Gov't to dispatch A-bomb storytellers in Japan, abroad

Funds the anti-nuclear project

Tries to purchase some nuclear weaponry for "defensive measures"

Good Guy Japan.

Their first stop should be the Diet!

Yes, Japan is the only country to have two cities destroyed by nuclear weapons. However, the Japanese imperial army destroyed many cities throughout Asia before these two cities were attacked. I hope their lectures include acknowledgement of the atrocities committed by the imperial army which lead to these cities being destroyed.

About 100 people -- mostly local residents, who have been trained to pass on the experiences of the world's sole nuclear attacks in war

who have been trained to pass on the experiences? What does that even mean? Or maybe indoctrinated to pass on the message that Japan was a victim of western aggression while not acknowledging their own wrongdoings?

I hope their lectures include acknowledgement of the atrocities committed by the imperial army which lead to these cities being destroyed.

I'm not holding my breath. Mainly because these people are being dispatched by the Abe regime, and I don't trust THEM anymore than I can throw Yokozuna.

"Oh the past is the past. Just move on already!"

Their first stop should be the Diet!

+1 great comment!

Oh dear. Here we go again...playing the victim!

I hate it when folk say the above comment. But I can't blame them for doing so because it certainly seems that way whenever we talk about the A-bomb attacks.

We all know the hypocrisy that Japan displays when it comes to it's current views on nuclear weapons. And most are pretty sure that if Japan doesn't have a few tucked away then it certainly has the ability to knock em up pretty sharpish.

And...not forgetting their refusal to sign the nuclear weapons treaty held by the UN general assembly in New York. Effectively meaning they would agree to their use should the situation arise.

If that ain't hypocrisy, I don't know what is??

Those that do not learn from the past are condemn to repeat it.

I hope their lectures include acknowledgement of the atrocities committed by the imperial army which lead to these cities being destroyed.

They are not even aware that the IJA committed atrocities. They actually believe they were the victims from start to finish because of what they have been fed their entire lives. TIJ.

We don't know much about what happened when the atom bombs were dropped because one of McArthur's first acts was to confiscate all photographs of Japan showing the aftermath of the atom bombs and carpet bombing. He was afraid that reality would turn Americans off to using atom bombs. Why doesn't the Pentagon release those pictures? Too much reality? Otherwise, all you have is the words of the witnesses. Footnote: nobody actually participating in the war (Eisenhauer, Nimitz etc) said the atom bomb had any role in ending the war. The war was already over.

 The war was already over.

I'm guessing Japan never got the memo.

Ok, then put the history of Japan's Imperial Military in your textbooks. Can't only play the victim all the time.

Then China, Korea and the Philippines will dispatch their own story-tellers and share the experiences of comfort women, Bataan March, Rape of Manila, Massacre of Najining, Unit 731, POWs. The circle will remain unbroken...

This is good news. The world must never be allowed forget this act of genocide upon innocent people.

wanderlust:

Then China, Korea and the Philippines will dispatch their own story-tellers and share the experiences of comfort women, Bataan March, Rape of Manila, Massacre of Najining, Unit 731, POWs. The circle will remain unbroken...

Yes, Unit 731 was particularly nasty. Last year NHK did a programme about them and how they treated their 'guinea pigs' or 'logs'. Very surprised it managed to slip through Abe, Dear Leader, on his own TV channel.

Are they going to have them remind people that Japan refused to sign a ban on nuclear weapons before the victims speak? or will it just be more of the "As the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack..." start to speeches, then clam up on the issue of nuclear weapons later?

And meanwhile, they demand that none of the atrocities committed by IJA be spoken of.

These storytellers are heroes, as are the 164,621 hibakusha. Please visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki and talk to a survivor about how these acts of terror affected their families. The world must NEVER be allowed to forget the pain and suffering inflicted upon innocent children, women and men.

Fortunately, I know the modern USA has changed a lot from those days, and is the closest partner Japan could ever have. Together, USA and Japan will stare down the nuclear threats now upon her, stand up an never allow this tragedy to happen again.

@ Toasted heretic -

The world must never be allowed forget this act of genocide upon innocent people.

beautiful words.

Both America and Japan have got a lot of war crimes to answer for.

above

Can't argue with that.

Someone needs a dictionary to look up “genocide “

This is good news. The world must never be allowed forget this act of genocide upon innocent people. oh the same genocide where millions of civilians were killed throughout Asia by the IJA. If your going to label it genocide then Japan shouldn't complain when China sends there own team to teach about the atrocities of genocide & war.

