Morality in War and Atomic Attacks?

Some of us will be called upon to do the heavy lifting, to do the nasty things that normal everyday citizens will not be asked to do. We do it because we care for our families and our country. When we are attacked we will fight and defend ourselves with all of our might. Some of us will die.

Others will be called upon to lead and make difficult life and death decisions. We pray that we are on the side of the good morality and not evil. We have tried to do good. We have not always been perfect.

Absolute morality like absolute justice is not attainable in this world or in any world.

"I wanted to do everything that I could to subdue Japan. I wanted to kill the bastards. That was the attitude of the U.S. in those years." "I have been convinced that we saved more lives than we took," he said referring to both American and Japanese casualties from an invasion of Japan. "It would have been morally wrong if we had that weapon and not used it and let a million more die."

Paul W. Tibbets
Pilot of the Enola Gay
(died Nov. 2007)

" ... you should know that Japanese culture, belies, and religous upbringing was one of death--that dying is glorious--especially dying for the emperor. The military was also guided by the Samuri code, which believes in dying for the "cause."
The culture of America was to survive and live. The atomic bomb did what it was intended to do and that was to end the war.

Louis Kagalis, 6 Aug. 1995

...When the Japanese government announced the Pearl harbor attack, radio stations played a martial song:

Across the sea corpses in the water;
Across the mountain corpses in the field.
I shall die only for the Emperor,I shall never look back.

Uno Shintaro, a Japanese soldier in the China campaigns, was interviewed after the war for a book --"Japan at War: An Oral History" --written by Haruko Taya Cook and her husband. This is part of his story:

"I personally severed more than forty heads (of Chinese prisoners). Today, I no longer remember each of them well. It might sound extreme, but I can almost say that if more than two weeks went by without my taking a head, I didn't feel right. Physically, I needed to be refreshed. I would go to the stockade and bring someone out.... I'd (behead them) on the riverbank, by the regimenyal headquarters....I sometimes bothed the job. (The prisoners) were physically weakened by torture.... (They) tended to move .... Sometimes I'd hit the shoulder. Once a lung popped out, almost like a baloon.... Looking at that, I felt ecstasy. (But) I'm not that way today."