Remarks at Hiroshima

President Barack Obama will be in Japan this month. While there, he will be the first U.S. President to visit the city of Hiroshima.

Hiroshima was devastated at the end of World War II by the first atomic bomb used in combat.

The city was virtually destroyed. Thousands of Japanese civilians died instantaneously. Thousands more died later of burns and radiation poisoning.

After a second atomic bomb exploded over a second Japanese city, Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered, and the final phase of World War II ended. This was in 1945.

No sooner had the mushroom cloud dissipated than doubts and regrets emerged. Surely, many claimed, there was a better way to end the war. Atomic weapons were too horrible to have ever been used.

The other option to end the war had been an invasion of the Japanese home islands. It was projected that such an invasion would have cost millions of lives, both Japanese and American. By that time. the war had reached new levels of violence and ferocity.

Since then, the two countries have forged a strong alliance and are reliable partners in a variety of endeavors.

Although generations have passed since the war, some scars remain, some animosities still exist.

It is in this light the president makes his trip to Hiroshima. A memorial in the city illustrates the destruction of war and the horror such a weapon can cause.

Reportedly, the president will not apologize for this country’s use of atomic bombs. He should not. Nearly the entire world had drawn sides. There were few rules and no holding back. It was a brutal and violent time. Decisions and events must be considered in historical context.

The president’s visit should point out that the devastation in Hiroshima, the ruins in Germany, the destruction in Britian, China and the Soviet Union and the millions and millions of deaths around the world should give us all pause. Conventional or nuclear war needs to be avoided.

World War II was a long time ago, but it is not so distant that we cannot learn from it and try to shape the world so that such carnage will never be repeated. This hopefully is the message the president gives while standing at the symbolic heart of man’s destructive power.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher