August 19: Bombing Japan was only way to avert a greater slaughter

MERVYN Jackson is so busy writing that bombings “show Allies no better than Hitler” that he excuses Japan (The Yorkshire Post, August 15).

I lived through the Second World War and we would have done anything to bring an end to war in Japan.

We were made aware of the devastation at the time. Japan was the opportunistic aggressor in the Far East and behaved mercilessly towards allied forces and civilians with summary executions or slave labour.

Their foul deeds are well documented. To surrender in their eyes was dishonourable and captives were dealt with abominably.

They were never going to surrender without devastating action. I don’t support war or bombings but our action was right at the time.

From: Graeme Dewison, Pool in Wharfedale, Otley.

I REFER to the letter from Mervyn Jackson concerning the bombing of Japan.

The facts are well documented but the opinions are open to debate; there are two sides to every coin.

My father, like many thousands of others, was a prisoner who miraculously survived three and a half years of barbaric atrocities.

While I would never describe the dropping of these bombs as “a good thing”, it prevented the Imperial Army of Japan committing further barbaric acts including the imminent murder of my father along with thousands of other POWs, not to mention the massive bloodshed (both American and Japanese) which the inevitable and protracted alternative American invasion of the Japanese mainland would have entailed in order to prevent the whole of south- east Asia falling under the sword of the Japanese nation.

Desperate situations often require desperate solutions.

Is it not naive to claim that “we have never treated Japan and its people with respect”? Surely respect should be earned. To quote the excellent book One Fourteenth of an Elephant by Ian Denys Peek: “In the face of... undeniable evidence only one nation in all the world – Japan itself – did not show the smallest sign of recognition.” Over the years that have gone by since 1945 successive governments have continued to present an implacable stoney indifference.

Perhaps Mr Jackson should be reminded that it was Hitler and Japan whose greed for power and territory created the war, not the Allies, who rightly defended themselves.