Both America and Japan have got a lot of war crimes to answer for. victors dont have to answer to any crimes , that the privilege of being the victor, way its always been , way it always will be. the moral of the story, dont start a war unless you can guarantee victory

Maybeperhapsyes- yeah, you can. You just need to open history books

Tragic events those, there’s no denying that. but if you’re looking for a good example for the term ‘stuck in the past’.......

ha...majored in History bud. (Not that it has done me any good in my search for work)

I think you can't argue that America has done some awful deeds to itself and others.

Usually with the approval and backing of my own country...the UK.

Ok, then put the history of Japan's Imperial Military in your textbooks. Can't only play the victim all the time.

Israel does every day and gets away with murder, so, maybe works.

they should also tell about the firebombing of Tokyo civilians in WW2 that could of killed 500,000.

Those that do not learn from the past are condemn to repeat it.

YuriO,

Hope you are referring to Japan....but somehow I doubt it...

maybeperhapsyes: "I think you can't argue that America has done some awful deeds to itself and others."

As has Japan, but my question is why Japan wants to do this kind of thing, which I think is great, by the way, but at the same time if Korea tried to do it, or China Nanjing victims tried, they would be furious and cry to the UN and other world bodies. NONE of this should ever be repeated, so while they send people abroad to tell their stories, they should also welcome people from abroad to tell stories of what Japan did while it attempts to remilitarise, and won't sign a nuclear weapons ban.

I applaud these people for their strength, courage, and survival, and I want Japan to do the same with the victims of past IJA atrocities.

I've been to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and heard a woman speak at the former of horrible things she witnessed. I've also been to Nanjing, and while I didn't hear people speak, I read about a former IJA soldier going there to apologise, admitting what he had done, and winning the respect of the people there -- and more importantly forgiveness -- when he did. We should all learn from these people, not those pushing agendas.

Apparently Japan was only weeks behind the USA's development of their own atomic bombs - one can only imagine what would have happened had they won the race.

We don't know much about what happened when the atom bombs were dropped because one of McArthur's first acts was to confiscate all photographs of Japan showing the aftermath of the atom bombs and carpet bombing. He was afraid that reality would turn Americans off to using atom bombs.

In fact movie reels showing the damage were shown in movie theatres throughout the country

An oft repeated fairytale we see here on JT.

In fact movie reels showing the damage were shown in movie theatres throughout the country

Demonstrably false. Due to American occupation censorship, visual evidence of this genocide was not to be

publicly shown in Japan until 1952. 

The American public did not see any of the newsreel footage in mainstream theaters or television for 25 years, and the U.S. military film of the genocide at Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained hidden for nearly four decades. 

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09528822.2011.624352?src=recsys&journalCode=ctte20

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/for-64th-anniversary-the_b_252752.html

As other posters have pointed out, a large part of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki experience is death and destruction, which is same as other cities when there is a war on. Most recently Aleppo in Syria, for example. We should not allow the understandable/justifiable fears we have of radiation to place the suffering of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on a pedestal above any other place ravaged by war. We should not allow politicians and revisionists to play on those fears to place the suffering of Hiroshima and Nagasaki above any other suffering in the Asian theater during World War II to make them the key event of the war and the most important thing to talk about.

I am against nuclear proliferation for sure, but it should only be part of a much bigger anti-war stance. War equals death and destruction and it is largely irrelevant what weapons bring those about.

Japan was never even attempting to build a bomb.

They were and there's evidence to prove it:

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-bomb-20150805-story.html

https://www.amazon.com/Japans-Secret-War-Against-Atomic/dp/156924815X/ref=la_B000APTSYY_1_2/140-6329735-6697111?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519617217&sr=1-2

It wasn't until the 1950s that newsreel footage of Hiroshima casualties became somewhat available in the United States via theaters specializing in semi-legal pornographic movies. It was much later that the footage was available to mainstream American audiences.

This interview with Noam Chomsky explains: "When the U.S. laughed at Hiroshima".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYYxvAtNoX4

Witness of wars and in that case nuclear bombings is fine to get info from. To feel the drama.

Otherwise it is called propaganda...

PS : I have been to Hiroshima and learnt that war is horrible.

So, 140,000 dead from the two bombings. However, the Japanese killed over 200,000 in the Nanjing massacre. I don’t recall any of the survivors of that massacre giving lectures. I only recall Japanese historians rebuting the statistics. I do agree that the A-bombs were an atrocity and Japan was the victim. However, Japan was the victim of its own stupidity and should only blame themselves.

I think that most people in the world already know what nuclear weopons can do.

