August 25: Britain’s wartime adversaries have won the peace

I AM provoked to refer to the letter from Mr Mervyn Jackson (The Yorkshire Post, August 15) which makes me think he, unlike myself, was not about at the time our war on Hitler’s Third Reich was provoked.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched without warning an unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor as well as severely damaging most of our own fleet including battleships and aircraft carriers off Singapore.

In August 1945, Japan was defending each island mile by mile of their conquered territories, with great loss to the Allies. In less than two weeks of Hiroshima, Japan wisely surrendered. This saved us many more lives. Since that time, no nuclear weapons have been used in anger, a situation I submit no doubt would not have now existed.

After General MacArthur’s rule of Japan, they have been allowed to decimate our manufacture of cinema organs, motorcycles, as well as our car industry. I very much doubt that if this state of affairs would have resulted in the situation as it exists today. Now Japan is treated as an equal, in every respect apart from armament manufacture. It is my submission the two wartime losers, Japan and Germany, are effectively winning the peace.