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 ...
The only reason Los Angeles or Seattle did not go down in history as the first target(s) of a nuke, was that we were able to amass sufficient fissionable material faster than the Japanese did. The Japanese tested their first nuke (about 1/5 the size of ours) in February 1945, months before ours. (search on Japanese Atomic Program if you are a non-believer.)
Only a complete moron would apologize for nuking the enemy.
“Sorry your leaders at the time made us have to do it.”
Thing is, when the dumbed down millenials read this, they’ll jump on the band wagon - “Duh, we should apologize to those poor people.”
I will celebrate the day that Lord Foul can no longer embarrass and denigrate America and Americans, and the Hiroshima survivors would do well to contemplate the greater loss of life and destruction of Japan (and the greater loss of American lives)if the Atomic bombs were not dropped. When has Japan apologized for all the atrocities they committed during the war? Funny how we only demonize Germany.
Logging out now.
I'm sorry, but there are no H-Bomb sufferers. If an H-Bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki, there would be no survivors.
They get to 140,000 by including many more succumbing to injuries or illnesses caused by radiation in the weeks, months and years afterwards. This approach reminds me of my presumptive exposure to Agent Orange and my presumptive certification of disability if I get an illness from an approved list. Years ago I remember seeing a 60 Minutes episode where a Navy doctor explained 1 out of 3,000 cases of a group of illnesses could be caused by Agent Orange, but there was no way to say which one. Therefore, the VA was politically directed to accept everyone. I believe the same process applies to the Hiroshima statistics. Except in this case of course the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations group comes up with its own satisfying definition which is never subjected to any outside scrutiny as the VA policy was.
The second point I would make is that they do not deserve an apology because Japanese intransigence provoked the atomic bombs. Imperial Japan was wedded to the principle of Kokutai which proved critical to surrender. Any influential Japanese lived within a spiritual fabric of Emperor, citizen, land, Bushido, ancestral spirits, government, and Shinto religion. In subjection to this spiritual and political authority, commoners forfeited individuality for a collective soul defining Japan. As soldiers or civilian militia they awaited the Empires ruling oligarchy decrees. With such national unity committed to waging total war, the atomic bombs were no longer indiscriminate or disproportional.
By January 1944 Emperor Hirohito foresaw the probability of defeat and appointed a Peace Faction. However, he and his government conducted political kabuki through twenty months of continuous defeats, fire bombings of over 60 cities, looming starvation, and 1.3 million additional Japanese deaths.
At impasse the two atomic bombs allowed Hirohito, the Son of Heaven, to speak the Voice of the Crane in the sweltering, underground bunker. The bombs were regarded as a dramatic force of nature; equivalent to an earthquake or typhoon against which human arguments collapsed. Only submission to such a catastrophe could be proportional to the disgrace of surrender following 2,600 years of martial invincibility.
Only Hirohito could submit, because he held the heaven created Imperial throne. He would bear the unbearable, conclude the war, and transform the nation. The War Faction could now relent and no one would lose face. All remained within the fabric of Japanese from all eras who had sacrificed for Emperor and Empire. Only then did Japan contact Swiss and Swedish foreign offices to commence the torturous negotiations leading to actual surrender.
Partial bibliography:
Hell to Pay, D. M. Giangreco
Japans Imperial Conspiracy, David Bergamni
Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring, Gordon Prange
The Secret Surrender, Allen Dulles
Hirohito, Edward Behr
A quote by film director Akira Kurosawa illustrates the transformation of that generation of Japanese people, who before were resigned to the slogan Honorable Death of a Hundred Million.
When I walked the same route back to my home (after the Emperors broadcast), the scene was entirely different. The people in the shopping street were bustling about with cheerful faces as if preparing for a festival the next day. If the Emperor had made such a call (to follow the above slogan) those people would have done what they were told and died. And probably I would have done likewise. The Japanese see self-assertion as immoral and self-sacrifice as the sensible course to take in life. We were accustomed to this teaching and had never thought to question it
.In wartime we were like deaf-mutes.
interesting post... thanks
I must have missed the part where we dropped a Hydrogen
bomb on Japan. Anyway, war is hell, don’t start one.
damn there had better never be ANY apology from any US official (or any American)....
Japan killed countless millions both civilian and military, in wars that they launched aggressively without justification. US bombings both “conventional” and nuclear were aimed at bringing the war to an end before MILLIONS more would die.
Even in terms of Japanese lives only, ending the war with the atomic bombings saved at least 1-2 million lives, if not many more, compared to what would have occurred if the war had continued to an Allied invasion of Japan.
some good summary info here:
https://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/Japan-Wants-To-Rewrite-World-War-II—8-22-2010.asp
So do 250 million Americans; they need to get in line.
The survivors of the Castle Bravo test might beg to differ. A handful of them were even Japanese.
My dad had a habit of buying used domestic cars typically 3 years in age. Just the point at which the problems started. He’d keep them for a few years, until the bodies rusted away or the current repair exceeded the vehicle’s value.
10 years ago he bought his first “jap trap” Toyota, only at my mom’s urging. He traded that last year for a Honda CRV. He only ever had to replace brakes, tires, and oil.
American cars are crap in general. Though some of the full size domestic trucks are okay, the Ford has made some nice progress in quality. The rest is poorly made, unreliable crap.
As a result of the second bomb, the Emperor imagined the sky filled with US bombers all equipped with these bombs (he had no idea that we had exhausted our supply).
After the wars end, one of our diplomats was talking with his counterpart about the Bomb. The Jap said that they had to surrender as they were afraid we'd keep on dropping atom bombs on them. When our guy told him that we only had two, he blurted out "If we knew you had only two . . ." and then thought the better of continuing.
Truman did the right thing by ending the war with these two bombs.
It was a political no-brainer. If he hadn't of dropped those bombs for humanitarian reasons and we invaded instead, with all its casualties, and the public later found out, he would have been impeached, if not worse, and the Democratic Party would have been destroyed forever.
” Whiney assed Japanese “
It’s a tiny group of people in Hiroshima who want the apology ; not the entire nation of Japan .
Prostitutes get paid
Korean “comfort women” were slaves
That’s your word backing up the propaganda. By the way, I’ve never had to replace brakes. Just change oil regularly.
“Ive never had to replace brakes.”
__________________________________
You’ve just proven you’re full of it. Brakes are consumable items. There’s not way you can own a vehicle for over 100k miles and never replace the brakes.
Thanks for validating your level of credibility.
Brakes are an entirely different thing from BRAKE PADS!
Yes, I’ve replaced brake PADS occasionally, but never BRAKES.
Your ignorance is showing!
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