Two related, but discrete, items from the past week show us the significance of the loss of the Greatest Generation.
First, from Pew Research:
Reflecting on the United States’ actions, 35% of Americans today say using the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 was justified, while 31% say it was not justified. A third say they are not sure. …
Americans ages 65 and older (48%) are more likely than adults in younger age groups to say the bombings were justified. Adults under 30, meanwhile, are considerably more likely to say the bombings were not justified than to say they were justified (44% vs. 27%).
Second, Roger Corbin, who was originally from Hampton but spent decades in Traer, died last Sept. 20. When I wrote a story about him for my Substack, I included a quote from his interview with the Grout Museum.
“When we left to go to the Pacific I didn’t figure our chances were much better than 50% of ever being back to the States,” he said for the Grout Museum District’s “Voices of Iowa” oral history project. “The invasion of Japan was going to cost a whole bundle of lives, and I’m one of those who can look in the camera and say, God bless Harry Truman for dropping the atomic bomb.”
KWWL found that clip for its story about the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, but something got lost in translation.
Please, somebody teach history — and proofreading.