Regarding the Oct. 29 article "Fatal deliverance from an 'iron storm'": Again we have the apologist Hiroaki Sato cutting a path for himself in the revisionist jungle, and of course concluding that all the ills that befell the Japanese in World War II were not their fault. As the title of his article indicates, it was the "iron storm" that drove soldiers to kill civilians or make them commit suicide. Yet, one only has to look at the evidence to see how faulty this analysis is. Despite his view that the Code of Conduct did not make sense to him, it sure made sense to about every soldier in the field!

Still, my major concern is his iron storm scenario. Before coming to that conclusion, he should have asked the many Japanese linguists tasked with convincing people to leave the caves in Okinawa. There was no iron storm there, just normal military brutality. Attempts to shift the blame just embolden those who would do the same again.

james hughes