This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

President Obama is visiting Hiroshima, Japan as the first sitting president to visit since the bomb was dropped 70 years ago. He has made it abundantly clear that he is not apologizing.

The purpose of dropping the bombs has been hotly contested through history, starting before the decision to drop was finalized. Whether a million American lives were saved, the war ended earlier, or it was a field test of a new weapon depends on your perspective.

What cannot be disputed is the massive damage and loss of life that occurred to a primarily civilian population. One estimate, by Tadatoshi Akiba a former math professor from Tufts University, indicated 340,000 dead by 1950 between Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That doesn't include those who lived with terrible illness, disfiguration, inability to have healthy children and mental health problems.

Yes, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, a military base, causing 2,403 deaths. They used conventional weapons. Fair or not, the attacks were not the same.

In the name of a peaceful future without nuclear weapons, we need to take responsibility for the death and destruction we caused by being the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons against an enemy. Not once, but twice.

Laurie Sakaeda

Grantsville