I find guest columnist Timmon Wallis’ comparison of America’s bombing of German and Japanese cities to the Nazi war crimes quite offensive [“The big lie in the Nuremburg film,” Gazette Jan. 31]. In the beginning of his column he states there was no comparison however one sentence later he equates them by saying they were both “unmitigated evil.”
American actions had one goal and that was to bring the war to an end as quickly as possible and save American lives. The Nazis goal was to exterminate Jews, Roma, homosexuals, mentally handicapped and anyone else they considered detrimental to the Aryan race. At times this attempted genocide took priority over the war effort. Wars are always horrible and any attempt to make them more humane is admiral. The military justification for dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been debated endlessly by ethicists and military strategists. The reality is that the Japanese did not surrender after the first bomb was dropped but did after the second bringing the war to an end and saving thousands of American lives. While I have no doubt that there were numerous examples of war crimes committed by the American military and individual soldiers, I think few would argue that the American approach to the war and those they conquered was far more ethical than the Japanese, Germans or Russians.
Barry Hirsch
Northampton