U.S. Delegation Will Not Offer Apology at Hiroshima Ceremony

FOXNews.com ^ | August 5, 2010 | Joshua Rhett Miller

[RansomOttawa]

The U.S. delegation will not offer an apology for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki when it attends a ceremony in Japan on Friday marking the 65th anniversary of the attacks, which brought World War II to an end.

State Department spokesman Noel Clay said no apology will be offered by the delegation, to be led by U.S. Ambassador John Roos, at the ceremony in Hiroshima.

"As Assistant Secretary [P.J.] Crowley stated, at this particular point, we thought it was the right thing to do," Clay said in an e-mail on Thursday. "Ambassador Roos will attend the ceremony to express respect for all the victims of World War II. From the tragedy of that war, the U.S. and Japan have become close friends and allies. We must continue to work together to ensure that such a tragedy does not happen again."

[DPMD]

U.S. delegation will not offer apology on Hiroshima bombing.

Nor should they.

[RexBeach]

Good thinking, Eric.

[Spirochete]

“It’s making the Japanese look like they’re the poor people, like they didn’t do anything,” he said. “They hit Pearl Harbor, they struck us. We didn’t slaughter the Japanese — we stopped the war.”

The Japs are throwing their annual August Pity Party. It would get less coverage if they had detonated their own atomic bomb, it would make them less pitiable. Some say they did, in the last days of the war after Nagasaki just as the Russians were overrunning Manchuria.

Research the terms 'Genzai Bakudan' and/or 'Genshi Bakudan'. Watch the videos on YouTube:
Japan's Atomic Bomb Part 1
Japan's Atomic Bomb Part 2
Japan's Atomic Bomb Part 3
Japan's Atomic Bomb Part 4
Japan's Atomic Bomb Part 5

Fascinating, even if its a myth. The Japs would have deployed the Genshi Bakudan with much less debate and introspection than the Americans showed.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

If anything, Japan should thank the US for ending the war quickly and with far less blood-shed than an invasion of Japan would have entailed.

[colorado tanker]

I completely agree.

Just take the civilian casualties on Okinawa and extrapolate that to the home islands' population and millions would have died. And it would have been very bad for the American troops too. A lot of men who came home wouldn't have.

A siege would have accomplished nothing. The bombing campaign was winding down because there was almost nothing left for LeMay to destroy. But they would not surrender. Even after two atomic bombs were dropped there was determined opposition to surrender and the decision was a very near thing.

The Japanese had been brainwashed about Americans and what would happen to them if they were captured by American forces. There were many suicides off "suicide cliff" on Okinawa, even as American troops begged them not to jump. Imagine mass suicides like that across Japan.

Millions of lives were saved by the bombs.

[Oldpuppymax]

Paul Tibbets’ son exposed the Hussein administration’s plan to kowtow to the Japanese and now the whole apology is OFF!! Good for the Tibbets family...father AND son.

[Constitution Day]

Dare I say?

This is...UNEXPECTED!

[Tax-chick]

I think it is.

[sergeantdave]

As Marine Corporal Melvin Grant, whose brother Scott had been killed at Kunishi Ridge, recalled nearly 61 years after the first bomb fell: “We were thrilled, utterly thrilled when we heard the news. Using the bomb was the thing to do, and we did it, and I had absolutely no regrets. We did it to save lives...”

“I was happy and relieved,” added Sergeant Jack Armstrong if the First Marine Tank Battalion. “Hearing about the bomb gave all of us a big lift, and for the first time in a long time, we felt there was a ray of hope. Maybe we wouldn’t have to invade Japan after all. Maybe I’d actually make it home alive.”

(From “The Ultimate Battle - Okinawa 1945 - the Last Epic Struggle of World War II,” by Bill Sloan.)