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The Day Todd Learned to Fly
Why I can't Feel Bad About The A Bomb
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Why I can't feel bad about the A-bomb.
Today at lunch, CNN was showing footage of the memorial services, protests, etc.
observing the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. There was the
old, grainy, grisly footage of the victims and the devastation, and various
talking heads saying how terrible it was and how it should never have been done
and how bad the U. S. was for using such a terrible weapon on the Japanese.
Please.
I could look at the pictures of all those blasted and maimed Japanese people
without regret or any sense of apology to anyone, because I have another picture
that I can look at, every morning when I get up. It sits on my dresser at home.
It was taken by a newspaper photographer a few years ago, of my father attending
the last Chattanooga Lookouts baseball game at Engel Stadium in Chattanooga. Dad
had been at the very first game played at Engel Stadium, and he was there for
the last one, played many years later. He was about 88 when the photo was made,
and still looked pretty good. The Lookouts had just scored, and he was clapping
and smiling, his eyes lit up. That's my favorite picture of him, and it's the
way I like to remember him.
In between those two baseball games there was a war, and Dad had to go. When the
atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Dad was on an LST on the way across the
Pacific. He was a tank crewman, and would have been in the second wave of troops
to hit the beach if we had had to invade that place. I seem to recall reading
that they figured on about eighty percent casualties in the first wave ashore,
and about fifty percent for the second. About a million American lives to bring
an end to that war. Thank God it didn't have to happen.
So I figure that if we had not dropped the bombs, there's a pretty good chance
that I would have never known the wonderful man who was my father. I was 10
months old at the time. I had him for 58 great years because our leaders at the
time had the courage and determination to do what was necessary. I can't help
but think about all the other people of my generation whose fathers came home
because of those bombs.
It was worth it.
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