Re: wartime ethics

["dkosloff1" <dkosloff1@email.msn.com>]

I have been trying hard to refrain from making any more  comments on the
a-bomb thread.  However, the sentence below was particularly troubling to
me.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karam, Andrew" <Andrew_Karam@URMC.Rochester.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 4:41 PM
Subject: wartime ethics


> I think we've heard more than enough on the perceived evils committed by
> both sides during World War II.

I believe that the following were not "perceived evils", but actual evils:

The rape on Nanking
The Bataan Death March
The attack on Pearl Harbor
The encouragement of civilian suicide on Okinawa
The Japanese unit dedicated to "medical" experiments in China
The Koreans forced to be "comfort women"
The attempted coup to prevent surrender after the second a-bomb was dropped.

If we choose to refer to these historical facts as "perceived" evils rather
than actual evils then we must drop all pretense of being concerned about
ethical issues.  These are not issues that result from alleged racial
characteristics.  They are the result of specific cultural decisions,
training and education.  Any large group of people can be trained tomorrow
to accomplish the same tasks while sleeping soundly every night.

Don Kosloff dkosloff@email.msn.com
2910 Main St, PERRY OH




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