LETTER: Hiroshima message
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A year ago Jean Michel Bouvier, one of your regular contributors, reminded readers of the August 6 1945 dropping of the first atomic bomb. A terrible event, but no more terrible than the treatment and torture suffered by thousands (many more than those who died in the bomb attacks) between February 1942 and August 1945.
A visit to Fort Canning in Singapore tells visitors of beheadings and the display of these decapitated heads on public stakes. Take the Burma railway project as another example. My father and grandfather were fortunate not to have been sent there from Singapore, but nevertheless suffered the worst the Japanese could offer to interns of the Changi concentration camp. (Changi jail as it was known.)
They lost three and a half of the best years of their lives. The Japanese were an obstinate nation, living insanely under the tyranny of their emperor. They didn’t get the Hiroshima message and needed reminding. It took great courage by the then US president, Harry Truman, to do so.
Chris Richards
Via e-mail
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an e-mail with your comments. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Send your letter by e-mail to letters@businesslive.co.za. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
A visit to Fort Canning in Singapore tells visitors of beheadings and the display of these decapitated heads on public stakes. Take the Burma railway project as another example. My father and grandfather were fortunate not to have been sent there from Singapore, but nevertheless suffered the worst the Japanese could offer to interns of the Changi concentration camp. (Changi jail as it was known.)
They lost three and a half of the best years of their lives. The Japanese were an obstinate nation, living insanely under the tyranny of their emperor. They didn’t get the Hiroshima message and needed reminding. It took great courage by the then US president, Harry Truman, to do so.
Chris Richards
Via e-mail
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an e-mail with your comments. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Send your letter by e-mail to letters@businesslive.co.za. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
