But Not In My Name...Never!

On that placid day in Hiroshima sixty years ago, a few good men, working for the government of the United States, in the name of the American people, committed the worst act of terrorism ever known. That it happened during a war mitigates it little. It was an unprovoked, vivisection of a people to test the ultimate weapon, for which billions of dollars had been coughed up by our folks. Tens of thousands of poor, ignorant, subjugated AND innocent Japanese died at the hand of our government. We've taken the credit. Perhaps history will reorient itself and save us from our blithe disregard for what happened.

For generations now, those who were there, the soldiers, civilians, and historians alike have defended our action with the excuses that to invade Japan would have cost a million American men, or that Tokyo would have never surrendered or stupidest and worst of all; we had to do it to them before they could to us.

All of that may be true. What IS true is what occurred. And that was the deaths, in unimaginable horror, by our collective hand, of over a hundred thousand non-combatants. Perhaps only to test the weapon to see how well it worked. Or to test the will of the Soviets, and see if they understood who would be boss after the war.

There will be disagreement on this as long as we are allowed to disagree. Take a moment and ask yourself if the end of the war sooner, rather than later was worth all of these innocent lives? Whatever your opinion, it is a valid question.

And then say a prayer. For yourself.

Joe Postove