Hiroshima Thoughts

In a letter to the editor of the Liverpool Daily Mail on February 28^th 1983, Dr Hugh (Pip) Hughes, who died two years ago, said what needed to be said concerning the history of the Bomb.

Sir,

J.Porter (Letters, February 23) repeats the hoary old chestnut that the use of the atom bomb against Japan was justified because it shortened the war. At the time I was in Australia in the merchant navy, and it was widely reported before the use of the atom bomb that Japan had sued for peace. This fact was confirmed beyond doubt when the relevant United States documents were released under the 25-year rule. The atom bombs on Japan were used not for military purposes, but political – as a warning to Russia.

Mr Griffiths (‘anti-unilateralist’) on the same day says ‘multilateralism is the true way to peace’. I say that after 35 years of multilateral disarmament talks the world stock of nuclear weapons has increased from two to the equivalent of one million Hiroshima bombs. How many more must we have before the multilateral ‘peacemakers’ realize that this approach has not only failed, but shows no sign of achieving anything except to leave a litter of nuclear debris in Europe which can kill us all, even without a war.

Dr Hugh Hughes, Llangollen.