On Sept. 11, 1945, a month after U.S. warplanes dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Walter Lippmann wrote in the New York Herald Tribune:
“. . . if we allow fools among us to brandish the atomic bomb with the idea that it is a political argument, we shall certainly end by convincing the rest of the world that their own safety and dignity compel them to unite against us.
“Our power and influence will endure only if we measure them truly and use them for the ends that we have always avowed and can proclaim with pride.”
Today the use of nuclear devices — infinitely more powerful than Fat Man and Little Boy, code names for the bombs used in August 1945 — apparently is being seriously considered by President Trump in response to threats from North Korea.
Kim Jong Un threatens use of whatever nuclear bombs North Korea has, which, so far, have proved lacking in delivery.
Trump calling Kim “Little Rocket Man” and promising to remove North Korea from the face of the earth is to become mired in the trap that Lippmann, who during his 60-year career became a highly respected political commentator, warned about in the aftermath of the first, and only, uses of atomic bombs.
The concern is genuine, but should be tempered by reason.
CHANCES ARE these contentious exchanges between Trump and Kim will be as far as the threat of nuclear war goes. But, we can’t risk an outcome that would be so tragically great as to possibly end life on planet Earth.
To wit: Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed about 150,000 and maimed many thousands more.
At the time, with no benchmark for what was about to occur, resorting to use of the atomic bombs was judged the right thing to do. The estimate was an invasion of the Japanese islands would have resulted in a million U.S. deaths. At least that many or more Japanese soldiers and civilians would have perished.
William Laurence, who was aboard a B-29 in the group that bombed Nagasaki, wrote about the day of the event for the New York Times:
“Does one feel pity or compassion for the poor devils about to die? Not when one thinks of Pearl Harbor and of the Death March on Bataan.”
The atomic bombing was not meant specifically to be an act of vengeance, rather a strategy to quickly end the war without having to invade Japan.
That was accomplished. The second atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki on Aug. 9; Japan surrendered on Sept. 2.
What eventually will come from exchanges between Trump and Kim remains to be seen.
But, let us fervently hope that each will understand how horrific a nuclear exchange would be, and how quickly it could get out of hand.
There would be no winners.
— Bob Johnson
