The Hiroshima Dilemma

Although the observance of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki passed some three weeks ago, the event has continued to garner reflection and debate. In his recent “Truman Was Right to Use the Bomb on Japan,” Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen presented a straightforward justification for the attacks and the case against the United States’ issuing a formal apology. It was a difficult theme to be sure, but all the while, though he was trenchant, he was never glib, and he was careful to acknowledge the horror that engulfed the victims. One ought to detect in this an important point: it is not necessarily inconsistent to be sorry even as one ought not to say sorry. Augustine taught us that sorrow can and ought accompany the prosecution even of just wars. For wars are fought well when they are fought with compassion for the enemy – even as we close with and kill them; with reluctance – after it’s clear nothing else can reestablish justice, order, and peace; and with remorse – that it all had to come to this in the first place. So one can be sorry even when one is not guilty.