NORTH FIELD, Tinian\u2014 \u201cI am for peace,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Smith, was on this site 60 years ago to help put together the world\u2019s single most dreadful weapon, the atomic bombs that were to be dropped on Hirsohima and Nagasaki.<\/p>\n
Smith said, though, that he recognizes that U.S. has preserved peace over the last 60 years largely due to its nuclear might.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat [achieving peace] is a remarkable accomplishment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He said that while U.S. soldiers had just wanted \u201cto finish the war and go home,\u201d the Japanese, not only the soldiers, \u201cbut every woman, man, and child\u201d were fully resolved \u201cto finish the war to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said an invasion of Japan would have been more tragic and led to a more protracted war, costing millions of lives.<\/p>\n
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, \u201cI felt a sense of relief.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In a separate interview, Smith said he doesn\u2019t see the U.S. resorting to nuclear weapons again \u201cunless its existence is threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t expect the U.S. to use nuclear power unless its existence were threatened and if it had no other choice,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n
He added, though, \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to predict events in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that several decades ago in Europe, Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in a talk with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, said, \u201cwe have achieved peace in our time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that peace didn\u2019t 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\u2014such with nuclear weapons are used again,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n
If nations were to use nuclear weapons, he said, \u201ccivilizations as we know it would cease to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few days ago, the surviving crewmen of the Enola Gay, who dropped \u201cLittle Boy\u201d on Hiroshima, said that they have no regrets over the atomic bombing.<\/p>\n
At the same time, they called on the nation\u2019s leaders to uphold \u201creason\u201d at all times.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo 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,\u201d said the group.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s might in the region.<\/p>\n
The Enola Gay crew said U.S. President Harry Truman, in consultation with allied leaders, particularly Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Winston Churchill, approved the use of the atomic bomb when Japan refused to surrender.<\/p>\n
They said it was Truman\u2019s decision and hope \u201cto avoid an invasion of the Japanese homeland. An invasion that would have cost tens of thousands of Japanese and allied lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH FIELD, Tinian\u2014 \u201cI am for peace,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}