Morita’s Book on United States

Permit me to comment on Pfaff’s column. All of it about the deterioration of the U.S. is true, but there is one glaring error.

The book, among other criticisms of the U.S. (justified, I think, in how our country had been mishandled), states that “the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan instead of Nazi Germany because Americans are racist. You have only to look at the place of blacks in American society to see this racism.”

The bomb was dropped on Japan only to end a too-long drawn out war that Japan started. If Japan had had the bomb, Pearl Harbor would have been the target.

As for being racist, this country has always been a melting pot of all races. Blacks were brought here as slaves, and upon gaining freedom it took them a long time to become equals or peers. They had the disadvantage of being slaves, but that this country’s two largest cities, and many, many others, now have black mayors (and now a black governor in Virginia) proves it is time to stop that racism nonsense.

It was the U.S. that put Japan back on its feet after World War II, but there’s been no thanks for that. As for that bomb, using it killed a lot of people, but not using it would have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men of this country and of Japan. It was a blessing in disguise.

GABRIEL FURLONG, Los Angeles