SORRY Judith Pritchard (Malvern Gazette, October 5), I do not believe "Hiroshima gave the green light to the use of violence". It was of little importance to us then that many innocent Japanese died. As a young soldier, my mates and I had been clinging precariously to scrambling nets on a British Army-commandeered rust bucket in the Bay of Bengal. The precise date (August 6, 1945) when Enola Gay devastated Hiroshima, we were practising for what would have been suicidal seaborne attacks on the heavily defended beaches of Japan.
And, had not American forces, one month previously, suffered 12,000 dead by such an invasion re-taking the strategic island of Okinawa?
I don't know your World War Two history Judith, but you surely remember the 'innocent' Japanese?
Pearl Harbour, December 1941? 3,000 US servicemen treacherously slaughtered? The barbaric rule of 'warrior' Japanese soldiers across South East Asia?
I am sorry but at 76, I am convinced that Hiroshima gave me and thousands of others, surviving service personnel and civilian alike, many additional years of life.
FRANK L JONES, Arosa Drive, Malvern
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