Atomic bombing the lesser evil compared with invasion of Japan

I am confused by the “inverted logic” in the letter “Wrong to claim that killing of helpless civilians can be justified” (May 25). The writer likened the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings to letting one billion starving people die so that the remaining six billion have food to live.

The writer may not have lived through World War II and the Japanese occupation. He would otherwise have appreciated that the alternative to the bombing, which would have been invasion, would be to let all the seven billion people die.

All wars are inhumane, of course, and collateral damage is avoidable. Until humans learn to live in peace, we are forced to choose the lesser evil.