Posted on 08/05/2004 5:58:18 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
Friday, August 6, 2004 at 08:51 JST
HIROSHIMA Hiroshima on Friday morning marked the 59th anniversary of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city. An estimated 40,000 people attended the ceremony that started at 8 a.m. at the Peace Memorial Park in the downtown part of the western Japan city that was devastated in the world's first nuclear attack Aug 6, 1945, three days before the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
In his peace declaration, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba voiced serious concern over the "egocentric worldview" of the United States and moves in Japan to revise the country's pacifist Constitution.
"The egocentric worldview of the U.S. government is reaching extremes," Akiba said, criticizing the United States for its nuclear policies.
"Ignoring the United Nations and international law, the United States has resumed research to make nuclear weapons smaller and more usable," Akiba said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi also attended the memorial service.
Akiba demanded that the United States strive with other nuclear powers toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
In the declaration, he also demanded that the Japanese government reject moves to revise the war-renouncing Constitution.
"The Japanese government, as our representative, should defend the peace Constitution, of which all Japanese should be proud, and work diligently to rectify the trend toward open acceptance of war and nuclear weapons that is increasingly prevalent at home and abroad," he said.
"We demand that our government act on its obligation as the only nation to suffer atomic bombings," he said.
Article 9 of the Constitution stipulates that the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes."
The mayor is a former House of Representatives member of the opposition Social Democratic Party, which is against revision of the Constitution as well as Japan's dispatch of troops to Iraq for reconstruction work there after the U.S.-led war on the country.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage reportedly said last month that the article hinders the Japan-U.S. alliance. He apparently backtracked later, however, as the remark drew strong criticism from lawmakers in Japan.
The 59th anniversary comes at a time when concerns over nuclear issues have intensified globally.
Multilateral efforts are under way to deal with North Korea's nuclear ambitions, while Iran has come under pressure from the international community to allow inspections of nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
While expressing hope for the success of the 2005 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Hiroshima also expressed its intention of taking the initiative in achieving the complete abolition of nuclear weapons by bringing together cities, citizens and nongovernmental organizations from around the world.
The initiative, called the Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, aims at adopting an action program incorporating an interim goal of "the signing in 2010 of a Nuclear Weapons Convention to serve as the framework for eliminating nuclear weapons by 2020," according to Akiba.
Among those attending the ceremony were Pakistani Ambassador Kamran Niaz and Russian Ambassador Alexander Losyukov.
U.N. Undersecretary General Nobuyasu Abe is also attending on behalf of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The city government of Hiroshima had asked seven nuclear nations Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, Russia and the United States as well North Korea to send government delegates to the ceremony, but only Pakistan and Russia accepted.
The U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftereffects killed an estimated 140,000 people by the end of 1945.
This year, the names of 5,142 more people recognized as atomic-bomb victims by the city since Aug 6 last year were added to a memorial arch, bringing the total to 237,062. (Kyodo News)
Hey, Akiba, does the city of Dresden ring any bells with you?
Mayor Dickweed, you may now apologize by kissing my American ass.
My father was training to be a Navy radar technician in 1945...20 years before I was born.
Many of my generation owe their lives to the decision to drop the atomic bomb.
So, to the loudmouths of Hiroshima, I say:
"F*** you if y'all can't take a joke."
And what exactly was Japan's Worldview at that time???
Gosh, right on schedule again this year. Why am I not surprised?
It's real simple: Mess with the bull, you get the horns.
What, in fact, is a dickweed?
Will do. I expect I'll talk to him tomorrow.
More like energry is so expensive. What other choices do they have?
One of many atrocities the Japanese have never been properly asked to apologize for.
Oooops, I forgot it is banned in Japan.
Hey, Tadatoshi Akiba......BOOOOOOMMMMMMM! Just kidding.
I have noticed that the Japanese have not attacked us since. So Go F-Yourself, just quoting Ms Heinz.
©1996 by Steve Lange
http://www.combinedfleet.com/ijnaf.htm
The Pacific War from Pearl Harbor to Midway
-- "snip"--- During the first six months of the war, the brilliant--if very complicated--war plans of Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, brought Japan and the IJNAF a succession of stunning victories. It was a heady time during which the Japanese fleet swept all before it. The establishment of a permanent Japanese hegemony in the Far East seemed to be an accomplished fact. After the war, a Japanese woman admitted, "we just couldn't imagine why the Americans were fighting us, here we were extending the divine rule of the Emperor to them[that is, the Americans and their asian allies] and they didn't seem to appreciate it...". In the context of the war which followed and a democratic society's notable distaste for hereditary monarchs, her statement seems bizarre today, but it was probably heartfelt at the time. ---"snip"
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--snip--While I have tried to avoid truisms, I'll repeat one here. The modern Japanese are a lousy source of information on this part of history. They are, in the main, absolutely paranoid about having attention drawn to the Japanese love affair with fascism and imperialism. They would like to pretend that the Second World War began several seconds before the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima and that they have no concept of how or why it came to be there. Such an approach--however heartfelt it might be on their part--just seems totally unbelievable to me.
Not a term of endearment. I always assumed it was an assertion the individual in question possessed a rather slender member.
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, I'm happy to report that I'm alive and able to tell you to shove it! My Father had orders to head over to Japan from Germany so I can't very well say that I'm sorry we blew up your city.
Unfortunately, they don't see it that way. They have been in a state of denial for decades.
I like the fiasco festivals they put on...... reminds the next generations of Americas enemies that we have used our nukes in anger twice..........third times a charm if they get froggy again. Those generations , both past and present, that forget how Japan started the war and American resolve finished the war only endanger themselves IMO...........Just my opinion of course.
Stay safe Gator Navy !
An I have an autographed photo by the captain of the Enola Gay ping....
I get tired of the Japanese postrating as eternal victims. They should get over it! We Americans still remember Pearl Harbor but we don't use it to agitate anti-Japanese feelings in this country. We need to remember WHO attacked whom first. The day that will endure in infamy forever didn't happen in 1945.
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