Andrew Sullivan comments on the “hole in our collective memory” that was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After we defeated the Japanese, we imposed strict censorship laws on them, and did away with most of the evidence of the horrific act we had perpetrated against them. Resultingly, images of the destruction are hard to come by. However, recently, photographs of the destruction surfaced.

The images are silently terrific, like this one, which depicts the famous “nuclear shadow” of a man standing on a bridge.

His footprints are outlined in chalk, and I am assuming he was vaporized instantly.

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Noam Chomsky said that these bombings were likely the greatest acts of terrorism in history (by the definition of terrorism we apply to our current adversaries), but concedes that they were probably necessary. I am inclined to agree with him.

h/t Andrew