"Cry 'Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war." (Julius Caesar)

.....This month marks the 65th anniversary of the surrender of Japan and the end of WWII. On August 6th, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped the A-Bomb on Hiroshima which killed over 100,000 people, a number that seems incredible and uncivilized. I don't really know if President Truman and his Generals truly realized what the resultant loss of lives would be because of that weapon and their decision to use it. Some people have asked why the city had not been warned of that impending drop so that they could escape it--as we in Florida flee hurricanes after being warned. We have names for our hurricanes, and that bomb was named "Big Boy". But if that populace had been warned, you may be certain that the Japanese would have had a hundred Zeros guarding that city, awaiting the arrival of our B-29. If my plane had been there to escort and protect Big Boy, I would not have been very happy at being in the line of fire once more. I had enough of that in Europe during my 60 missions there.

.....As I was eating my breakfast this morning of a bagel loaded with cream cheese and chunk whitefish (Mmmmm), I read in the morning paper an article on the forum page written by Thomas Wenski, the archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Miami. That we dropped that bomb, wrote Rev. Wenski--or whatever title he uses-- "...is still, after all...a reason for much soul searching." He continues, "While our cause was just...the indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks ...violated basic moral norms." The Archbishop goes on to quote Vatican II which he avers taught, "Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities ...is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation." Wenski continues with this same theme that this bombing and the terror attacks on London and Coventry as well as the fire bombings of Dresden, Hamburg and Tokyo were all products of a "total war mentality". He very naively insists that this represented an abandonment of our Christian tradition that insists a just war must be limited in both its ends and its means.

.....Now, a "just war" can have two interpretations. One is that a country has a right to defend itself against its enemies; the other meaning of a "just war", according to Wenski is that the combatants should be nice and fair to each other. Well, according to my own thinking, if two or more countries are at war with each other, each side's aim is to win the war. Any other result would be traumatic and perhaps catastrophic. Throughout all history, one side attempts to win a war through development of a better mousetrap--or weapon. Were the Greeks un-Christian for developing the "Trojan Horse" and then ravishing Troy--soldiers as well as civilians during the night while they were all asleep? Why, yes, they were--but they won the war, and many Greek lives were thus saved. Colin Powell has said that if you go to war you must go with overwhelming force--and the object is to win, and to win as swiftly as possible so as to save lives--on both sides.

.....August 14 is, and should be, celebrated as VJ Day--victory over Japan. Although the Japanese prefer that we call it "Victory in the Pacific". Well, it really doesn't matter what you call it. What I know is that if Archbishop Wenski were in my squadron, I would mind very much if he were my commanding officer. If Truman had not made his decision, and if we used "conventional" warfare, perhaps more than 100,000 American and Allied lives had been lost. Perhaps even mine. And perhaps some men and women of the "Greatest Generation" who won World War II would not be attending services in his diocese if they had to land "justly" on the beaches of Japan.