AUGUST 6TH – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  Today is the 65th anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.  On the political left, it is another day to bash America.

The use of the bomb against Hiroshima, a key military, supply, railroad and communications center, and the use of a second bomb on Nagasaki three days later, ended the war.  For the people of Asia, that war had begun in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, not on December 7, 1941, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Asians had been victimized by Japanese aggression for 14 years.  The use of the bombs, while ghastly, without doubt saved millions of lives that would have been lost had we had to invade Japan. 

There has been some concern in recent days that President Obama would use today to apologize to the Japanese for the nuclear bombings.  He did not.  There was the usual ceremony in Hiroshima, with the usual pieties.  The United States ambassador to Japan, however, did attend.  Some saw this as significant:

Washington's decision to send ambassador John Roos to the 65th anniversary of the bombing was seen by many as potentially paving the way for President Barack Obama to visit Hiroshima - which would be unprecedented for a sitting US leader.

We have no problem with the president visiting Hiroshima.  We might have a big problem with what he says.  But it hasn't happened yet.  And the U.S. ambassador made only boilerplate remarks about the need to rid the world of nuclear weapons, an old chestnut. 

For years revisionist historians have argued that using the atomic bombs was unnecessary, that Japan was ready to surrender.  It's an odd argument.  Countries that wish to surrender can utter two words:  "We surrender."  These words were not forthcoming.  Indeed, there was a peace faction in the Japanese government at the time, but it wasn't running things.  The military was, and it surrendered only on the emperor's orders.

No one wishes to be joyous about the bombings.  But, as historian Paul Fussell, a Marine lieutentant in the Pacific at the time, wrote later, summing up our soldiers' reaction to the events:  "We were going to live."

You know, that's pretty important.  For those "historians" who question the use of the bombs, we would simply ask whether they were American soldiers in the Pacific in August of 1945.  The answer is no.  It's not surprising that guys who were there have a very different perspective.

August 6, 2010