I've never had a sleepless night. When posed a question after his remarks to the National Press Club, Brother Tibbets implied that, in the controversy over whether or not the bomb drop was necessary, let alone humane, little appears to have been said about the forseeable outcome of the conflict has either Germany or Japan come up with the bomb first. As the record reflects, the race was on between Germany and the U.S. to develop such a weapon. One even has to wonder what the world would look like today if the former Soviet Union had had the bomb first. In view of the priority set on reducing American casualties, perhaps even those questions crossed the minds of President Truman and his advisors when the agonizing, yet crucial, atom bomb was made.
War is an ugly and tragic thing.
It is the saddest of all commentaries on the human condition. The aftermath of war is equally tormenting with its arduous and costly task of rebuilding shattered lives and desolate nations. But to try to judge actions in World War II according to post-Vietnam perspectives is to acknowledge the fallacy of hindsight, particularly by those who cannot even vicariously relate to life in 1945. To fail to shower just respect and appreciation upon the men and women who were only doing their duty with honor in military service to their country, many making the supreme sacrifice in battle or in POW camps and leaving loved ones in bereavement, is as insensitive as taking a like under any circumstances. In fact, if comparisons make a valid argument, taking six million lives over a period of several years in concentration camps may be far more insensitive than causing the fewer, albeit many thousands of, lives lost at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.