Tomorrow, President Obama will visit Hiroshima, the site of the 1945 atomic bombing that claimed as many as 170,000 lives.

Obama’s visit gives the United States a chance to reckon with its atomic history — a process that should involve finally laying to rest some shameful myths. But the US media isn’t interested in giving up on the old stories just yet. Instead, the opinion pages of mainstream newspapers reveal a stunning commitment to nuclear apologia.

Perhaps the most unabashed argument comes from Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, whose May 14 op-ed appeared under the headline, “In Hiroshima, Obama should celebrate the friendship that the A-bomb made possible.”