{"id":15997,"date":"2025-08-08T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=15997"},"modified":"2025-08-07T23:40:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T04:40:18","slug":"god-bless-harry-truman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2025\/08\/god-bless-harry-truman\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;God bless Harry Truman&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two related, but discrete, items from the past week show us the significance of the loss of the Greatest Generation.<\/p>\n<p>First, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2025\/07\/28\/80-years-later-americans-have-mixed-views-on-whether-use-of-atomic-bombs-on-hiroshima-nagasaki-was-justified\/\">from Pew Research<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Reflecting on the United States\u2019 actions, 35% of Americans today say using the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 was justified, while 31% say it was\u00a0not\u00a0justified. A third say they are not sure. &#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">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\u00a0not\u00a0justified than to say they were justified (44% vs. 27%).<\/p>\n<p>Second, Roger Corbin, who was originally from Hampton but spent decades in Traer, died last Sept. 20. When I wrote a <a href=\"https:\/\/betweentworivers.substack.com\/p\/roger-corbin-remembered\">story about him for my Substack<\/a>, I included a quote from his interview with the Grout Museum.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cWhen we left to go to the Pacific I didn\u2019t figure our chances were much better than 50% of ever being back to the States,\u201d he said for the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.groutmuseumdistrict.org\/voices-of-iowa\/detail\/59019\/Roger-Corbin\/\" rel=\"\">Grout Museum District\u2019s \u201cVoices of Iowa\u201d oral history project<\/a>. \u201cThe invasion of Japan was going to cost a whole bundle of lives, and I\u2019m one of those who can look in the camera and say, God bless Harry Truman for dropping the atomic bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>KWWL found that clip for its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kwwl.com\/news\/top-stories\/iowa-veterans-share-perspectives-on-hiroshimas-impact\/article_13b842f6-997e-44cc-aa29-d24ad2e5c5eb.html\">story about the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima<\/a>, but something got lost in translation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15998\" src=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kwwl_corbin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kwwl_corbin.jpg 600w, http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kwwl_corbin-300x190.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Please, somebody teach history \u2014 and proofreading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019 actions, 35% of Americans today say using the atomic bomb on &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2025\/08\/god-bless-harry-truman\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iowa-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15999,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15997\/revisions\/15999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}