]]]]]]]]]]]]]]       NO MORE HIROSHIMAS?       [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[ 

     With "Hiroshima Day" (Aug. 8) approaching, let me remind you of 
J. Oberg's suggestion for a bumpersticker: 
     NO MORE HIROSHIMAS? EASY: NO MORE PEARL HARBORS!
     And here is a letter from Australian AtE subscriber Dr J.A. 
Poutsma, dated 2/28/88, that you might wish to send to the editor of 
your local paper in early August: 
     "...When they dropped the bomb, I was close to death. My weight 
was about 100 lbs for a height of 6 ft, and I could encircle my thigh 
just above the knee with one hand (thumb to middle finger). 3,300 men 
went into the POW camp in Makassas Celebes Island (now called Sula-
wesi) and a bare 1,100 came out of there ate the end of the war. Dur-
ing the last year of our POW period (of 3 years and 9 months), POWs 
were dying increasingly rapidly, mainly from malaria and various 
dysenteries superimposed on various malnutritional states and those 
following on the severe beatings that the Japs meted out with ironwood 
clubs (like baseball bats) on the backside. During the last few months 
on average we buried 40-50 guys PER DAY. Three of my close friends 
were beheaded for trying to escape -- you know the story. Those num-
bers would have increased with time and can be multiplied many times 
for all the POW and civilian internment camps all over the occupied 
territories.
     I believe estimates of allied losses to be expected on invasion 
of the Japanese main island were: 1 million allies and some 5 million 
Japanese. Compare that to the the 140,000 dead at Hiroshima and Naga-
saki, and it is not hard to conclude which 
measure saved the most lives...

Dr J.A. Poutsma
Goonengerry Rd., Mullumbimby, NSW 2482, 
Australia                                         

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