We Must Never Forget Nuclear Devastation

Your “Nuclear Age Amnesia” editorial (May 25) calls for Americans to save ourselves from the terrible kind of death suffered by the people of Hiroshima when hit by a nuclear weapon. For this we need to get every nation in the world to verifiably destroy every single one of their nuclear weapons. Their destruction would have to be confirmed by inspectors from a trustworthy international organization.

How can we bring this about? By sending every nation’s rulers -- and their people -- photos of Hiroshima’s horribly mangled bodies. The photos could be included in a motion picture like “Schindler’s List,” which showed the agonizing deaths in Hitler’s Germany.

Harold Waterhouse

Pacific Palisades

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Mankind’s most stupid creation is the ability to wage war. Our administration’s current proposals to develop new types of nuclear weapons, like “bunker-busters,” shows we are not really serious in attempting to curtail the spread of weapons of mass destruction and proves we have not learned from past mistakes.

Our vast arsenals of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons dwarf those of almost all other nations, especially nations on the “axis of evil.” The possibility of our weapons falling into the wrong hands makes us the world’s foremost threat to peace, and our recent threats to use such weapons in the war with Iraq should convince the world that our weapons are already in the wrong hands.

Allan R. Klumpp

Pasadena