Regarding the Sept. 6 article "Occupiers favored with postwar plenty": Yes, the U.S. military and others stationed in Japan right after World War II did live better than most. Then again, what did Japan expect after attacking the United States? Was the U.S. supposed to starve its own personnel, and pay for food and housing for those who lost the war? It did later supply the defeated imperialists with food. Had the Japanese defeated the U.S. and occupied it, what would they have done? Would they have been as "magnanimous" as they were in China and Korea?

Although I object to the use of atomic bombs and firebombings to quickly defeat Japan, I don't really feel that Japan was treated poorly after it lost the war that it started. Perhaps those who survived it will be able to pass on the costs of war so that the rightwing idiots who would like to whitewash the past and pursue more military adventures fail to win over the public in any way. I doubt it though. Sometime in the future, Japan may be revisited with devastation from occupiers who are not as sympathetic.

dan tinder