Utorsa - photos of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were shown everywhere.

Mans please, stop with the “genocide” histrionics.

There wouldn’t be a Japanese left alive today if the US carried out genocide.

What many of you constantly outraged fail to see is the bombs actually saved lives in the long run.

Probably a milllion future casualties were estimated had the US started a land invasion.

Apparently Japan was only weeks behind the USA's development of their own atomic bombs - one can only imagine what would have happened had they won the race.

I often think about this, too. From what I know about Japan (after many years seeing it from the inside), I think life would be much worse than it was for Japan, had Japan won. Many people from that generation were fighting because they believed they were literally fighting for their freedom. Over the years, I have come to agree with them.

I do agree that the A-bombs were an atrocity and Japan was the victim. However, Japan was the victim of its own stupidity and should only blame themselves.

I have always thought that Hirohito should have taken a big part of the blame. After all, there was no way Japan could have won from a certain point onwards, civilians were being bombed but Hirohito still refused to yield.

What many of you constantly outraged fail to see is the bombs actually saved lives in the long run.

And it only came at the cost of ripping apart the bodies of women, children, babies, and working men, atom by atom, destroying their cities, leaving the survivors sick and wounded.

But at least we can speculate that more people would have died otherwise.

Will they be paying a visit to Moscow or Beijing or Islamabad by any chance? No? Off limits? Yeah I know you cant get a visa. Damn!

Unfortunately the battle is lost before its begun. It cannot be a one way street that gets the West, India etc to disarm while China, Russia, Pakistan etc all happily go about their merry way and we all know that's exactly what will happen.

How incredibly dumb. Fortunately even Trump is not that dumb.

We have a very insular and “Japan only” version of WWII here.

Being that most people I meet do not know their own history (ancient yes, but the last 150 years are missing), and adhere to the “America bombed us and that was bad” storyline, this will probably be more harmful than good.

In general, I am shocked at how many people don’t even know that Japan colonized Asia.

For those of you who did not attend Japanese high schools, teachers and the teachers' union is very leftist. When the textbooks are weak on what the Japanese did in Asia, they made "supplementary materials", which included some photographs I remember even now 20 years later.

Japanese high schools, teachers and the teachers' union is very leftist.

Umm... no. They are far from it. A polite way of putting it is that they (like much of Japan these days) are very 'conservative'. Leftist? Not a chance!

As for supplementary materials, maybe that is a thing that happened 20 years ago. Certainly not these days for the vast majority of J-schools. In fact, if anything, the truth of the past has dried up even more.

clamenza - The American government suppressed film footage of Hiroshima’s human casualties for years after WWII. See the links in my previous posts.

Nuking hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children saved no one. It was simply a cynical live human live human experiment on a people deemed subhuman by American propaganda.

clamenza: "What many of you constantly outraged fail to see is the bombs actually saved lives in the long run."

Prove it. You cannot prove they saved a SINGLE life. You can prove they took more than one hundred thousand, almost all civilians, and you can prove that Japan was on the verge of surrendering and that the atomic bombings were just a justification of the cost of the Manhattan Project, but nowhere can you prove they saved even a single life.

And no, the life of one American soldier is not worth more than Japanese civilians.

They'll rue the day they left Japan when people outside are free to ask them pointed questions about the IJA atrocities that lead up to the bombings. And how under Abe, Japan is now an arms dealer

The U.S., Germany and Japan were developing A-bombs. How close Japan was to creating an atomic bomb and one that could be practically used in combat is difficult to impossible to estimate. They were certainly way behind the U.S. The Germans were transporting enriched military grade uranium to Japan when Germany surrendered. The practical U-boat captain decided to surrender and the Japanese technicians onboard committed suicide with poison, not sepaku (on the practical captain's instructions). Some say that uranium was used in the Hiroshima bomb. But that is most likely folklore. Anyway, if the Japanese had the A-bomb and could use it on the Allies they would have.

The Hiroshima narrative is a scoundrel's game. First the scoundrel creates the evil. When you retaliate the scoundrel accuses you of being at fault. The Hiroshima narrators, so-called, are out there not for the sake of peace or whatever but to spread the lie that Japan was a victim nation, not the monster it in fact was. Unfortunately too many well-meaning liberal-leftists (people on my side) have bought into this narrative.

I dare the Hiroshima narrators to let Nanjing and Unit 741 narrators join in the storytelling.

@smithinjapan

> Prove it. You cannot prove they saved a SINGLE life. 

