‘Peace is possible’

NORTH FIELD, Tinian— “I am for peace,” said 81-year-old Leon Smith yesterday as he stood before fellow U.S. veterans, family members, local residents and guests to deliver his remarks on the 60th commemoration of the Atomic Mission to Japan.

Smith, was on this site 60 years ago to help put together the world’s single most dreadful weapon, the atomic bombs that were to be dropped on Hirsohima and Nagasaki.

Smith said, though, that he recognizes that U.S. has preserved peace over the last 60 years largely due to its nuclear might.

“That [achieving peace] is a remarkable accomplishment,” he said.

He echoed a similar sentiment aired by the Enola Gay crewmen, headed by retired Brigadier Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary to save more lives amid plans of the U.S. government to invade Japan by November 1945.

He said that while U.S. soldiers had just wanted “to finish the war and go home,” the Japanese, not only the soldiers, “but every woman, man, and child” were fully resolved “to finish the war to the end.”

He said an invasion of Japan would have been more tragic and led to a more protracted war, costing millions of lives.

He said it explains why when he was asked in an interview as to how did he felt after the atomic bombs were dropped, he replied, “I felt a sense of relief.”

The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima on Aug. 6 and on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945 resulted in the unconditional surrender of the Japanese and put the war to a quick end.

In a separate interview, Smith said he doesn’t see the U.S. resorting to nuclear weapons again “unless its existence is threatened.”

“I don’t expect the U.S. to use nuclear power unless its existence were threatened and if it had no other choice,” said Smith.

He added, though, “It’s impossible to predict events in the future.”

He noted that several decades ago in Europe, Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in a talk with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, said, “we have achieved peace in our time.”

“But that peace didn’t last very long because Hitler was not dealing in good faith. And as long as there are some people who do not deal in good faith, irrational actions may be taken—such with nuclear weapons are used again,” said Smith.

If nations were to use nuclear weapons, he said, “civilizations as we know it would cease to exist.”

A few days ago, the surviving crewmen of the Enola Gay, who dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, said that they have no regrets over the atomic bombing.

At the same time, they called on the nation’s leaders to uphold “reason” at all times.

“To our fellow veterans and the American nation, we will all echo one sentiment, [we] pray that reason will prevail among leaders before we ever again need to call upon our nuclear might,” said the group.

The Bush administration recently sealed a partnership agreement with India on the development of civilian nuclear energy technology, which is seen as a move to balance China’s might in the region.

The Enola Gay crew said U.S. President Harry Truman, in consultation with allied leaders, particularly Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill, approved the use of the atomic bomb when Japan refused to surrender.

They said it was Truman’s decision and hope “to avoid an invasion of the Japanese homeland. An invasion that would have cost tens of thousands of Japanese and allied lives.