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© Thomson Reuters 2023.At Hiroshima G7, atomic bomb survivors grapple with a disarmament dream deferred
By Sakura Murakami HIROSHIMA©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
26 Comments
Elvis is here
An outright apology from the US president would be a good step in the right direction.
Antiquesaving
We have to go through this every year in August, now everyday of the G7 then again in August!
Can you imagine if every international event done in China they dragged dignitaries and guess over to Nanjing?
Spitfire
'We have to go through this every year in August, now everyday of the G7 then again in August!
Can you imagine if every international event done in China they dragged dignitaries and guess over to Nanjing?'
Antiquesaving, you are spot on as usual.
Alvin
The bigotry and lack of empathy in this comment is disgusting.
Antiquesaving
Your right, America should apologize for its unprovoked invasion of China, Indochina, Hong Kong, Philippines Malaysia, Singapore, and of course attacking poor peaceful Japan. (Sarcasm for those that didn't get it) Sarcasm off.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nuclear_weapons_program
Japan was trying to get atomic weapons, they were far and way off but that doesn't change the simple fact, had they gotten it first they would have used it, they had no problem using chemical and biological weapons so the idea they wouldn't have use nukes is fantasy.
This victimhood the Japanese put forward is all a way to shift focus away from the fact Japan was the aggressor and everything that happened to Japan was its own doing.
Antiquesaving
What bigotry? Please point it out?
Who attacked who, what country was on a rampage through its neighbours, what country was using chemical and biological weapons on civilians from 1936 onwards.
To this day, Japan still hasn't removed hundreds of thousands of chemical shells left behind in China, hidden stockpiles regularly injure and kill Chinese civilians.
In 2001 it Japan estimated that 700,000 chemical shells were still in China, China says the number in closer to 2 million.
Since then Japan despite its obligations under international law has done very little to remove or dispose, instead trying to "pay" China to do it themselves.
You act like Japan and the Japanese were a bunch of innocent victims, they were the aggressor.
Antiquesaving
Why should I have empathy?
Have you watched as the PM and other go to Yasukuni Shrine, unit 731 , Nanjing, Manila massacre, etc..
Manila alone 100,000 civilians.
What makes these people special over the millions of civilian victims of the Japanese military?
Elvis is here
That's a bit short sighted.
Aggressors. Yes.
To even the tables, dropping 2 nukes on them, the second was definitely not necessary, is no way for "civilised democratic" country to operate.
Based
Nuclear weapons are horrible ... if they are actually deployed. If they are actually used.
But if they sit in their silos, they actually make the world safer. They provide a deterrent that nothing else in world history has ever provided.
We can see this easily, if we remove our emotions and apply simple, unbreakable logic.
In just the three decades prior to the development of atomic weapons, there were two major world wars in which around 80,000,000 people were killed.
Since those weapons' development, we've still had wars. But none that took anywhere near the number of lives.
That's in large part because, again, nuclear weapons have provided a deterrent to large-scale war. Their actual use would be devastating, but their presence actually makes the world safer.
Antiquesaving
As compared to what? Unit 731? Poison gas shelling, biological experimentation on civilian populations, conventional weapons massacring civilians, or how about just seeing how many people they can cut the heads off of in a certain period of time, you mean civilized like that.
This was a country that had not problem with the following
https://allthatsinteresting.com/japanese-contest-to-kill-100
This was in the papers as some sort of ok thing.
piskian
I respect any full and objective exposure of the horror and futility of war.
Elvis is here
No. The most powerful country in the world could have figured something out. A siege might have done it. What you think?
JRO
I'm sure we all wish nuclear weapons was never invented at all so I'm no way for it, but regarding that it was unjust and took things too far and that an official apology is needed shows peoples emotional response and lack of logical thinking or just lack of knowledge. The reality is that way more people would have died if it didn't happen, and that many more people died from regular bombs and the fire bombings in Tokyo, Also if the apology is for the people that unjustly died Japan has numerous nuclear bombs amounts of killed to apologize for, but among the countries on the wrong side of history in this war Japan has been the most unapologetic.
On the other side I absolutely think the US was eager to try their new weapon and that it wasn't the only way to end things. But I doubt there was a way to end it that ended up with less people dead.
