Hiroshima Day

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30511, 5 August 1964, Page 16

Hiroshima Day

Sir, —Do we value human life or don’t we? Can anything the Japanese did ip time of war justify the dropping of bombs on innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? T-uman in his memoirs showed no sign of regret for these ghastly deeds. Two wrongs do not make a right—that is Old Testament morality. Shakespeare in the "Merchant of Venice” says: “The quality of mercy is not strained. It

droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed. It blesses him that gives and him that takes.” Let us plant good will, not nuclear bombs, for the only way to get rid of an enemy is to turn him or her into a friend. Let us look forward, not back, on Hiroshima Day and make the resolve: “Never again, Hiroshima.”—Yours, etc. MARY THORNE. August 4, 1964.

Sir,—“23/974” is justifiably horrified as he thinks of the merciless killings of helpless nurses and wounded men by Japanese soldiers. Unfortunately, his horror does not extend to the equivalent atrocities of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The victims there were also helpless and unarmed—men, women, and children; the luckiest of whom suffered quick, merciful death, while others lingered, are still lingering, with terrible, irreparable injury and wasting disease. Rightly on Anzac Day we remember especially those of our own fellows who died in the great wars. Rightly also on Hiroshima Day we should think of those of other countries who suffered at our hands. And we ought to celebrate both occasions in the same spirit, humbly considering the evils of war and the futile wastage of human life and talent it involves, and resolving to work for the removal of the causes of human conflict.—Yours, etc., JOHN MAXEY. August 4, 1964.