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My father was on the third ship given liberty in Japan and he traveled with a military reporter. The guy asked, "Where are you from?" My father answered, "Jersey City." He asked if my father knew is aunt. Turns out she was his music teacher in high school. He said exactly the same thing -- that the destruction in Tokyo was far more impressive than the destruction in Hiroshima. My father had a pretty intense dislike of the Japanese which softens a bit for individual Japanese (he dislikes them as a group but can like them as individuals). I've lived in Tokyo and they've certainly changed quite a bit in 50 years. I do think the atomic bombings were the right thing to do but I also think that Americans need to realize that the Japanese of today are not the Japanese of 50 years ago.

As for apologies, the "Japanese way" is for both parties to apologize without assigning blame. In other words, the Japanese probably feel that both American and Japan should issue a joint apology expressing regret over the lives that were lost on both sides without detailing who did what to who or why. That sounds awfully unjust to Americans but that's how things are done in Japan. Before you condemn this approach, let me simply say that few disagreements in Japan wind up in front of a judge. On the other hand, it can be abused to let the guilty off the hook. The American way, of course, demands that the Japanese apologize since what they did caused the problem and their atrocities were inexcusable. To the Japanese, the American way seems rude. As an American, I certainly do feel that they should apologize and there is no excuse for glossing over the atrocities in their text books (that's not all they gloss over, by the way -- there are other embarrassing details about the Emperor and Japanese history that they gloss over, or so a Japanese person told me). But I can understand why they don't and why they expect America to apologize for Hiroshima.

You don't see the Germans complaining about the British fire-bombing of Hamburg. How many thousands died there? 100,000? 200,000? Would the Germans dare complain? Of course not. There can be no mistake about the Germans' culpability, not only for their treatment of European Jews, but their aggression all over the Continent. You don't invade a dozen countries, crush their people under the Nazi iron boot, and not expect someone to hand your backside to you.

That evil regime deserved to be defeated utterly, and they got the full measure. They don't expect any apologizing for the punishment dealt to them, nor will they be getting any. The Empire of Japan, likewise, attacked us and others without provocation. They attacked their neighbors and treated them with the utmost brutality.

There is only one proper response to such evil in this world: unite and crush it--completely. They should be thankful we didn't fulfill our admiral's promise: that once the war was over the only place the Japanese language would be spoken henceforth would be in Hell. They attacked our country, killed our sons, caused us to give up countless lives in war, and we let their nation endure nevertheless. By God, they should shut their mouths and thank us for having more mercy in our little fingers than they showed those around them.