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.
17 comments:
The US has already apologized about half a trillion times with it's check book. On behalf of the tax payers, the same tax payers that paid for the bomb in the first place. The bomb dropped by Truman who was a devout racist towards Asian people. This world is a merry go round.
To the people at the time it was a massive bomb.
They did not even know about the fallout at the time.
Many Japanese use Hiroshima/Nagasaki to ignore their nations conduct during the war and some are just as racist as Holocaust Deniers are today. The survivors of Dresden, Nanking, Stalingrad, Coventry, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Death Camps memories are even more searing as those that survived the bombs. Of all the former Axis nations its Japan which is in the deepest denial about atrocities its govt. committed 70yrs ago and many not only believe that the reports of atrocities were faked but the war was justified on grounds of self defense.
I am Jewish, and I know the stuff that happened in WW2 was horrible, as some of my family members died in the Holocaust. Japan did some awful things, I admit. But bombing innocent people is a whole new thing. They just killed innocent kids! And babies! The US should have attacked their military, not some city! Even though I am not even part Asian, I have a half Japanese cousin, and he lives in Tokyo. If something like this would happen, and would NOT be happy! Come on, he's only 8! I know that some good things came out of the bombings, but it is not an excuse! Imagine if one of your favorite relatives died, I think you wouldn't be happy. You have to take in consideration the point of view from the victims. Some of them are just like us! They hated some of the things their country did, like many Americans are ashamed of things their country did, like slavery. There was ways how we could have avoided this. But we didn't, and the result of this was WW2.
It is very unfortunate that Hiroshima was a 80% civilian city but you have to remember the purpose of the bombings was to incite surrender. This could not have been achieved without significant Japanese loss. There was no way to avoid this, the only other alternative was an invasion (operation downfall) this would have cost far more lives than the combined bombings, millions of allied and Japanese casualties.
Justifying this by saying it saved more lives is absolutely ridiculous. What about the 200,000+ people that had no part to play in the war? Can you really say murdering innocent people is the right thing to do because some numbers on a piece of paper tell you its the best option? Children, woman took 3-6 weeks to die from radiation fallout.
Evil will always find ways to justify ones self and hide behind the name of God. Let the men that wage war be punished not the children.............There is no Justification, "necessary evil" words spoken by satan himself.
In my class we had a debate whether dropping the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima was the right decision. We studied tons of documents and videos/documentary shorts about before, during, and the effects.
My class decided upfront that it was a war crime.
But if we didn't drop the bombs, then millions more would have died in the invasion of Japan (which was being prepared prior to the bombings). If the US invaded Japan, it would have been genocide on both sides because of the Japanese soldier's non-Geneva fighting and the soldiers probably senselessly killing (like in Vietnam).
In conclusion, the bombings were indeed war crimes but turned out to be necessary for the surrender of Japan and saving millions of lives.
Further more, it is shameful to say that the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were "payback" for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Both are horrific events that must never be repeated as long as we never forget. Also, both events surround very complex and difficult circumstances. Japan wasn't going to surrender and Pearl Harbor was a result of the US cutting off Japan's oil and many errors among the chain of command (the best movie that shows these details about Pearl Harbor is "Tora! Tora! Tora").
I know these facts. But you cannot compare a nuclear bomb to conventional weapons by only looking at the energy released. You must consider about the aftereffects including the degenerative illnesses (cancers, leucemia, etc.), the social traumatism (400 car accidents causing one fatality is different from 1 train accident causing 400 fatalities, you can study the fundamentals of risk analysis if you are interested in learning more about it), etc.
Your pseudo-scientific judgment is totally blind actually.
Anyway, killing civilians was already a crime during WWII therefore these bombings were actually crimes (including Tokyo ones).
The truth is that America wanted to see how much damage this new weapon can cause on the enemy. They were fire bombing the whole time which killed almost as much civilians as the A bombs. Japan didn't surrender because of the A bombs, it surrender because Russia entered the war against Japan. The use of a weapon of mass destruction is a crime against humanity
No you had no rights to exterminate civilians. I really hope the bombing will be recognized as a genocide and your government judged for this crime against Humanity. You guys still occupy Japan 70 years after, bullshit!
Oh no impossible, you control the international courts...
A lot of people won't consider this, what would be more deadly - destruction of two cities or a full-scale invasion? The nuclear bomb was to least deadly of the two decisions and it was the moral one. It's hard to believe but it actually saved lives.
It is a crime against humanity will be eternal stigma on the United States. No penance, no one punished.
What they don't tell you is that Japan was given the option to surrender 2 times. Once before we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and then after we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. They turned down both offers and prepared for the U.S.invasion that would have cost more lives both American and Japanese. Some Japanese women were told to attack American soldiers who tried to offer them safety, some Japanese civilians were being taught how to strap bombs to themselves and suicide bomb tanks and other military vehicles in preparation for the invasion. It wasn't until we dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki that they surrendered. It's terrible, the cost of those human lives is awful and I sincerely wish that it will indeed be the only time these bombs have to be used but to deny that Japan would have fought down to every last man, woman and child is not only intellectually dishonest but it's historically inaccurate. All it takes is looking at the footage of the suicide cliffs of Okinawa or the story of the Chibichiri cave to see how truly fanatical the Japanese people were in regards to their government. Hirohito was essentially their God and they were going to fight to protect their god by any means necessary.
You accuse Japanese of having a problem accepting the western views as the true history! Who are you anyway to demand from others to adopt your views as the holy truth?
There were more people killed during fire bombings than nuclear bombs. The two bombs and the surrender were life savers. Plain and simple. Some SJW's even deny that. But we know liberals and leftists don't know their history.
I think that Obama next stop for apologize will be London. Yes, Obama wil apologize Great Britain for America to have become an independent country. He will ask ti pay thea taxes again plus interests....
The Obama administration is disgracefull. Japan attacked the U.S. and their twisted Emperor's mentality was to fight to the death. Some Civilians committed suicide by jumping off cliffs, not to mention the kamikaze pilots. Using the bomb was the only way of stopping them. They were ruled by by an evil tyrant who started the war and was allied with the most evil tyrant that ever lived, Hitler. Evil had to be stopped. We owe no one an apology.
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