To the editor:

I disagree with John Dunham’s “Nuclear issues” letter of Aug. 5 in which he supports President Truman’s atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These crimes against humanity were absolutely unnecessary and horribly immoral. Even the terribly immoral sneak Japanese attack against U.S. military forces at Pearl Harbor did not primarily target U.S. civilians in Honolulu or elsewhere. The military situation on Aug. 1, 1945, was as follows:

1. The Japanese air force was destroyed, and our air force had control of the air over Japan.

2. The Japanese navy was destroyed, and our navy controlled the sea around Japan.

3. Japan’s two axis allies, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, were defeated and occupied by allied troops.

4. The Soviet Union was at the point of entering the war against Japan.

Japan’s military situation was completely hopeless. Japan is not economically self-sufficient. A complete air and naval blockade would have forced Japan to surrender even though it might have taken a little more time. A costly invasion of Japan was unnecessary.

I served in the Marines in World War II and was stationed in the Detroit area at the end of the war. V-E Day was celebrated with rejoicing, but on V-J Day, a few months later, I noted a somber feeling of shock that we had used such a terrible weapon as the A bomb.

John A. Bond,

Lawrence