The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are ongoing, and there’s debate as to whether these conflicts are necessary.

Tonight, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian will offer his take on the wars in Altgeld Hall.

John W. Dower, a Harvard graduate who has published 10 books, will deliver a lecture titled “Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq” at 7 p.m.

Dower is considered an expert on Japanese relations with the U.S. One of his books, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II was awarded the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.

“He is easily the most influential scholar writing about Japanese history in English,” said history professor E. Taylor Atkins.

Some students said they considered attending Dower’s lecture.

“I’d go because I don’t have anything else to do,” said freshman undecided major Lauren Stewart. “I feel like [both of the wars] are unnecessary. Neither one has a standpoint on why there should actually be a war.”

Freshman English major Mary Beth Lott agrees.

“The U.S. took on too much at once,” she said. “To a certain extent, it is a necessary evil, but it has been taken too far.”

Dower’s lecture is part of the annual W. Bruce Lincoln Endowed Lecture Series, which is named after a former NIU History professor who passed away in 2000.