Remembering Hiroshima . . .

. . . 62 years ago, an atomic bomb was used in war. Only one other has been used since. Remarkable when you think about it. Likely, the uniqueness of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be a distant memory.

The strange situation we have found ourselves in is that the end of the Cold War ended the strong threat of global destruction at the click of the button, but ever since the likelihood that some nation (and even worse, some non-state actor) will fling a nuclear device at another increases every year.

If we make it to 75 years since Hiroshima without another nuclear event, that'd be remarkable. If we make it to 100 years after Hiroshima without another bomb being dropped in anger, that'd be miraculous.

Still, President Truman made the right call, the only decision he could make. The bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved millions of lives, both American and Japanese, a long prolonged invasion of Mainland Japan would have greatly altered the post-war landscape. The bombs punctuated Japan's defeat, without that punctuation they might have fought to the bitter end and resisted any subsequent occupation.

The victims in those cities shouldn't be mourned any less, and the horror of nuclear weapons shouldn't be discounted, but it will always remain the right thing to have done.