U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima

Re “Echoes of Hiroshima,” Aug. 10: The Times does a disservice to its readers, especially young people, by not presenting balanced reporting, i.e. what led up to the bombing of Hiroshima, which was the unprovoked attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. Many of those survivors still bear the pain and anguish of those bombs as well.

ALICE LA BRIE

Los Angeles

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You make me sick! Not because of what this poignant article said. But what was left unsaid.

The U.S. was not the big bully and Japan was not the innocent bystander. A terrible war was going on, started by Japan with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Early Japanese successes in the Pacific showed that they were cruel governors in all areas they controlled.

After some 20,000 casualties, including 6,000 deaths on Iwo Jima and about three times as many on Okinawa, Hiroshima was bombed to show that we still had great power and were preparing for the final assault on the Japanese mainland, an assault that was expected to cost some 500,000 American casualties.

I happened to be stationed on Iwo Jima at the time and expected to be among those taking part in the final attack on Japan. That I have a family and grandchildren is because of the “bomb.” And the same can be said for many, many thousands of other GIs who were to have been there, too.

I weep for the dead of Hiroshima. And I am thankful for the flight of the Enola Gay.

IRV JUSTMAN

Los Angeles