Trib readers react to the news story “Japanese delegation discusses World War II attacks” (May 1 and TribLIVE.com) about an event involving students at Pittsburgh’s Creative & Performing Arts magnet high school:

Jay Scarcelli, Monroeville — I was appalled by the rewritten history that the students are being fed. They might know their music, but their perception of history is lacking. The article states that up to 200,000 people died as a result of the two atom bombings on Japan, and the students feel guilty for America as a result. If the Pittsburgh Public Schools history department was doing its duty, the students would realize that we did not start the war and that when Japan refused to surrender, our choice was to risk 1 million U.S. lives in an invasion of Japan or drop the bombs. I will take the latter every time.

John Croyle, Mt. Lebanon — I get a little tired of hearing about people who “feel guilty” about our use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki — almost invariably people who had no personal stake in World War II and feel a need to apologize to the Japanese for that. I was 14 at the time and my biggest concern was for my father, who had been drafted at age 36. My uncle had already been in the Marines for two years, had been wounded twice and returned to combat both times. Those atomic bombs meant my father and my uncle would be coming home. Unfortunately, my cousin’s 34-year-old husband had already been killed in action on Luzon, leaving his wife and their infant son. I don’t feel any need to apologize to the Japanese for something their own leaders brought on them. I haven’t heard any apologies from them for Pearl Harbor.

George V. Winger, Harmony — Nowhere did I see mentioned the reason why our country did this, or the cowardly sneak attack on us at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese that got us into World War II. The article gives the impression that the Japanese are blameless and war-mongering America foisted fiery death upon innocent Japanese. Such is not the case; a million souls from both sides were saved due to these nuclear attacks, which convinced Japan’s boy emperor, Hirohito, to finally surrender unconditionally. Those who ignore history …

Tom Portante, O’Hara — What kind of propaganda is being taught at CAPA• We were not the aggressors in World War II with the Japanese. We were sneak-attacked by a military dictatorship with a figurehead “emperor.” How many of our fathers, grandfathers and other ancestors lived to beget this generation of idealistic, but woefully ignorant, students and teachers because of the use of those atomic bombs?

Dan Reeping, Sewickley — The article is stupid and irresponsible and insulting to those who died and were wounded by a fanatic Japanese military and population that gloated in their initial victories. The students should take a history lesson on what the Japanese culture was in the 1940s. The opinion of the hundreds of thousands of Americans, Chinese and other nations’ citizens and soldiers who were slaughtered in World War II by the Japanese can never be heard because of the Japanese mindset.

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