This week, 75 years ago, the United States military dropped two atomic bombs on the island Empire of Japan, as it was known then, three days apart.

Estimates of the amount of people dying from the bombings is between 129,000 and 226,000. These bombings essentially ended World War II and the war officially was over less than a month later.

During the late 1930s, Dr. Seuss, the beloved American children's book author Theodor Seuss Geisel, wrote political cartoons for the New York Daily News, many of which depicted Japanese people in unflattering and evil ways. I can imagine this only helped public support and justification to drop the bombs on Japan in 1945.

After the war ended Dr. Seuss had a change of heart and traveled to Japan, witnessed the aftermath of the bombings and returned to write his next book, “Horton Hears A Who.”

The book is dedicated to a friend he made while in Japan, Mitsugi Nakamura. Released in 1954, the theme of the book is mentioned several times, “a person is a person no matter how small.”

That can be interpreted as small in stature, small in age, being from a small country or appearing small while looking down from an airplane. Pick one. Or all of them.

Every year on March 2, I celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday at libraries and schools all across America. There is no doubt that he has had a significant and positive impact on generations of people.

Future generations will continue to read and be inspired. He rewrote the rules of how to connect with and teach children. He did it in a fun and colorful style.

After considering some of these things about Dr. Seuss it has brought us to a conclusion that even the greatest of Americans may lose sight of the important things in life. But forgiveness is powerful, equally when forgiving others or yourself.

We can lose our way with fear, anger or pain. But we all begin our lives the same way.

Dane Winkler is the systems administrator for the Butler Eagle.