Lest We Forget the Goodness of America

V-J Day, the day acknowledged as the victory over Japan, in Times Square on Aug. 14, 1945. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection. Public Domain

August 1945. My father-to-be, an Army sergeant and a combat infantryman in Italy, was on his way back to the United States to participate in the invasion of Japan. His brother was a doctor in the Army Medical Corps. My future father-in-law was in the Army in the Pacific and was also gearing up for the attack on the Japanese homeland.

On Aug. 6, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.