Bombing Japan

The statement by Michael D. Aglion (letter, July 12) charging that our country engaged in terrorism when we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki “to further the political goal of Japanese surrender” provides an interesting insight in the thinking of what probably is one of our younger patriots, and causes me to wonder if my thinking has been right.

All this time I thought the bombing was done to save my life (when I was in the 77th Infantry Division) and the lives of several hundred thousand other American young men who were being poised to make amphibious landings on the main islands of Japan.

JAMES MENDLIN

Los Angeles