Were the atom bombs justified to end the war?

I REFER to Susan Bradley Roberts’s letter and wish her well. I was a member of 3 Commando Brigade Nos 1 and 5 (Army) and 42 and 44 (RM) during the war in Burma and the Far East. We learnt of the losses of US Marines at Iwo Jima — 2,700 on the first day — and were told we would be invading Japan in the near future. We were also told to expect 100 per cent casualties. A bit later we heard the good news of the first atom bomb. Once it was explained, a rousing cheer went up for President Harry S. Truman, followed by a further cheer for the second bomb. Days later the Japs gave in — and then we found the Far East PoWs. We were hardened men, but many of us wept openly when we saw the state they were in. People who make total war do not like it when it happens to them.

WILLIAM GEORGE, Midhurst, west sussex. I SAW with my own eyes the state the Pows were in after being in Changi jail, Singapore. I was a member of the 3rd Parachute Squad, royal engineers — part of the British invasion force consisting of ten naval vessels and 42,611 men. we were within days of facing the Japanese army, so you can understand the relief when the atom bombs were dropped and the war ended. how many hundreds of thousands of lives of all nationality were saved, is not possible to estimate, but it seems to me that dropping the bombs was the right thing to do.

Brian COX, ivybridge, devon. MY FATHER served in the Army from 1933 to 1946. He fought in North Africa, Europe and in Germany itself. He was in the 11th Armoured Division which ‘liberated’ Bergen-Belsen in April 1945. Soldiers bulldozed 13,000 corpses into mass graves. As they moved into Germany, he told me that surrendering enemy soldiers were summarily shot, such was the extent of their loathing of them. His hatred lasted until he died 50 years after the war.

James swales stockton-on-tees, county durham. REGRETS over hiroshima and Nagasaki? Yes, it should have occurred earlier, and in Germany, too. Think of how much suffering would have been saved.

a. h. clark, Goffs oak, herts.