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Wrong to claim that killing of helpless civilians can be justified

I beg to differ with the writer of “Atomic bombs may have saved Japan from a slaughter” (May 14).

I beg to differ with the writer of “Atomic bombs may have saved Japan from a slaughter” (May 14).

Decimating thousands of defenceless civilians in a matter of seconds cannot be justified on the grounds that the “bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can be said to have saved Japan from a possible slaughter, besides saving many American lives”.

By the same inverted logic, if we let one billion hungry people below the poverty line die of starvation, the remaining six billion would have plenty to eat.

On his visit to Hiroshima on Friday, United States President Barack Obama has a unique, historic opportunity to rise above the ego of the supreme global military power and apologise to Japan and the world for using a nuclear bomb.

Although the White House has said he will not, doing so could mean leaving a legacy of being the first American statesman with the moral courage to correct a historical wrong and lay the ghost of Hiroshima and Nagasaki permanently.

This would not be perceived as weakness; it would in fact elevate him to the stature of great leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy.

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