Posted on 08/15/2015 7:49:29 PM PDT by markomalley
Japanese Emperor Akihito Saturday expressed "deep remorse" for his country's role in World War II, 70 years to the day following Japan's surrender to the Allies. Akihito makes a highly ritualized comment on this anniversary day every year, but this this is first year featuring such a statement.
Akihito was born in 1933, and has reigned since 1989. He is the son of Hirohito, who was the reigning emperor during the war. Though the emperor's formal powers were degraded in the settlement with the Allied Powers, Hirohito was allowed to retain his throne in a largely ceremonial fashion, and famously never apologized.
In 2003, a report surfaced that Hirohito actually heavily considered doing so, but opted against. Even still, the evidence points to the conclusion that such an apology would have been largely only to the Japanese people, not to the peoples of nations who suffered under Japanese imperialism in this period, and focused more on the personal "shame" he felt, as opposed to remorse.
Akihito has expressed "sorrow" over the war before, as early as 1992 in a visit to China, a country Japan engaged in a brutal struggle with and occupied during the war, but he has notably evaded a loud public declaration to the Japanese people. Today it seems his son has finally relented, in a highly public forum, attempting to further close a dark chapter in his country and the world's history.
Be Nice is a good rule to use in most situations.
Millions of lives too late
So that POS Hirohito never apologized?
But POS Pelosi apologized for dropping the bombs to end it all?
What a mixed up world
Thanks markomalley. This is a big deal, a sea change in Japan. BTW, they were lucky we only had two nuclear bombs, and that the young officers' plot to kidnap Hirohito and stop the surrender broadcast failed thanks to the loss of electrical power in the palace.
i’m not going to apologize for nuking them.
that is what this sh1t timing is all about right now.
My biggest regret is the fact that we let too many Japanese war criminals walk away without punishment.
It was a stupid idea all the way around for both Italy and Japan to join up with the Nazis. Lets say the Nazis won. What place would their be in a Nazi world view for the dark skinned people of either country? Eventually, after solidifying power, the Nazis would have run roughshod over Japan and Italy too. So even if Japan won, it would lose.
Not too bright, Japan. You’re actually lucky you lost.
There was lots of advance planning, debate, and strategic discussion on how to use subsequent nuclear weapons. It looks like the third atomic bomb parts (including the plutonium core) were en route to the Pacific and made it as far west as Moffett Field in California when the war ended. It was going to take only a few months to get production up to three bombs per month.
I learned this week that Oppenheimer had proposed sometime in ‘45 that Little Boy (the Hiroshima uranium bomb) could be repurposed somehow into many more weapons, but Groves refused the concept in favor of speed.
Germany is lucky they lost too!
Both Japan and Germany were fortunate to be defeated by the only nation in history that, instead of seizing their territory as spoils of war, allowed them to develop into two of the largest economic powerhouses in the world.
Akihito was born in 1933. I cannot for the life of me understand what a 9 year old kid did that requires he apologize to the world for.
But I am just an old man who is suppose to continue apologizing for my Great Grand fathers’ Civil War service to their state.
Agreed. We could have planted our flags there and played Empire. Those around the world who hate America always forget this. Its one of the best indications of our national character. No other nation in history would have rebuilt these countries then walked away.
I don’t want his apology and I don’t want the Japanese to give one. They waged war. They got slaughtered. They are now a behaved country.
The mercy of the USA was shown. Any liberal calling the USA an ‘empire’ is an ignorant idiot, as are all liberals.
He was born when they invaded Manchuria, and was 8 when Pearl Harbor was bombed. It’s about time he takes responsibility for everything. ///
What the hell is this trend of people apologizing for things they had nothing to do with, and would have never done, usually to people it wasn’t done to.
If something bad happened to me, and someone else apologized,,,, I don’t get it.
I'm with you there. And much the same happened with the Nazi war criminals. Many were sentenced to death, then had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment. Then after five years or so, most were released on the grounds of "ill health" or some such nonsense.
I suppose Cold War politics played a part there. But that's some comfort to their many victims.
He's the emperor - he speaks for all of Japan.
You may lean right, but do you lean right to God.
The facts on the ground show that the entirety of Japan was ready to be “War Criminals” for the sake of the emperor.
You accept the national repentance of Japan, or you don’t. There is no in between.
We had a third one on the way to the Pacific when they surrendered. Had they not done so they would have be hit again.
“they would have be hit again” = “they would have been hit again”
I'm sorry, HiTech. I don't quite follow. For what it's worth, I do accept the national repentance of Japan, and of Germany as well. Both have been accepted into the community of free nations. And that's right and proper.
But that does not mean that genuine war criminals from either nation should have gotten a pass. But too many did.
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