A-bomb spared millions

In response to Rusty Nelson’s April 18 letter, “Bomb’s legacy wasn’t peace”: In August 1945, my dad was on a troop ship in the Atlantic, returning home from combat in Italy, when they heard news of the bombing of Hiroshima. Dad’s unit was headed to training for the invasion of Japan, for which high casualties were expected – a million or more Allied casualties and tens of millions of Japanese casualties.

I have no doubt that if the invasion had happened, my brother and sister, and millions of other children, would have been left without a father. The Japanese people of the 1930s and 1940s had been convinced by their military leaders that they were invincible, and surrender was not an option. Any invasion of the Japanese homeland would have been fought by every Japanese man, woman and child, to the end.

I don’t know what history Rusty is reading where “we rebuffed Japanese efforts to surrender.” I suggest he start reading actual history, rather than listening to liberal fallacies and post-revisionism.

Sure, the A-bomb left a legacy of fear, but it also saved tens of millions of people from a useless death in 1945, my dad and my uncles included.

Jeff Sims

Spokane