The Difference Between Hiroshima and Auschwitz

When my wife, the late Dr. Betty Roger Rubenstein, and I were in Japan when I was president of the University of Bridgeport (ca 1998), somebody told the Mayor of Hiroshima that I was the author of After Auschwitz. The mayor invited Betty and me to visit Hiroshima, which we did. I suspect that there was some politics involved as some of the officials we met at Hiroshima saw the American nuclear attack on their city as the Japanese Auschwitz, I did not want to argue with my hosts. I saw Auschwitz as a genocidal attack n people who had already surrendered. In reality, the puropose of the attack on Hiroshima was to compel the Japanese to surrender. Once they surrendered, they were in no further danger from the Americans. I hope President Obama is mindful of the difference between Hiroshima and Auschwitz when he speaks at Hiroshima.