Antiquesaving
Do you understand the meaning of unconditional surrender?
Between the first and second Japan was still insisting on conditions!
Germany was not give the option of conditions so why should Japan have been given that option?
This revisionist history that Japan was ready to surrender keep leaving out the "conditions" still attached to Japanese surrender.
But why not, imagine what Japan would be like today.
The USSR invaded took 4 islands and the other half of Sakhalin, no nukes and you can bet Hokkaido would be Russia today.
If Japan is upset about 4 tiny islands imagine all of Hokkaido!
Ernie
Why can't a US President simply say, "Sorry" for dropping the two Nuclear Weapons on children, women
and men civilians? What would it cost him / her or the US People to simply say, "Sorry."
Christopher Mas Osan
I am sure these are good people.
With good intentions. And by right they have legitimate reasons for concern. However, the world is what it is. One big arms race. The counties that want the nukes are driving the narrative. Japan will be left behind being non-nuclear weaponized.
Maybe a good thing too. Japan should keep reminding the world what life was like after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Imagine a world free of Nukes. I am not a non-nuke guy either. It’s just that the superpowers are trying to outdo each other with hyper sonics now. Welcome to the new Cold war. Now we can eliminate all life on earth faster now. Mankind. The devils hands.
elephant200
Anyone who believe a single word spelling from the mouth of American politicians or statesmen is foolish enough to be living in a modern world.And if anyone think America will giveup nuclear arsenals, that was a shame of the country which misleading these miserable people. I think the Japanese government keep using the nuclear blast victims for political or diplomatic purpose was a real shame!
Antiquesaving
Why should he?
Next will be say sorry for Tokyo fire bombing, then Okinawa, then then then ........
Why can't Japan say a clear uncomplicated sorry, why can't Japan admit aggression, why can't Japan accept international consensus on victims of Nanjing, Manila, etc.. why can't Japan finally do its job and remove the millions of poison shells it left in China, why can't the government officials stop going to Yasukuni and upsetting other countries?
Before any one apologises to Japan, Japan has to fix and apologize for far more.
thepersoniamnow
As a Japanese I kinda feel like this notion where the media always paints Japan as this nation longing for a nuclear free world is pretty naive.
All the worlds most powerful and warring nations have nukes. They also spend enormous amounts of developing even more advanced weaponry to kill more people even more precisey and quickly.
On what planet can anyone realistically expect everyone to disarm? Not this one!
Clay
WMD disarmament dream more now than EVER, Why?
Record Weapons & WMD proliferation from Russia due to US NATO Ukraine Proxy War & Global Military Spending
Seems humanity failing, especially Democracies that openly talk Pre-Emptive First Nuclear Strikes, if you take these leaders and their public statements at face value.
Specific Biden recently regarding NK, and Israel's Prime Minister regarding Iran. It's just public record, no debate.
ian
Might be a little difficult for US to even just maintain current number of nukes, much less reduce.
Maybe try to limit or regulate guns first
itsonlyrocknroll
The past political significance is best fully learned/defined in a classroom, lecture hall.
The realities of the threat of nuclear war both tactical and strategic, the targeting/ hegemony, the geopolitical actuality of a pretense, delusion of treaties to bring stability, is an illusion.
itsonlyrocknroll
Clay, I understand at least comprehend the reasoning underpinning mutual deterrence.
What does that mean in 2023?
The technology, battlefield realities....
Carnegie Connects: Unpacking the Ukrainian Battlefield With Russia Military Analyst Michael Kofman
https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/03/13/carnegie-connects-unpacking-ukrainian-battlefield-with-russia-military-analyst-michael-kofman-event-8049
Limited tactical nuclear exchanges, as crazy as it sounds are envisaged.
Rodney
then close USA bases on Japanese soil that have nukes. Easy Sir.
itsonlyrocknroll
Atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori and his wife Kayoko looked after themselves, magnificently.
Kudos.
Firebrand
Do these pacifists believe that countries like China and North Korea want to have any part in their naive disarmament dreams? Japan should not only arm up in the current state of the pacific east where China would like to invade Taiwan, but Japan should have their own nukes to deter them from an attack. Do these pacifists realize what prevented a third world war for the last 70 years? Nukes did!