among Japanese soldiers and civilians. The thousands who have died in the atomic attacks on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki were far less than would have died in an allied invasion, and their sudden deaths convinced theJapanese military to surrender. Every nation has an interest in being at peace with other nations, but there has never been a time when theworld was free of the scourge of war. Hence, peaceful nations must always have adequate military force at theirdisposal in order to deter or defeat the aggressive designs of rogue nations. The United States was thereforeright in using whatever means were necessary to defeat the Japanese empire in the war which the latter began,including the use of superior or more powerful weaponry-not only to defeat Japan but to remain able followingthe war to maintain peace sufficiently to guarantee its own existence. A long, costly and bloody conflict is awasteful use of a nation's resources when quicker, more decisive means are available. Japan was not then-orlater-the only nation America had to restrain, and an all-out U.S. invasion of Japan would have risked the victoryalready gained in Europe in the face of the palpable thereat of Soviet domination. Finally, we can never forget the maxim of Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is thatgood men do nothing." The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought us into a war which we had vainly hopedto avoid. We could no longer "do nothing" but were compelled to "do something" to roll back the Japanesemilitarists. Victims of aggression have every right both to end the aggression and to prevent the perpetrator of itfrom continuing or renewing it. Our natural right of self defense as well as our moral duty to defeat tyrannyjustified our decision to wage the war and, ultimately, to drop the atomic bomb. We should expect politicalleaders to be guided by moral principles but this does not mean they must subject millions of people toneedless injur...
