To the editor:

In John A. Bond’s letter (“U.S. a rogue?” J-W, Saturday) he states “there is evidence that the Bush administration has required the Pentagon to draw up ‘first use’ of nuclear weapons against several ‘axis of evil’ states.” His idea is thought provoking, but his comments on the United States’ record of using nuclear weapons are arguable.

After stating that the U.S. record on refraining from using nuclear weapons is not reassuring, he wrote: “In 1945 President Truman ordered nuclear bombs to be dropped upon Japan whose military situation was hopeless and whose axis allies had already surrendered.”

True, Japan’s allies had surrendered, but regardless of their “hopeless” military situation, the Japanese were not going to surrender. The Japanese were fierce competitors who followed a strict moral code that required them to keep fighting.

According to historian Stephen E. Ambrose, “they (the Japanese) were driven not by a view of what the objective situation was but by their view of what their code required them to do. To surrender while capable of fighting one final battle was dishonorable.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower even estimated a half a million American lives would be lost in a land invasion. Following American General Andrew J. Goodpaster’s plan, occupation of Japan by land would have involved U.S. allies, including the communist Soviet Union. A successful occupation meant the Soviets would have occupied one-quarter of Japan.

Mr. Bond makes several strong points in his letter, but the U.S. record of using nuclear weapons in 1945 is not comparable to U.S. dealings with the “Axis of Evil” in 2003.

Brian Seymour,

Lawrence