Re: “Journey of Repentance” (TNT, 7-7).

The good news is that Bill Bichsel and some his fellow attention seekers are going to Japan. The bad news is that they will be coming back after they disgrace themselves by extending apologies for the military action that ended World War II.

If the two atomic bombs had not been dropped and we had mounted an invasion, a million or more American lives and at least that many Japanese lives would have been sacrificed.

Two of those casualties might well have my Marine Corp brothers who fought through the war in the Pacific and likely would have been involved in that invasion.

I visited Japan in 1952 while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. It was sad to see that so many were living in poverty that the people would come out each night and sort through the garbage cans we had put on the dock.

Did we hate them? No, and we always made sure that there was some clean food placed in the top of the cans.

We were sorry to see the suffering, but let’s put the blame where it belongs. Those in charge of Japan during that time, not America, were responsible for the post-war conditions. No amount of misguided groveling by anti-war groups can change that.

If defending America had been in the hands of people like Bichsel and his ilk, we would probably all be speaking German with a Japanese accent.