Hiroshima, the 60th anniversary

Geoffrey Wheatcroft | Guardian opinion

"This atrocious action places 'us', the defenders of civilisation, on a moral level with 'them', the beasts of Maidanek. And 'we', the American people, are just as much and as little responsible for this horror as 'they', the German people." (Dwight Macdonald)

I think the very people who tell us not to talk about the reasons for the recent London bombings, saying with emphasis that "nothing, nothing can ever justify attacks on innocent civilians" are probably the same people who support the US nuclear atrocities. For the past world, they despoiled it in common with their vicious enemies, for the future world the precedent they set is the seed of our destruction.

There was a beautiful story on the radio today, on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show, about an old survivor from Hiroshima, who told an author recently a story he had never told anyone before. The night before the bomb he was courting his beautiful girlfriend, and both their families opposed their relationship, but for the first time they stole away and lay down on the grass beneath the stars. They never kissed, all they did was to hold hands for several hours, and that was the happiest time of his life. He searched the ruins for her for days, never found her.