The Bomb’s Personal Fallout

Re “My Grandfather and the Bomb,” Commentary, May 2: The Conant family is so full of itself that one has to wonder: Do they actually believe that the atomic attacks on the two cities happened only because of their grandfather’s [James B. Conant] participation? Please! And their assuming the mantle of atomic guilt of the American people. What guilt? And some credit to the old man: My father, my Uncle Tino and my Uncle Robert, all Marines scheduled to be in the first wave of the invasion of Japan, loved your grandfather. So do I.

Bob Herrera

Covina

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I had a conversation with my brother on Sunday afternoon about things that I think most of us would consider everyday topics that two middle-age brothers would talk about over the phone except for the fact that we grew up in Los Alamos, where our dad was a scientist at the weapons lab, so every now and then our discussions turn philosophical.

We talked about the difficulty we have when asked at cocktail parties where we’re from (for years I simply said I grew up in a small town near Santa Fe to avoid a political discussion). “You’re from Los Alamos? Oh really?” is the reaction I have grown accustomed to, not knowing if I’m about to be congratulated or vilified.

We talked about the difficulty we have deciding where we stand politically on the issue of nuclear weapons and nuclear power. My brother now lives in Santa Fe and maintains close friendships with other confused and defensive Los Alamosans, and I live here in the other L.A.

So imagine my surprise when the very next day a piece about my strange hometown appeared on the Op-Ed page of the L.A. Times. I applaud Jennet Conant for being forthcoming in revealing the ambiguous, confusing and internal moral dilemma that some of us offspring of Cold War veterans now feel and live with when faced with “the sins of our fathers.” It is a story that needs to be told.

Steven Loughran

Silver Lake

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I am the son of a scientist who worked on development of the atom bomb. My father did not think that using the atom bomb to end World War II was “senseless,” as Conant opines. I do not either. My father was very proud of his work on that program, knowing that he had saved lives.

The duty of great men like her grandfather and my father was to protect the world from nations with aspirations of world domination. They did that and I thank them for their talent, hard work and sacrifice.

Ed Hill

Santa Clarita

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Conant’s reflection on her grandfather, the influential chemist J. B. Conant, focuses on events of 1945, during the chaos and uncertainty of wartime. But issues that emerged a dozen years later reveal how his views helped sustain a political climate that fostered enormous expansion of the stockpile of thermonuclear weapons.

In 1957, Linus and Ava Helen Pauling circulated “An Appeal to Stop the Spread of Nuclear Weapons.” Conant responded: “I couldn’t disagree with you more heartily. I, therefore, have high hopes that you will fail completely in your undertaking!!!” Despite much opposition, the Paulings’ effort led to a Nobel Peace Prize.

By contrast, Conant and his peers leave, as their legacy, the peril of nuclear proliferation, which continues to threaten humanity.

As Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated recently at the U.N., “We all bear a heavy responsibility to build an efficient, effective and equitable system that reduces nuclear threats.” Our burden today is all the more onerous, because of choices made by politically connected scientists half a century ago.

Tom Morton

Riverside

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The U.S. should never apologize to Japan for dropping the bomb. More important, no American need feel guilty. What Conant’s piece misses is an actual analysis of Japan and how it behaved during the war. It had been murdering, torturing, enslaving, raping and pillaging Asia for almost a decade before it launched the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

Does Conant actually believe that American military losses were acceptable, but that Japanese civilian losses were not?

Let us not also forget that Conant’s “acceptable” American losses were in fact our grandfathers, fathers, brothers and uncles. To believe that our uniformed losses would have been tolerable and thus we should have sacrificed more American blood to save Japanese civilians flies in the face of logic and justice. We did not start the war, so please keep your guilt to yourself.

Rene Sanz

Los Angeles