Hiroshima – the doomed and the saved

FA Barnwell (Irish Examiner letters, August 7) is right to point out that the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the ultimate acts of terror, but they shortened World War II by at least 12 months and saved countless other lives.

Moreover the ‘cold peace’ of the Cold War era was undoubtedly due to the nuclear deterrent. No one in August 1945 doubted then that the hastening of the end of Japanese resistance was justified by any means possible. Let us not forget that the Japanese army of that time carried out very many unprovoked terror attacks on civilians and combatants.

FR Baigel,