Benson Cartoon An Affront To All American Soldiers Letter Of The Week: From Feb. 23

It was with revulsion that I viewed Steve Benson’s cartoon so prominently displayed on the Feb. 20 Opinion page. I question the motive for printing this cartoon.

This is a slap in the face to every American who fought for his country and a desecration of every grave holding an American soldier who died serving his country.

If Benson was interested in the facts of history, he’d find that we didn’t start the war with a dastardly attack on a peaceful nation. We didn’t set up slave labor and death camps in which millions of people died. We didn’t commit mass murder, bayoneting, shooting and decapitating defenseless prisoners, women and children just for sport. Nor did we set up brothels with thousands of captive women for the “comfort” of our soldiers. We didn’t even invent the first missile of mass destruction of civilians. Remember the V1 and V2 rockets? These were Axis inventions.

The Japanese were completely contemptuous of the Geneva Convention Accords. Nothing was more glorious than to die for the emperor.

I spent four post-war years in Japan and came to know many Japanese people. Many became my friends. In our conversations about the war one prominent theme was expressed. If Japan had been invaded, all Allied prisoners would have been executed and the whole population would have been turned into soldiers, even the children. Every inch of Japan would be paid for in blood.

President Truman’s courageous decision to drop the atomic bomb saved millions of lives on both sides. Redrawing history won’t change that. Herman Littman, chapter commander American Ex-prisoners of War, Spokane chapter

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