Sixty years have passed since Hiroshima was bombed by US Forces. The debate is still open on whether or not the US government was right to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. Historians are still uncovering evidence of the rationale for US President Truman to order the dropping of the first bomb on Hiroshima. Of course, we know that Nagasaki would be suffer the consequences of the Japanese government's unwillingness to surrender to US Military Forces on August 7th, 1945.
Now, I just read yet another article which stated that the US government had contemplated the dropping of a possible third bomb. This third option was Tokyo. Had the US government chosen Tokyo, the entire Japanese military chain of command would have been incinerated. And with that, the Japanese Imperial Army would have no leadership. No command authority. No one to make those decisions on whether to proceed with the war. In the back of my mind, I believe that had Tokyo been bombed, the war would have continued and forced the US Military Forces to invade the Japanese islands.
No matter whether or not I agree with the actions taken by the US government in 1945, the one fact remains: the US government made it acceptable for one nation to drop an atomic bomb on another nation. Let's hope that no nation will ever have to make or be forced to make that same decision: drop a weapon of mass destruction on another nation. If the world can survive the rest of this century without witnessing another atomic bomb (nuclear bomb), maybe there is hope for mankind.
(Japan Times: Marking the 60th Annniversary)
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