Bob Schwartz

Today, August 6, is the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the U.S near the end of World War II. It is only one of the two times in history that a nuclear weapon has been used in war. The second time came three days later, when the U.S. bombed Nagasaki.

Japan was already losing the war. It surrendered about a month later. For eighty years the matter of whether dropping the first bomb, and then the second, was necessary to end the war. Some say that Japan would never have given up without it, and many American and Allied troops were saved. Others say that the destruction of the cities and the death of 160,000 civilians—and the health effects for many more—was unnecessary.

This anniversary did not make the front page or top story in news media, even in Japan. There are reports that the peaceful non-military attitude of Japan is receding. The bombed cities are rebuilt, the horror is distant, and giving peace a chance seems a luxury in this time and this world. As Kurt Vonnegut said in writing about his experience of the Allied bombing of another beautiful city, Dresden, in World War II: So it goes.

These times are not the first or last when we live through the calculus of horror. How much should we inflict? How much should we endorse? How much should we bear? Who is the enemy? Who and what should we follow? Who and what should we refuse?

Today is the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which is not on the front page or a top story. Maybe the calculus of horror should be.