'Talk about all of it' is a two-sided coin
By The Bakersfield Californian
Gee, when you are living in the shadow of a great man, what better way to bring attention to yourself than to throw mud in his face (even if he is your grandfather)? I refer to President Harry Truman's grandson, Clifton Truman Daniel, and his recent offering of an apology for President Truman's decision to drop the A-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
As the writer of the Aug. 9 letter "Bomb probably saved millions" commented, "Daniel said, 'The important thing is to keep talking, talk about all of it.'"
Does that include talking about prisoners of war who were virtually used as slaves by Japan? My uncle was one of them; he was captured on Bataan before the U.S. entered the war, and was moved from island to island, being forced to do slave labor and nearly starved to death -- at one point he went down to 100 pounds.
He ended up on the Japanese mainland at the time of Japan's surrender. In conversations with him, I learned that many of the prisoners of war my uncle knew ended up in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. I don't believe they, or my uncle for that matter, ever received an apology from Japan. I would think "talk about all of it" should include a discussion of what happened to these men and women.
H. Edward Lynch Jr.
Bakersfield
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