Japanese Defense Chief: Atomic Bombing 'Couldn't Be Helped'

FoxNews.com ^ | 6/30/2007 | AP

[weef]

TOKYO — Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma said the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan by the United States during World War II was an inevitable way to end the war, a news report said Saturday.

"I understand that the bombing ended the war, and I think that it couldn't be helped," Kyodo News agency quoted Kyuma as saying in a speech at a university in Chiba, just east of Tokyo.

Kyuma's remarks drew immediate criticism from Japanese atomic bomb survivors.

"The U.S. justifies the bombings saying they saved many American lives," said Nobuo Miyake, 78, director-general of a group of victims living in Tokyo. "It's outrageous for a Japanese politician to voice such thinking. Japan is a victim."

[John Semmens]

The A-bomb saved millions of Japanese lives.

The Junta ruling the country would’ve made the entire population into kamikaze fighters.

[sheik yerbouty]

Thanks!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

“ne” is a verbal exclamation point, like “eh ?”....

[Joe Brower]

Arigato, Eric-san; wakatta. "Ne" is one of those words that appears to have several meanings (reminds one of English!), making translation fun. I never heard it used as "eh", but like I said, me and the Japanese language don't talk much. $:-)

I love languages in general, and find Japanese to be particularly fascinating, although here in Florida there isn't much opportunity for practice...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There is city Japanese, rural Japanese, Japanese spoken in Okinawa and a couple of other varieties.
The average newspaper uses 2500 characters. An educated Japanese person would be able to read several thousand more.

[Joe Brower]

Yes, I know that Japanese has a lot of variations. Just going between Tokyo and Osaka, even my uneducated ears could hear the difference. Japanese is so old a language, I beleive that it's origins are unknown -- that's bound to have a lot of dialects.

Okinawa (USN HM2 with the FMF) is where I picked up most of what little I know. The first phrase I learned was "Hai", with the obligatory quick bow of the head. Then the various forms of "thank you". Third was "gomenesai". $;-)

[DPMD]

Nobuo Miyake, 78, director-general of a group of victims.

Is there something about General Sherman’s description of war that this guy doesn’t understand?

The US didn’t start it, but was more than happy to end it.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Ala so, deska. City Japanese.
Ala so, dambe. Rural.

[goldfinch]

The defense minister got it right. America was going to finish the war that Japan started. It was going to end with the total defeat and unconditional surrender of Japan. That said, the only question was how best to accomplish that goal. Since the Japanese government did not immediately surrender after we dropped the first atomic bomb, I think it is safe to say they were not incline to give up the fight easily. IMO, dropping the atomic bomb saved more lives than it took.

Besides, the greatest loss of life in a bombing raid was NOT from either of the atomic bombs. It was from a bombing raid on Tokyo earlier in the summer.