James Martin

Millions of Americans have a personal or family connection to World War II. One is Salon columnist Camille Paglia, who in answering a letter from a reader in her April 21 column, mentioned her father’s service during the war, explaining how he and his Army unit, which was slated for an invasion of Japan, were “spared from certain decimation by the two atomic bombs and Japan’s surrender.”

Paglia’s father was among many thousands spared because of President Truman’s decision to launch a nuclear strike against Imperial Japan. His order to attack Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, was carried out in no small part by my uncle, Maj. Tom Ferebee. He was the bombardier aboard the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb, and that in doing so, ushered in the nuclear age.

As President Obama prepares for his visit to Hiroshima on Friday, I recall my uncle’s personal reflections. As the bombardier, peering through his Norden bombsight, he was the last man to see Hiroshima in any detail before it was leveled, making his perspectives on the event somewhat unique.

He always said he never tossed and turned at night over his role in the mission. While he is distinguished in his hometown of Mocksville, N.C., he was occasionally accused, in later years, of having blood on his hands. He was always calm and confident in answering critics. He never second-guessed Truman’s decision and took pride in knowing the critical job he performed in bringing the war to an end.

Four days after that single bomb destroyed Hiroshima, Japan offered its surrender. As a 26-year-old military man, Maj. Ferebee knew what that meant. For months before the bombing, the War Department had been preparing for an invasion of Japan, the planning for which included casualty figures.

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The Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated as many as 134,556 dead and missing Americans. A study for the office of War Secretary Henry Stimson put the figure at 400,000 to 800,000 dead GIs, with Japanese fatalities reckoned between 5 million to 10 million military personnel and civilians. In addition to combat casualties, the more than 27,000 American POWs held by Japan were subject to immediate execution should the U.S. invade.

The nuclear attack on Hiroshima was terrible. All warfare is. The power unleashed by the splitting of the atom was monumental. But tragic as the bombing of Hiroshima was, it was also necessary. The alternative to Hiroshima would have been one of the bloodiest, if not the bloodiest, slaughter in human history. These facts were not far from my uncle’s mind that Aug. 6, and they were near the surface of his consciousness in all the years after. He knew that his keen eye and steady hands helped spare untold lives on both sides of the conflict.

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During the 71 years since Hiroshima, the world has occasionally marched toward the nuclear abyss and wise men decided against the annihilation that attends the use of such weapons. Since then, the United States and other nations have reduced their stockpiles of nuclear warheads. God willing, wise men will continue to prevail if faced with the question of whether to use them.

These are the lessons the president should carry with him to Hiroshima. No apology is necessary for sparing Japan the unspeakable horror of an invasion to end the war. No contrition is needed for an act that preserved hundreds of thousands of lives. One can thoughtfully reflect on the awful destructive power of the atomic bomb while understanding the indispensable role it played in world history. Maj. Ferebee, who retired as an Air Force colonel in 1970 and who died in 2000 at the age of 81, never lost any sleep over the bombing of Hiroshima, and neither should President Obama.

James Martin served in the Marine Corps and is the founder of the 60 Plus Association, a non-partisan seniors advocacy group.

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