I just heard this story, and I have to agree with Evo.Shander. The story has "Western Guilt" dripping all over it. While I do realize that "every american should do this" came out of the mouth of a newbie character, it just smacked so much of western-liberal "white man's burden" (e.g. american-european civilization are the only ones who can save the rest of the heathens from what terrible injustices that the american-europeans have wrought, blah blah blah). Evo.Shander already had some good points about Nanking, Dresden, Bhutan, etc. Heck, take any major battle along the Russian front, and it's likely to be ten times the terror, civilian casualties, and brutality that Hiroshima weathered. More to the point, none of the other powers (Japan, German, Russia, heck Britain) would have hesitated one microsecond to nuke New York or Los Angeles if it came down to it and if they had the ability. War is war, and guilt is a selfish emotion. Better to spend that energy on doing something useful, like preventing future wars.