Emily found her father in his library that evening.

“Dad, I have to interview you about the war so that I can understand someone else’s feelings about it.

“I empathize with you,” said Mr. Hinton.

“Daddy, are you trying to be funny?”

“Obviously not,” came the reply.  “You were late coming home from school.  Is everything alright?”

Emily sighed, “Yes, Daddy.  I just had to spend some time thinking.”

Mr. Hinton put down the book he was reading.  He did not leave his finger between the pages to hold his place.  He had a feeling that this was going to be a lengthy interview.

“What would you like to ask me, sweetheart.  Do you have a pencil and pad handy – like a real reporter.”

“Oh Daddy, there is going to be a reporter there tomorrow and I can’t argue because when I see the picture of the child’s handprint I cry and then I can’t argue without emotion.  And I know Howie will be mad at me because I will ruin his chances to go upstate to school.  Only I don’t want him to go.  I want him to stay near me…I mean near his home.  Only I don’t know why because I am still mad at him for ruining my party.  And maybe he won’t ask me to go to the prom again – especially since I told him that I wouldn’t go with him the first time he asked and that fifteen other boys had asked me – which is true.  Really it’s sixteen if you count Ears…er…Earl Malloy.  Only I don’t because Ears is a deceitful person.  And I got the whole school mad at him – Howie, that is – not Ears.”

As she paused for breath, she noticed that she was fumbling with the tail of her shirt.  “And,” she admitted, “I am wearing one of your new shirts, again.”

Emily sniffed and waited for her father to reply.

Ira Hinton got out of his chair and crossed the room to his daughter.  “Before you admit to any more offenses, I think that I need a dance.  This will have to hold me over if you get hauled away and locked up for your crimes.”

And he took her in his arms and swung her around the room singing and dancing as badly as only a father could do until Emily was giggling so much she could not continue.

Easter Hinton, Emily’s mother came into the room to see what the noise was all about.

“Oh you are singing,” she said.  “I thought someone had stepped on the cat.”

Mr. Hinton clutched his heart.  “I am surrounded by unappreciative women.  Emily steals my shirts and you malign my singing.”

“Well dear, maligning is the nicest thing I can do for it.  What is going on?”  Easter was musical; she taught piano, but she loved her husband despite his lack of musical abilities.

“I thought that Emily was going to interview me about my war experiences, but, instead, she has confessed to stealing my shirts, flirting, having deceitful friends and setting the entire school against poor Howie Throckmorton.”

“Well – so long as it isn’t anything serious.  Howie is such a nice boy.”  And Mrs. Hinton left the room.

Mr. Hinton sat back down in his recliner.  Emily sat down beside him on a footstool hugging her knees to her chest.

“So what do you want to ask me the war and why?” asked Mr. Hinton

“Howie asked me to join the debate club with him.  He needs the experience to help him get into a college far away.” Emily sighed.  “I thought we would debate together, only he got paired with Earl Malloy and I got paired with Karen Switzer.  She is really not so bad even though she is very pretty.”

“We have to debate about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.  Howie and Earl have to argue that it was right.  And Karen and I have to argue that it was wrong.  It’s hard to tell from the books what was right.  I only know I cry when I see the pictures.”

“Anyway, Colonel Randall told us to talk to someone who was there to see how they feel about it.”

“That is a tall order,” mused her father.  “I was in intelligence gathering during the war.  I debriefed soldiers coming off the battlefield.  In a way, I am just like you.  What I know I got from other people.  I will tell you this.  I was happy to go home to your mother.  I missed her.”

“Daddy, I can’t say that you thought the bombing was OK because you missed Momma.”

“I did not say it was OK.  I think you have to make up your own mind on that.  Many people who had lived through the war were in favor of it – although I know of some generals who thought it was the wrong thing to do.”

“Yes, I read about them,” said Emily.

“I’ll say this, Emily.  I believe that the most important thing is that we became friends with Japan after the war”

“What do you mean?”

“We helped them recover.”

“Why did we do that?”

“Because we knew that if we helped them the whole world would be better.  Let me read you something the a great man said at the end of our Civil War.”

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”

“That was Abraham Lincoln.  And many of the soldiers in the Civil War felt the same way”

“That was nice, Daddy.  Did the soldiers feel that way in this war?”

“Many did, but it you need talk to someone who actually fought during the war - you should talk to Harvey Throckmorton.”

“Howie’s father – do you know what he did?”

“Yes, that’s when I first met him.  I debriefed him after a battle in the Pacific.”

“What happen to him?”

“Harvey was in a platoon in the Pacific that was clearing out the last resisters on a hard fought island.  He was at the back of a patrol when they were ambushed by a machine gunner.  The soldier in front was killed instantly and they were all pinned down except for Harvey.  They could not move.  Eventually, they would have been killed”

“The machine gun nest was in cave on the side of a cliff.  And there was no way up except a rope ladder that the gunner had pulled up.”

“But there was a tree near the cliff and Harvey started to climb it – keeping the tree between the gunner and himself.  Half way up the branches in the middle of the tree had been stripped away to prevent anyone from climbing further up and getting to the cave and Harvey could not go any further.’

“By then, the gunner had seen him and had angled the gun and was shooting at the tree.”

“Harvey was struck and he should have climbed back down to safety.  But, instead, he crawled out onto the end of a branch to where branches from higher in the tree hung down and, while being fully exposed, he swung up higher into the tree – all this while he was being shoot at.”

“He managed to get above the cave and drop a hand grenade into it.  He saved his platoon.”

“As I recall he was injured and received a Purple Heart was well as some other medals for his bravery.  He does not like to talk about it, thought.  In fact, it was hard to get him to finish during the debriefing.  Some papers had been taken off the dead soldier and I think that something in them bothered him.  He quite talking.  Colonel Randall had to come and order him to finish.  He might not talk to you.”

“That OK.  He has to talk to Howie.  Colonel Randall said it was an order”