Editor’s Page

Should we, half a century later, reconsider the morality of Hiroshima? “No,” will retort apostles of what may be called “Patriotic Correctness.” (I borrow the phrase from Robert Hughes.) For these PCers, self-questioning is always tantamount to anti-Americanism.

But a democracy must always ask itself troubling questions, even about a war in which our side was so clearly in the right. This is why it is vital to think through “principles governing the conduc...