I truly wonder at the logic in Yoshio Shimoji's Feb. 27 letter, which states in effect that the United States should admit to committing atrocities comparable to or worse than those by Japan.
Does this mean that the deaths of up to 500,000 Japanese civilians in the last stages of a war — who remained largely unprotected by a government fully aware of what was coming especially after the fall of Saipan — are worse than the deaths of over 5 million Asians and over 500,000 prisoners of war (of whom at least 400,000 were Chinese) from Japanese military efforts as well as another 5 million Chinese from starvation and disease, also due to Japanese efforts, are comparable or not as barbaric?
I think not. Everywhere the Japanese military set foot, the number of horrible deaths rose, even after the battles had moved on. Perhaps gas and biological warfare, starvation and overwork, torture and, yes, even cannibalism pale in comparison to the efforts to stop that horrendous war as soon as possible.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.