“Japan should have known better. I tell you what, it was bound to happen!” The retired U.S. Army General reached over and flipped off the radio, extracting a mouthful of smoke and tobacco from the cigarette hanging out his mouth, blowing the smoke into the face of his American friend, the chef at The Crawford Diner, who in turn closed his eyes and faced the opposite direction.

   “But think of all those innocent women and children, bill,” the chef said, turning back to the General when the smoke had drifted away. “They didn’t even know it was coming.”

   The General covered his face and heaved a sigh. “Jon, Jon, Jon. How many times do we have to go over this? Think about Pearl Harbor. The way they flew in, completely by surprise, and bombed the smithereens out of us? Our women and children didn’t have a warning, either.”

   Jon was tired of arguing the point. He believed that war was not the only solution to problems. If you look hard enough, he thought, you would find another, far better solution: peace.

   He looked the General in the eyes. He knew his words would mean nothing. Something inside brought him to speak again. “An atomic bomb brings nothing but further conflict. Maybe not now, or a hundred years from now. But someday it will come, and somebody will not be prepared. At that point, what will be so wrong in shooting someone in the back?”

   General Bill stared for a moment. Taking the cigarette out of his mouth, he said, “Our boys are over there right this moment, fighting their hearts away. They knew before they ever went over there that it would not be easy, would not be fun and games. They knew that there was a very large chance that most of them would not return. These are men and women that willingly put their lives on the line. And for what?”

   Jon looked down.

   “For us, Jon. For me and you. For all of America. They are willing to die for our freedom, our rights to remain human. It doesn’t matter if we agree or disagree with the destruction of Hiroshima. That isn’t the point. The point is that we as Americans should support our boys, just as they are supporting us this second. And how would you feel if you were over there in Japan fighting for a nation that you later discovered was opposing your every move?”

   The chef said nothing, which was how these conversations always ended. The diner remained empty, and the old General continued puffing on his cigarette.

   end  

   Copyright 2006 by C.S. Harmon. All Rights Reserved.