Magliano column inaccurate, misleading

Tony Magliano’s column (CR, Aug. 5) may have been well intended, but it is also misleading, pacifist propaganda. I am not an advocate of nuclear warfare, nor would I suspect is Jesus or any religious leader.

Magliano should do better research before submitting an article that focuses on historical events about which he has so little knowledge. He wants to convince us that Japan was ready to surrender in August 1945 but that is supposition. He tries to support his position with an evaluation of the ineffectiveness of the Japanese Navy; the problem was not the Navy at that point in time. In June 1945, kamikaze planes and boats sunk 28 allied ships at Okinawa. During that battle when the Japanese Navy was already defeated, the U.S. Navy sustained its greatest casualties of the war. During the invasion of that island, the defenders killed 12,513 allied personnel and 110,000 Japanese were killed in action.

Magliano admits that the atomic bomb “taught the Japanese a precious lesson of nonviolence as a way of life…” Unfortunately, it took extreme measures before that could occur.