Don’t glorify atomic weapons
Clarence Moriwaki’s op-ed “A National Historic Park at Hanford” [Opinion, Dec. 17] provides a moving reminder of the tragic internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

However, he is misguided in advancing a congressional proposal for three Manhattan Project National Historic Parks. What message are we sending to nations that are currently trying to develop nuclear weapons?

The Manhattan Project was initiated as a result of fears that the Nazis might be developing an atomic bomb. A number of Manhattan scientists petitioned President Roosevelt before his death that we not move forward with using an atomic bomb against Japan.

If we want to remember the terrible nature of nuclear weapons, let’s have the Park Service create a national peace park to remember the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in 1945.
In Seattle, our local Peace Park with the “Sadako and the Thousand Cranes” sculpture is a small but a powerful example.

—Linwood Carlson, Seattle