Sir – John Tanner is using Hiroshima to make cheap political points at the Tories and Americans. Successive Labour governments have done absolutely nothing to remove nuclear weapons in this country.
His ignorance over Hiroshima is breathtaking. Were he to visit Bletchley Park, he would discover that the Japanese had their own nuclear program financed by the Germans. The only reason they did not get to use it was they were beaten in the race and for that we are all very glad.
Let’s dispense with moralising as the bomb is here to stay. All is fair in love and war and the Japanese had only themselves to blame. Their war-time atrocities rendered them barely human. The bombs came as a merciful end to their cruelty.
They have never fully apologised for their depravity, unlike the Germans, and some of them believe even today they did nothing wrong. Propaganda or deception is still at work today; then it resulted in kamikaze, today we see Islamic fundamentalists believing Islam rewards cowardice and butchery with eternal life.
Yes, the mayor’s visit to town hall exhibition was well meaning but I am afraid misguided still. It’s fine to read how sorry everybody feels, but let’s not forget that, apart from the Japanese, there were very few people who were sorry at the time.
Andrew McCagie
Oxford
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