Posted on 05/19/2016 7:59:27 AM PDT by Rennes Templar
Tokyo (AFP) - Victims of the atomic bombings of Japan want an apology from US President Barack Obama when he visits Hiroshima next week, the head of a survivors' group said Thursday.
Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, where the first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, killing about 140,000 people in total.
Tens of thousands were killed by the fireball that the powerful Hiroshima blast generated, with many more succumbing to injuries or illnesses caused by radiation in the weeks, months and years afterwards.
Vast swathes of the city, including many of its military and industrial installations, were flattened.
The southern city of Nagasaki was hit by a second bomb days later, killing 74,000 people, in one of the final acts of World War II.
"I urge him to apologise to those who died, bereaved families and parents who lost their children," Terumi Tanaka, secretary general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations and a survivor of the Nagasaki explosion, told reporters.
The comments came as Obama's much anticipated journey to Hiroshima reignited an emotional debate over whether the bombings were justified and whether the US president should apologise.
Obama, who will be in Japan for a Group of Seven summit, will visit Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park on May 27 and be accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
US officials have ruled out an apology for the bombings and said Obama will not revisit the decision by then-US President Harry Truman to carry them out.
"Many atomic bomb victims think it's not all right if (Obama) doesn't apologise," said Toshiki Fujimori, the group's assistant secretary general and also a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Lordy,I haven’t seen that picture in years.
.
.
Verily.
I want an apology from Obama too.
It isn’t BS! I’ve driven GM cars since the 50’s and NEVER had a lemon. My current Buick is 13 years old and drives like a dream. The only service repair has been a small leak in the A/C. I’ve driven throughout Canada, Mexico and The U.S. My son won’t drive anything but a Chevy pickup. He has had three and put over 300,000 miles on each one. The cost of New Tires is all either of us has ever needed to spend.
You have been sold a bill of goods by the Japs and Jerrys. Go ahead and drive a car with a faulty steering column. That’s just the latest in a long line of recalls by the foreign auto industries. I’ll stick to US products.
Terumi Tanaka needs to start by apologizing for Pearl Harbor. For the Bataan Death March. The rape of Nanking. The murder of the prisoners on Wake Island. The use of slaves in whorehouses. The Manila massacre. The Alexandra Hospital massacre in Singapore. The Hell Ships. Unit 731. Torture of prisoners. Execution of prisoners. The Burma railway.
When Terumi makes suitable apologies and atonement for those, then we can talk about what other apologies might be appropriate.
/Millions of Japanese would have died in the invasion of Japan./
The Atomic bombs (along with Russian attacks)did save
millions of Japanese.
“Gas attacks of the size and intensity recommended on these 250 square miles of urban population,” the US Army report declared, “might easily kill 5,000,000 people and injure that many more.” In the first attack, which would be launched 15 days before the Kyushu landings, American bombers would drench much of Tokyo and other cities in an early morning attack with 54,000 tons of lethal phosgene gas. Tokyo would be the largest poison gas target, because an “attack of this size against an urban city of large population should be used to initiate gas warfare.”
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v16/v16n3p12_weber.html
...Allen, T.B. and N. Polmar, “Poisonous invasion prelude,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 4, 1995 [New York Times special features].)
Some sources say only tactical use had been approved.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/pacific-online-forum/
“Politics” told Truman that if one American life could have been saved by the use of the Atomic bombs...it must be done...
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/no-other-choice-why-truman-dropped-the-atomic-bomb-japan-13504
& agreed...without the Atomic Bombs there would be fewer of us Baby Boomers.
After visiting several interesting countries of Europe my Father was on a cruise ( ; ) ship to Japan when the Atomic Bombs were used.
World: "You got that right!"
Japanese survivors of an h-bomb?
I’m sorry but Japan was never hit by an h-bomb.
there was only one Japanese fishing boat near a test site and Just one person on that boat died.
Ridiculous.
most Americans imagine that December 7th was only the day America was attacked but in quick succession many other countries were attacked also, like Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and very many others.
when news of what happened at Hiroshima reached the rest of Asia there was delirious joy and open celebration.
when Japanese infantry entered Singapore they entered Hospital Wards and openly bayoneted patients while they were in their beds, one after the other.
things that went on in Nanking shocked even Nazi Germany is at the German consulate there, which was turned into a refugee Refuge of sorts.
They’ll get one from the great American hater.
But Japan, to their credit, defied Nazi Germany’s orders to establish anti-Semitic policies. The Nazis called for Japan to eliminate Shanghai’s sizable Jewish population, but they would not comply.
I second that emotion. The Japanese committed atrocities on prisoners, forced women into prostitution ("pleasure women"), murdered our sailors at Pearl Harbor and would certainly have gotten up into far more cruelty and destruction. The atomic bombs ended the war earlier and saved millions of lives. The Japs can kiss my behind, too. What a complete chutzpah, they want an APOLOGY for an end to a conflict THEY started!
How about that little parade known as The Bataan Death March?
We defend the Japanese for 70 years post WWII. They repay us with steep import tariffs.
Not sure they admitted the experiments they did on American prisoners.
Not sure they ever apologized for or compensated Prisoner of war used as slave labor.
Still B.S.ing about all the Korean comfort ladies?
The Japs were disgusting.
Have this pathetic, worthless, apologize?
Not on my behalf.
without the Atomic Bombs there would be fewer of us Baby Boomers
Apology accepted.
How about we kept Mao and the PLA from invading Japan and taking their revenge.
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