I’m a bit late with this story, but I still thought it worth mentioning.

I’ve always thought that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II was an abomination. First, because the massive loss of civilian life and ensuing human suffering was incredible, and second because it looked quite clear that the U.S. would have won the war anyway — so it wasn’t justified as a way of saving other lives.

Now, there’s new evidence that Japan was close to developing its own atomic bomb.

This actually makes me rethink the whole issue a bit. I’m still not comfortable with the U.S. decision to drop the bomb – and to the extent that Americans were unaware of the Japanese progress, their actions may not be any less morally reprehensible — but ultimately it may have saved enough lives to balance out the equation a little more.