To respond to my previous post on A-Bomb, my local hero, Jesper e-mailed me the text below:

"I wrote an essay at the time I spent at university of Sussex, regarding the memory of the bomb in the US "...surrender from the enemy and a reduction in the loss of Allied lives"
The latter number - reduction of the loss of Allied lives - has been heavily differing. A note in 1944 to the president said that some 55.000 American lives would be saved if the bomb was dropped. In August 1945 - after the bomb - the official numbers had risen to some 100.000 lives.
The debate of the bomb wore of some years, and then exploding in the 80s and 90s. Mr Reagan started by setting the number to 1 million overdone only by Mr. Bush Senior and Clinton (the latter reached a new high; I think it was some 5 million soldiers). No doubt; the 250.000-450.000 deaths in the terrible act had to be legitimized in the era of ethichs. Funny, ethics is beeing legitimized with numbers.