In last week's Journal Monica Elabor led us to believe that Churchill thought that the dropping on the atomic bomb on Japan was unnecessary.

This seemed to me so strange that I checked in volume six of his The Second World War. From this it is clear that Ms Elabor's use of quotations is, at the very least, selective. What Churchill meant in saying that Japan's "defeat was certain before the first bomb was dropped" was that by 1945 the Allies had the overwhelming conventional forces necessary to ensure Japan's defeat.

However, as he also made clear, using these resources to this end came with four very high price tags: loss of up to a million American lives; loss of about half a million British ones; the deaths of an incalculable number of Japanese, both military and civilian; and the heavy involvement of the USSR in the final stages of the Japanese campaign. In light of these factors, Churchill had this to say: "There never was a moment's discussion of as to whether the atomic bomb should be used.

"To avert a vast, indefinite butchery, to bring the war to an end, to give peace to the world, to lay healing hands upon its tortured peoples by a manifestation of overwhelming power at the cost of a few explosions, seemed, after all our toils and perils, a miracle of deliverance."

In hindsight, words showing a little more sensitivity might have been used but, this notwithstanding, Churchill's logic seems to me impeccable.

If Ms Elabor thinks otherwise, I wonder if she would be so brave as to attend the next meeting of the Burma Star Association to explain to its members why she feels they should have suffered yet greater horrors in order that she might enjoy the delusion of somewhat cleaner hands?

Mike Waller, Glenclyne, Brook Lane, Cropthorne,

Pershore