It is my hope that such an act does not happen again and we find away to lasting peace, cooperation and prosperity.

This is a hard subject for me because I have relatives on both sides of the issue, being Japanese, Scottish and part American Indian. I have heard the Kyoto was at one point going to be a target, a city with very old historic temples. My mother, who is Japanese, claims that they did surrender after the first bomb however, the statement was mistranslated.

Thank you for the post @krnel your writing is always a pleasure to read.