‘The bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought to an abrupt end a world war that had lasted nearly six years’

• I WAS surprised to read John Gulliver’s remarks about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan 75 years ago this month, (A curiosity that inspires, August 13).

To be sure these were awesome, terrible, weapons. Their use, however, was no war crime.

The forces of the empire of Japan were both brutal and cruel in their prosecution of the war in the Far East and the Pacific region and brutal and cruel in their treatment of prisoners of war, as John Gulliver will know from his good work with the Far East Prisoners of War Memorial at Mornington Crescent.

In late July and the first days of August 1945 very few people knew of the intention to use the atomic bomb.

As the Americans, supported by the British and other Allies, island-hopped ever closer to the archipelago of Japan, recovering territory occupied by Japanese forces, it was thought that the war would continue well into 1946, perhaps even 1947, before Japan was defeated.

There was indeed a sense that the Allies would win but, given the extraordinary fighting resilience shown by Japanese forces, the timing of victory was most uncertain and it was thought some one million people might die before the war was won.

The bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought to an abrupt end a world war that had lasted nearly six years.

The terrific destruction wrought by these bombs also brought to an end a fearsome, brutal, and criminal, Japanese war machine and laid the foundation for peace and for a democratic Japan.

Over 100,000 Japanese dead or perhaps 1,000,000 Allied and Japanese dead – while zero dead is preferable, I know that I prefer the lower number to the one million.

All is not perfect in war, of course, and in the heat of battle fighting men may not be saints.

However rather than even hinting at blaming the Allies the blame lies squarely with the expansionist empire of Japan and its prosecution of an unnecessary war with disgusting, inhumane, and criminal, practices.

LESTER MAY
(Lieutenant Commander Royal Navy retired)
Reachview Close, NW1