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Hiroshima 65 years later: US attends ceremony, but offers no apology
CS Monitor ^ | August 6, 2010 | Gavin Blair

Posted on 08/06/2010 7:59:03 AM PDT by americanophile

Sixty-five years after the United States dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, effectively ending World War II and ushering in an era of nuclear dread, the US sent its first delegation to the annual ceremony to remember the over 100,000 Japanese who lost their lives in the bombing.

Britain and France also sent representatives for the first time.

While some Japanese hailed the presence of the US and other nuclear powers as a sign of commitment to eventual nuclear disarmament, for others it was too little, too late. Some Japanese still want an apology for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while others complained about the absence of President Obama.

Some of Hiroshima’s hibakusha – as atomic bomb survivors are known – criticized the US ambassador for failing to meet with them, apologize for the bombing, or even offer a floral tribute. Others however, saw his visit as a sign of progress.

On the streets of Tokyo, there were mixed feelings regarding the US delegation’s attendance. “It’s good they’ve come, but why has it taken 65 years?” asked an office worker who was watching the morning’s ceremony from Hiroshima on public broadcast NHK. “And really, Obama should be here after the speeches he’s made about nuclear weapons."

US Ambassador to Japan John Roos was joined by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and delegates from over 70 countries as Prime Minister Naoto Kan implored the world to “accept the Japanese people's hope that nuclear destruction never takes place again."

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: apology; atomicbomb; hiroshima; japan
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To: Captain Kirk

So is invading other countries...which they did BEFORE any embargo’s were in place. GO READ A REAL HISTORY BOOK.


41 posted on 08/06/2010 8:33:47 AM PDT by rightwingextremist1776
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To: Captain Kirk

An embargo is NOT an act of war.

Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931.
Japan signed a tri-party pact with Italy and Germany.
Japan ignored in place treaties on Naval battleship tonnage.

Japan has NOBODY to blame, but herself.


42 posted on 08/06/2010 8:34:24 AM PDT by NeverForgetBataan (To the German Commander: ..........................NUTS !)
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To: rightwingextremist1776
ground...As a matter of fact the fire bombing of Tokyo killed more then both the atom bombs combined

Quite true but is worth mentioning that the fire bombing killed far fewer as a proportion of Tokyo's population than each of the bombs did in one fell swoop of Nagasaki and Hiroshima's population.

43 posted on 08/06/2010 8:34:52 AM PDT by Captain Kirk
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To: Captain Kirk
Oh please. First off embargo is a misnomer, since we weren't blockading their harbors, etc. It's far more akin to sanctions, which are routine and not an act of war. If we don't want to sell Japan oil or metal for their imperial war effort, we damn sure don't have to. By the time the sanctions were imposed, Japan had already been fighting an aggressive imperial war for almost 4 years against the Chinese Republic - a war that cost the lives of millions. To argue that the U.S. started this war is absolutely pathetic.
44 posted on 08/06/2010 8:39:05 AM PDT by americanophile (November can't come fast enough....)
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To: rightwingextremist1776
So is invading other countries...which they did BEFORE any embargo’s were in place. GO READ A REAL HISTORY BOOK.

I was simply stating a fact (e.g. how an embargo is defeind under international law) that applied to U.S/Japan relations. As to your point, plenty of countries in the wold have invaded "other countries" in the last few decades. Are you suggesting that we should go to war with all of them? If so, I may need a history book but you'll need a whole factory of money printing presses to pay for that!

45 posted on 08/06/2010 8:39:16 AM PDT by Captain Kirk
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To: stormer

The one’s who got vaporized were luckiest of those civilians who died in the bombs.

The not so lucky, were the civilians who got starved to death inch by inch in almost ALL the areas that Japan invaded during the war.


46 posted on 08/06/2010 8:40:05 AM PDT by NeverForgetBataan (To the German Commander: ..........................NUTS !)
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To: americanophile

here’s an apology, “sorry we didnt have the bomb sooner, butterhead!”


47 posted on 08/06/2010 8:41:22 AM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: americanophile
Apology???

