75 years of nuclear weapons

The biggest fight I had with my father was about the U.S.’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — he, a veteran of the World War II European theater, believed that the bombings had been necessary to protect U.S. soldiers from what he had been told would have been a ghastly invasion of Japan, and I thought (and still believe) the bombings are the worst thing humans have ever done. The fact that 100,000+ people were killed or injured is terrible enough, but tragically the world powers, over the past 75 years, have spent trillions of dollars on weapons of extraordinary destruction, money that could have been spent actually improving living conditions and protecting the earth. But no, it was all wasted. 75 years of waste and fear and distrust.

Today the Washington Post’s Style section has an article about John Hersey who wrote “Hiroshima,” originally for The New Yorker. I’ve never seen a photo of him before: Holy smokes, was he gorgeous. Reminded me of another gorgeous guy who wore fatigues during World War II: my father.

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