Remembering one of the toughest decisions in history

Sixty-five years after the atomic bomb was first used in warfare, the United States sent its first representative to a memorial ceremony to the target city, Hiroshima, Japan.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Sunao Tsuboi, 85, who was a 20-year-old aerospace engineering student on his way to class when "Little Boy" exploded in the air about a kilometer away.

When he came to, his arms were black and one of his ears was nearly ripped off.

He's had cancer twice and has been hospitalized 12 times since then, and he never became an aerospace engineer, opting instead to become a middle school teacher which allowed him more time off to deal with his illnesses.

But he went on to have a wife, three children and seven grandchildren, and now says he's the happiest he's ever been in his life.

Ironically Tsuboi and millions of other Japanese and Americans probably owe their lives to the atomic bomb. Had Little Boy and sibling Fat Man not been dropped, that's how high the casualty count could have been in the inevitable American invasion of the Japanese homeland.

Disagree? Consider this: American raids destroyed Toyama, an urban area of 128,000, and incendiary attacks on Tokyo killed an estimated 90,000, and the Japanese kept fighting.

Only the shock value of U.S. atomic bombs finally brought the empire's leadership to the realization that they had to surrender.

Like Tsuboi, many of us, children and grandchildren of the Greatest Generation, owe our existence to the atomic bombs that ended World War II and allowed our fathers and grandfathers to return home from war.

Atomic weapons are horrible, yes. So horrible that world powers have avoided, so far, ever using them again.

But time has proven that President Truman made the right decision when he agreed to send them into battle.

The lesson for today?

Tough decisions must be made, and often, the toughest, most difficult path may be the best one to take.