happy Memorial Day and remembered the veterans who fought and died to defend our freedoms.

Guy W. Farmer is a U.S. Air Force veteran.