A G REESON and A L Dixon (Letters, August 17) feel America dropping atom bombs on Japanese cities in 1945, was legitimate. "War is a dirty business... you must use all the means available... to win" wrote Mr Dixon.

Mr Reeson criticised the 1941 Japanese bombing of America's remote Pearl Harbour naval base, especially because it was done "without warning". Mr Dixon considered the Japanese "the vicious, cruel enemy".

I remind them that Britain itself has a shameful past.

A few examples: the 275 years of slave trading; imperialist acquisition of a global empire; fire-bombing Dresden in 1945; present involvement in illegal bombing, invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.

These days, great armies fighting each other are a thing of the past. Those without military resources comparable with America and Britain feel compelled to uphold their beliefs and fight their cause by using different strategies - suicide bombing for example.

I'm sure Messrs Reeson and Dixon are outraged at such militant groups' tactics, even though those methods actually kill only a tiny number compared with the quarter-million total dead (and still dying) at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

No doubt A G Reeson and A L Dixon were appalled at last month's London bombings, yet I'm sure they sleep contentedly with the memory of America's 1945 atomic bombings.

Colin S Jeffrey,

East Mount Road, York.

Updated: 10:24 Wednesday, August 24, 2005