In 70.5 years that have passed since the
nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. Air Force, Washington has
not apologized to the Japanese people for horrific civilian casualties of at
least 300,000. And now the U.S. President Barack Obama is taking time off his
precious golf course to visit Hiroshima, of all places? He picked the most
painful place on Earth to visit before his presidency expires next year, and
it’s not the first time he does that. Remember him going to Cuba earlier this
year and how humiliating that trip was for him? Let’s just hope that Japanese
collective memory is just as good as Cuban.
While people who American Military have
wronged in the past 70 years are still alive, an apology for numerous
atrocities would be nice to hear, but as George H. W. Bush have stated back in
1988 as a Vice-President of the U.S., “I’ll
never apologize for the United States – I don’t care what the facts are… I’m
not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.” Who is? Obama is
probably not that kind either. And yet, here he goes – visiting Hiroshima next
week…
The upcoming visit by US President Barack
Obama to Hiroshima may be used by Washington as a PR (Public Relations) mission
to demonstrate friendship between the only country in the history of the world
that had used nuclear weapons in combat and its unfortunate victim. However,
the United States have been ignoring the protests of Japanese population
against the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil for decades, so
Obama’s good intentions may fall on deaf ears, at least in Japan. Unless he
does this PR trick to show off in front of the whole world, going to Japan
without plans to apologize for the use of nuclear weapons against their country
is not worth getting away from his favorite golf course…
Let’s forget Obama for a second and see if
any regular Americans would be willing to apologize to Japanese for the war
ending with nuclear blasts and huge loss of life? After all, as ABC News article states,
“about 180,000 people
recognized by the government as survivors are still alive. Many have remained
unmarried and without children because of concerns about birth defects, or have
suffered from cancer and other radiation-induced illnesses.” In my
book, human suffering from a nuclear blast is worse than from the Pearl
Harbor's bombing, not to mention that civilians were the primary targets in bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, and not the Japanese Military.
And yet, after interviewing a few of
otherwise kind American men who seem to know what nuclear physics is all about,
I’ve heard the same story again and again. Apparently, “it was necessary to
bomb the hell out of Japan to spare hundreds of thousands of American soldiers’
lives that would be lost if America were to engage in combat on Japanese soil."
As "USA Today"
reported in its cliché editorial, “American veterans and historians say
that the attacks hastened the end of the war and saved thousands, if not
millions, of additional lives.” However, what many of you may not
know, on the same day the second nuclear bomb was dropped on Japanese city of
Nagasaki (on August 9, 1945), the Soviet Army began a massive land operation on
Japanese military installations (note: not civilians!), overwhelming Japanese
forces in Manchuria, and so the losses of Japanese military to the Russians
between August 9 and August 27 of 1945 were the real reason for Japanese
surrendering to the Allied Forces. Therefore, the desire to stop the WWII
faster is probably not the real reason behind America's use of its first two
nuclear bombs. I bet it was a show off for the Soviets to hint who’s the boss
now that U.S. have created its first nuclear weapons (with the help of defected
Nazi scientists, I must add)... Nevertheless, the bogus explanation of “saving
American lives” is what is being taught as justification for the use of nuclear
weapons to all students in American schools and universities, and the role of
Soviet Army in winning of the WWII is being unfairly diminished.
What’s more interesting, though, is that
Japanese history books have also fell under U.S. “magic spell” because younger
population of Japan is now being taught that the “Allied Forces” of WWII bombed
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and so many automatically assume that Soviet Army did
it, with no questions asked. It’s unfair to the Russians, but lucky for
Americans, isn’t it? And Japan is now such a good friend to the U.S. that this
huge lie is making my skin crawl!
But what if Obama’s visit to Hiroshima is simply another attempt
to justify the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him back in 2009? Does anyone care
for his Peace Prize by now after his administration has bombed seven countries
in the last 7.5 years? If he wasn’t impeached for his disrespect to the
American ideals and worldwide war crimes, who would want his Peace Prize back?
Remember, Barack Obama’s recent trip to Havana that was promoted as a
breakthrough in Cuban-American relations has actually brought no real results.
Chances are, his Hiroshima trip will be no better.