Seventy Years ago Today, the Threat of Nuclear War was Unleashed

   Seventy years ago today, the threat of the world dying in a nuclear war was unleashed. Seventy years ago today, on August 6, 1945, the U.S. bomber Enola Gay dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima.  Nagasaki would follow days later, with a bomb being dropped there. The bombs killed an estimate 105,000 people, though getting an accurate figure is difficult if not impossible.
   The miracle of peace is that no one has used a such bomb since, despite there being more than 15,000 nuclear weapons now on the earth. Russia and the U.S. account for 93 percent of them, but seven other countries also are nuclear powers.
   It can be argued, the bombing of Japan saved lives, for without it, the U.S. faced a bloody assault on the Japanese mainland. The battling for the Okinawan islands had already claimed 12,520 American and an estimate 200,000 Japanese lives, about half of which were civilians.
   Still, I think we should wonder if  we were wrong to use the bombs. I think we should wonder if the cost in human life was too high. I think we should wonder if the cost in human life would also have been too high if we had landed an assault. I do not know. I do not know what would happened if we had both turned away from bombing the mainland and from mounting a land assault.
   But, I think it right to question. If, in the end, we decide it had to be, so be it. But, questioning such large loss of life should certainly be done.
   This day deserved more attention than it received, for the bombing unleashed the threat of nuclear war upon the world.
   (A correction was made 8/16/15 to this post. I had suggested 140,000 lives were lost, but 105,000 is probably more accurate.)