In an Aug. 10 letter to the editor, Dick Hall wrote that the state of Washington is culpable in the nuclear destruction of Nagasaki, because of nuclear weapons manufactured and stored in our state. In that regard, it was reported that President Harry Truman on being presented the proposed plan for the invasion of Japan was given an estimate of 1 million U.S. casualties. With that number of possible casualties, Truman wanted to end the war. He ordered the bombing of Nagasaki. On the other hand, Emperor Hirohito refused to surrender after the bombing of Hiroshima. Hirohito surrendered after Nagasaki was bombed.

At Okinawa after seeing nine of my shipmates steamed alive as a result of a kamikaze attack, the bombing of Hiroshima made us happy; the bombing of Nagasaki lifted our spirits a lot more.

Hall also cites that with the large control of nuclear weapons hands our nation are not clean. Those dirty hands at least up to now have kept us safe from mad men. I like that.

Kal Leichtman

Everett