© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “In
answer to the question: was the development of the atomic bomb by the United
States necessary? I reply unequivocally, yes. To the question: is atomic energy
a force for good or for evil? I can only say: as mankind wills it.” Lt. Gen.
Leslie Richard Groves who directed the Manhattan Project to create the first
atomic bomb.
The man who made the decision,
President Harry Truman wrote in 1946, “I knew what I was doing when I stopped
the war that would have killed a half a million youngsters on both sides if
those bombs had not been dropped. I have no regrets and under the same
circumstances I would do it again.”
Over the decades the debate continues
about using the atomic bombs. President Obama stirred the pot by visiting
Hiroshima near Memorial Day which commemorates American men and women who died
in the service of our country. To families of WWII dead and injured it was the
wrong week to visit Japan.
And I have a small part in that history
since I am a New Mexico Downwinder. We were injured years later by the downwind
radiation left by the first test of the nuclear bomb since it was exploded in
New Mexico. We who were born and lived downwind of the Trinity explosion in New
Mexico didn’t know the deadly effect.
People argue the issues of using atomic
bombs, especially against civilians. But we Downwinders are civilians injured
in this enterprise. Our government has turned its back on us and our injuries.
A politician’s representative in exasperation years ago stated, “We beat the Japanese,
what do you want?”
I immediately said, “I would like to
not have gotten cancer from that effort. Lacking that, would you help me and
other Downwinders deal with our injuries?” The representative said that
Congress has no will to help us, though they did help the Japanese who were
injured by America’s use of atomic bombs to end WWII.
To the issue of President Truman using
the bombs, everything I have read points to that decision as saving perhaps a
couple million lives, both American and Japanese. Operation Downfall: the planned invasion of the Island of Japan was
massive as was the will of the Japanese to resist.
The two operations, Olympic and Coronet planned to use millions of American soldiers and we know
the Japanese military along with their civilians were set to fight to the
death. Also, I have friends who were on troop ships headed to take part in those
operations. They perhaps escaped combat death by the use of the bombs.
President Obama said, “We may not be
able to eliminate man’s capacity to do evil, so nations and the alliances that
we form must possess the means to defend ourselves. But among those nations
like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape
the logic of fear and pursue a world without them.”
This doesn’t seem possible with
aggressive nations and even terrorists having nuclear weapons. The notion of
Mutually Assured Destruction is all that keeps us from being attacked. I fear
both atomic weapons and a world where we have none while our enemies have some.
President Obama might not have used
the atomic bombs to end WWII. Thank God for President Truman. I feel the use of
those weapons were justified in 1945 against Japan. Unfortunately, I do have to
live with the results of our country exploding a nuclear device here in New
Mexico.
We are left with the question: should
Downwinders get help for our illnesses? We can debate the use of nuclear
weapons, but first take care of those Americans injured the last time America
did so.
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