I am incredibly conflicted about what happened at Hiroshima, and I am coming around to the belief that what the US did there wasn't justified. (When I was servi

I am incredibly conflicted about what happened at Hiroshima, and I am coming around to the belief that what the US did there wasn't justified. (When I was serving in the Marine Corps in Japan, I visited the bridge that was the bomb target -- chosen because it could be easily seen from a plane -- and talked to a survivor, and it was really harrowing.) But... the US and Japan were at war at the time. Alderaan was a part of the Empire! There were declared hostilities with the Rebellion, but the Rebellion wasn't ON Alderaan. Leia grew up there, but that was about the extent of it. The Empire wasn't at war with Alderaan. It's as if during the Civil War we murdered everyone in Cleveland because one of the key members of the Confederacy had an uncle who lived in Cleveland. There's no ambiguity here, the destruction of Alderaan is clearly beyond the pale.