The United States lost 14,000 men in 82 days in the epic battle to take Okinawa. Japan virtually fought to the last man.

There was a standing order to execute thousands of American POWs if Japan was invaded.

And, when Japan finally surrendered after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Allies were suffering 7,000 casualties a week.

Last Thursday 38 miles from Manteca at Livermore Lab 300 people gathered to tell the world the United States on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9 in 1945 were no better than mass murderers. Daniel Ellsberg, 84, of Pentagon Papers fame used the words “mass murder” to describe what this nation did on those two days 70 years ago.

One has to wonder how many protestors today damning America’s military decisions would even be alive today if President Harry Truman didn’t hasten the war’s end with his gut-wrenching decision. General Douglas MacArthur estimated the United States would suffer at least 50,000 casualties to establish a beachhead in Japan at Kyushu. That would have been just the beginning of the body count given how fiercely the Japanese fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

America had already lost 407,300 soldiers and 12,100 civilians fighting a war we didn’t start but were drawn into by Japan attacking Pearl Harbor.

Had the United States invaded Japan a lot of Americans would have died. That means a lot of people who were born after World War II would not have been born including some peace protestors.

No one should be happy with what happened. During the bombing and radiation aftermath 150,000 people died in Hiroshima and 75,000 people in Nagasaki. Worldwide the war directly cost 70 million people their lives while another 15 million died from disease and famine triggered by the war.

Some argue the second bomb wasn’t necessary, but after Hiroshima Japan refused to surrender.

The real question is how many lives — both American and Japanese — did the decision to drop the bomb save?

Experts have always contended American casualties would have been high if Japan had been invaded but the Japanese losses in both military and civilian would have been catastrophic. Given the carnage of conventional warfare at that point in August of 1945 and the tenacity of Japanese forces, the death toll could have been much higher than the combined casualties of the two atomic bombs.

Yes, the death toll from those two days in August was extremely one-sided. But if you were the President and had a weapon you could deploy that would save the lives of American men put in harm’s way by the nation that first attacked you and vowed to fight to the last man, what would you do?

Last Thursday in Livermore Takashi Tanemori spoke. He was 8 years-old and living in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped. He lost his family. He also was blinded.

He told the gathering, “The greatest way to avenge your enemy is by learning to forgive.”

With all due respect to Tanemori that is exactly what the United States did.

A victorious USA did not demand reparations. We did not enslave the population. Instead we invested heavily into rebuilding Japan as well as Germany, Italy and much of the war ravaged world.

 And we did it with an “enemy” who picked the fight.

We need to reflect upon and never forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We also should do the same for Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, the inhumane treatment of Chinese civilians, the Soviet Union death camps, Normandy, the bombing of Britain, and a host of other actions against military and civilian targets.

We also should think what would have happened if Germany had beaten the United States to the punch and developed the atomic bomb first or what Japan would have done if they had one they could have dropped .

The protestors demanded Livermore Lab stop all weapons testing so the world will never have to relive the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

If anything we should be reassured that Livermore Lab is doing their weapons research. Since 1992, their mission has not been to develop new atomic weapons but to essentially stabilize what we already have.

A much as we may hope, the United States can ill afford to turn our swords into plowshares.

We view Iran with the bomb as a potential modern aberration. Many blame the super powers for creating atomic weapons that rogue nations clamor to obtain.

But let’s be clear about one thing: Back in 1941 Japan, Germany and Italy weren’t exactly playing well with others. They were the very definition of rogue nations.

The United States is not perfect. We as a nation are not without fault. But given what we did in World War II and afterwards to rebuild the world we do not need to apologize for dropping the bomb.