Use of Atom Bomb

During the past few months, in your articles about Japanese objections to the proposed U.S. postage stamp commemoration the atomic bomb, in your articles about the Smithsonian cancellation of the Enola Gay exhibit, and in a number of letters to the editor, the same theme is repeated again and again: the use of the atomic bomb save the lives of many Americans who might otherwise have been forced to stage a ground invasion of Japan.

Is it too much to ask that after all this erroneous reporting, after decades of this myth being perpetuated, that the simple contrary facts be given? Namely, that the Japanese tried to surrender before the atom bombs were dropped. This is explicitly documented in, among other places, hearings before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, June 25, 1951, pages 3113-4.

The Japanese request, which was ignored by the United States, apparently contained only one condition: That the emperor system be retained, and as matters eventually turned out, the emperor system was maintained anyway.

BILL BLUM

Los Angeles