Japan struck first

Published August 21, 2013 1:01 am

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

This is in response to Steve Lewis' letter regarding "the bombs America dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki" ("Hiroshima Day," Public Forum, Aug. 12).

I would like to remind Mr. Lewis that there would never have been a Hiroshima or Nagasaki if there hadn't been a sneak attack by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941.

Mr. Lewis probably never lived in a country run by tyrannical despots who could knock on your door at midnight and cart you away to a concentration camp.

Our family came from Germany and we were 30 miles from the Russian front in March, 1945. We knew terror, starvation, depravation and walked out of our town before the Russians came so that we wouldn't be killed or thrown in their infamous gulags.

America has been responsible for giving freedom to more than 60 million people all over the world. It was the Allies and especially the American military that set us free from the evil of Hitler and other despots.

Mr. Lewis wants us to "look back ... the most tragic line in the hardest chapter in human history." May I suggest that we look back at the hardest chapters in human history by looking at what Stalin, Hitler and Imperial Japan did.

Ursula Diemer

Salt Lake City

USER COMMENTS

Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, please alert us by clicking the arrow on the upper right side of the comment and selecting "Flag comment as inappropriate". If you've recently registered with Disqus or aren't seeing your comments immediately, you may need to verify your email address. To do so, visit disqus.com/account.
See more about comments here.