Bomb wasn’t needed

The American public has been suckers for the lies and half-truths about vicious brutalities, greed, bigotry, and other misdeeds perpetrated by our leaders and powerful groups. (See the Nov. 6 letter from Gary Adams.)

On Aug. 6, 1945, I was in the air base communication center, and was horrified watching the news coming in about a powerful new bomb that incinerated Hiroshima. We had become as bad as our enemy. Why not demonstrate it on some uninhabited target?

We were told that we would have lost 500,000 American soldiers if we hadn’t dropped the bomb. Well, perhaps, but. …

Our cocky president, Harry S. Truman, had bragged to Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, that we had a powerful weapon. Truman approved its use on cities.

However, Japan’s Supreme Council had other concerns than worrying that only six of 75 major cities remained undamaged after American bombings. Three days after the Hiroshima event but before the Nagasaki bombing news had arrived, the Supreme Council was preparing to surrender unconditionally. That was the day that the Soviets declared war on Japan.

Several years ago, The Spokesman-Review wrote about it. And for more, Google “The Bomb Didn’t Beat Japan … Stalin Did.”

Joseph Henry Wythe

Sandpoint