Dear Editor,

I have read many of Bill Bryant’s letters in your newspaper. Some of his ideas I have agreed with and some I have not. When I read the one in my paper of Aug. 8, I felt a cold chill right down my spine!

I believe if Mr. Bryant had been with me aboard the USS SC(C) 1349 the first week of August 1945 he might feel differently.

At that time we were located in Lingayen Gulf on the north end of Lozon. There were also troop transport ships loaded wit U.S. Army infantry there, and we were rehearsing for the first invasion of one of the Japanese home islands — we enlisted sailors never knew the exact location. All we knew was that it would be really bad.

We had just survived over two months of constant Kamikaze attacks that killed 5,000 U.S. sailors and wounded 4,900 more. That doesn’t include the soldiers and Marines. This was the Okinawa action.

I don’t believe Mr. Bryant understands the Japanese people’s thinking at that time. To them, the emperor was God! If he said, “Fight to the death!” that is what they would have done.

Dropping the bombs on the cities is exactly what they would have done to our country if the situation was reversed. When the emperor realized that they had lowered America’s thinking to their own level of savagery, he knew it was time to quit!

When we in the western Pacific learned of the details, our first thoughts were “Thank GOd for President Truman!” He made the right decision.

Francis L. Brock

Bethesda