I appreciate Pat Hynes’ guest column in the Gazette on Aug. 3, “Where we stand on Aug. 6, 2022” reflecting on the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 77 years ago, which killed over 170,000 people.
I was a U.S. combat soldier, 20 years old at that time, stationed in Germany and only learned about this from the news. I felt that it was a terrible thing that we did, despite that it helped to end the war and my personal involvement as I had already been notified that I would be shipped off to Japan to fight after Germany’s surrender on May 7 of that year.
I was caught with a mixed feeling because what Truman did to Japan was a terrible decision to sanction killing and injuring thousands of innocent people in order to end the war. These were not the fighters, but just the citizens of the country. I believe that war, and killing people, is a horrible thing. And atomic bombs create a particularly cruel death and great suffering.
I don’t want the U.S. to ever use a nuclear weapon again. I agree with Veterans for Peace as quoted by Hynes that “we must end war or it will end us.”
Sidney Moss
Northampton