I DO applaud people around the world who remember the 6th and 9th August 1945.

Many younger people will not know these as historic days; August 6th 1945 was the first day of the atomic age. Older folk will remember 70,000 people lost their lives in each attack, lives lost in a flash in the first moment of the atomic age.

Older folk will also remember those who died following exposure to the radiation and it is right to do so. All intelligent people around the world will hope it will never happen again. But be aware, there are many people in the world, mainly men, who revel in such power. So while appearing to be humanitarian towards our fellow human beings, lowering our guard could be costly.

Some people today think the atomic bomb should not have been used; some consider it a war crime.

For them, think on these points; put yourself in that era. For more than ten years most of the world had been engaged in a number of very bitter wars. In 1931 Japan invaded Chinese Manchuria and then Korea. In December 1937 the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital Nanking, a city of some 600,000 people. In six weeks of carnage the Japanese murdered 300,000 soldiers and civilians. Not with a flash of light, but with bayonet and sword. That was a war crime.

I think the brutality shown by the Japanese to defeated soldiers and civilians was only surpassed by the brutality meted out to POWs by the medical staff in Unit 731. Anyone who has never heard of these atrocities, I suggest they research them then the reader may understand why in 1945 atomic bombs were used.

We all need to remember all of our fellow human beings who have 'fallen' in war, in particular atrocities like Nanking and Unit 731, as well as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And we must also remember the young men and women who today are prepared to stand up and defend us from this evil today. Lest we forget!

MIKE SPRY Mayfield Close Swindon