How about this:
I'm sorry we had to sell our souls to a WMD and communism, sacrifice many thousands of young American lives, spend billions of dollars, and spark three more American wars to stop your tyrannical emperor from murdering/raping/torturing every human being on the planet that got in his way of his goal to conquer and share the world with Nazi Germany.

48 posted on 08/06/2010 8:41:44 AM PDT by kidd
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To: americanophile

IF it were up to me, I’d say we will never apologize for that. Never. So that we could finally stop seeing these dumb stories every years saying ‘we didn’t apologize yet’.

We’re not going to apologize. It saved more Japanes lives ending the war this way than a full scale invasion would have. Besides victors do not apologize to the defeated INSTIGATORS who attacked us first.


49 posted on 08/06/2010 8:42:46 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: americanophile

Dick Cheney, showing them how its done..


50 posted on 08/06/2010 8:45:25 AM PDT by rahbert (Come heavy or don't come at all)
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To: americanophile
US POWs were killed by the Hiroshima A-bomb.

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/oldzephyr/dec2002-jan2003/cartwright.htm

51 posted on 08/06/2010 8:47:09 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: americanophile

The US should have sent survivors of the Bataan Death March as their representatives.


52 posted on 08/06/2010 8:48:01 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Public healthcare looks like it will work as well as public housing did.)
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To: americanophile

“Some Japanese still want an apology for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”.....

Keep waiting....Not one U.S. soldier was worth losing invading Japan! They handed crap to us at Pearl Harbor and we handed it back in spades.....


53 posted on 08/06/2010 8:51:05 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: SaveTheChief
I'm happy that we have a friendly relationship with Japan now, but in no way should America ever apologize for doing the right thing to protect her interests or the lives of her citizens.

This was the last war that we won. Our politicians don't look back at history. We were loved or hated by the world after that event but we had the world's respect due to the power and ability to enforce our wishes around the world. We gave countries a chance to imitate us or not.

Unfortunately we forgot how to win wars such as Korea, Nam, Iraq 1, Iraq 2 and Afghanistan.

wars are won when we kill people and break things.

54 posted on 08/06/2010 8:52:01 AM PDT by River_Wrangler (Nothing difficult is ever easy!)
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To: americanophile

There is an easy way to win any argument about the use of the A-bomb. Ask the person how many Japanese would have had to die if the US went ahead with it’s plans to launch TWO D-Day type landings on the Islands? Knowing that one of those landings was scheduled to be 6x the size of D-Day.

The bombing made the Imperial Army realize that I could no longer win in the war as it’s opponent could destroy entire cities at will.


55 posted on 08/06/2010 8:52:18 AM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: americanophile

“The Bowmaster” will apoloigize for America....POS!


56 posted on 08/06/2010 8:55:05 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: rahbert

Of course if ol’ Dick tried to bend over, his heart would explode.


57 posted on 08/06/2010 8:59:46 AM PDT by stormer
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To: AngelesCrestHighway; americanophile

I’ll make an apology.

HEY JAPAN!!! WE’RE SORRY WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH A-BOMBS TO WIPE YOU FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH!!!


58 posted on 08/06/2010 9:03:09 AM PDT by bigheadfred (One size fits all)
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To: Celtic Conservative

Hear, hear.......

Wisdom.... clear and concise.


59 posted on 08/06/2010 9:07:27 AM PDT by Gator113 (Beauty will devour the Beast in 2012....)
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To: All
Their request is truly disgusting. What about the contests by their troops to see who could behead 100 civilians with samurai swords fastest?


Two Japanese officers, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda competing to see who could kill (with a sword) one hundred people first. The bold headline reads, "'Incredible Record' (in the Contest To Cut Down 100 People—Mukai 106 – 105 Noda—Both 2nd Lieutenants Go Into Extra Innings".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes

I've heard it stated quite a few times that Japanese troops beheaded more people with samurai swords than we killed with both atomic bombs - that gets you thinking, doesn't it?

Anyone who questions the necessity to drop these bombs should study the battle of Okinawa - it was only a tiny preview of the horrors of a battle on mainland Japan. I could go on and on...vivisections, bayonet practice, cannabalism, starvation, torture...

60 posted on 08/06/2010 9:17:42 AM PDT by SpitfyrAce
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