I consider the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki possibly the worst moral crime in American history. Two hundred thousand people were killed and countless thousands were maimed for life-the innocent civilian populations of those cities were decimated...

I was on the Western Front in the American Army of liberation of Europe when the news broke of the bombings, having witnessed the infamous death camps of the Nazis and their many crimes first hand. I literally broke down when I heard about these actions of Truman. While all of my comrades were cheering, I asked what could possibly be the moral justification for these dastardly deeds. We were told that it would shorten the war and thus save American lives--hardly a sufficient reason.

They could have detonated the bombs first on uninhabited atolls in the Pacific, notifying the Japanese of our new weapon and enabling them to surrender before the bombs were used on entire civilian populations. These acts were among the most heinous in human history, perpetrated by a democracy no less, which believed in human rights. Humanists should mark that event in protest and remorse.