Read the emperor's surrender speech. He says the bombings prompted his decision for surrender to promptly end the war. Until then, around 50,000 people of various nationalities were dying each week in the war Japan started. Once the emperor's message was delivered, the killing stopped, apart from Manchuria, which the Soviets had invaded.

There's your "proof." It's all fully documented by both countries.

Kabukilover: "The Hiroshima narrators, so-called, are out there not for the sake of peace or whatever but to spread the lie that Japan was a victim nation, not the monster it in fact was. Unfortunately too many well-meaning liberal-leftists (people on my side) have bought into this narrative."

Japan WAS a victim of the atomic bombings. That canNOT be disputed! However that does not mean they were not ultimately to blame for it, nor does it automatically exclude the fact that they were also aggressors in some of the worst atrocities known to man, including Nanjing and with Unit 741, as you mention. You completely undermine your own comments with the "liberal-leftists" baggage you bring in later, though.

JeffLee: "Read the emperor's surrender speech. He says the bombings prompted his decision for surrender to promptly end the war."

That's not proof that it saved a single life -- it's speculation. I said prove it. You cannot. This is the American justification for the atomic bombings, when it was about given proof that the price tag for the project worked, as well as to scare the Russians. That's all. Saving lives was the LAST thing they had on their minds -- in fact, they took more than 100,000 thousand in dropping the bombs. It is simply daft to say the bombs saved lives when they took THOUSANDS, and with definitive proof the Empire was on the verge of surrendering anyway.

And it only came at the cost of ripping apart the bodies of women, children, babies, and working men, atom by atom, destroying their cities, leaving the survivors sick and wounded.

As opposed to conventional bombs which do what?

Why are they doing this? Because soon all the true survivors will have passed on, and the government won't be able to use this topic as a propaganda tool. The same thing will happen with the comfort women issue.

smithinjapan - your ask "I said prove it. You cannot" is a request to prove the unprovable.

I can just as easily ask " Prove that by dropping the bomb(s) more than a million other lives were not saved".

It's nonsensical. No one has any proof either way.

The war may have stopped in a day or two anyway. It may not have, and may have continued for months. Perhaps one more week would have seen Hokkaido become North Japan and Honshu South Japan. Who knows? We are not privy to the answers of such suggestions. All is supposition.

So many people are talking about Japan playing the victim and not admitting to attrocities commited in Asia, which seems to cancel out the value of the hibakusha talking about there experiences under the atom bomb. Yet, Japan modernized using Great Britian as a model, yet Great Britian gets a free ride. Nobody asks Britian to apologize for their attrocities.

The story about the A-bombs is an important one and deserves to be told and re-told. It's rather unfortunate that Japan as a country whitewash their own wrongdoings while remembering their victims. As far as I understand there is not one monument to the victims of IJA anywhere in Tokyo. Contrast that to Berlin, monuments and memorials dotted throughout the city. Take a leaf out of Germany's book.

For those of you who did not attend Japanese high schools, teachers and the teachers' union is very leftist. When the textbooks are weak on what the Japanese did in Asia, they made "supplementary materials", which included some photographs I remember even now 20 years later.

This is interesting, and someone I haven't heard before. Thanks for sharing.

There wouldn’t be a Japanese left alive today if the US carried out genocide.

Luckily, acts of genocide that have plagued the world for centuries haven't succeeded in their awful intent.

Rwanda, the Holocaust, the Irish Famine, slavery, Armenia etc.

History is fascinating and tragic. Especially what comes after the horror, what one learns and/or refuses to acknowledge.

Stop playing the victim card, war is sh*t everyone knows it, many people die in war.

Would you say that to Holocaust survivors?

Testimonies given by those who survived atom bombs? That would make their stories unique and precious to humanity, much as the stories of those who survived the concentration camps in Germany. Spielberg underrstood that when he gathered the survivors to tell their stories for his archive. From what I have heard these Hiroshima story-tellers are simply individuals; they do not go into the politics of the war, but confine themselves to describing what they witnessed. I am sure they understand what they should and should not say.

My landlady in Kyoto used to describe the firebombing of Tokyo which she lived through, and she kept repeating, "never again", and "war is terrible". I felt not one ounce of recrimination from her.

If I had a gripe, it would be their level of English, which I have found difficult to hear, and thus to understand. What good is missing 30% of the content, and ending up tired from the concentration, unless you are an unusually patient and sympathetic person? Use of a simultaneous translator for most of them would surely have more of an impact for their audiences. The idea and the effort to speak in English or other languages are sweet, of course, and they could surely use their own English in personal Q&A sessions.

Smithinjapan

Not trying to be contrary, but since I am Japanese American, this is a discussion I’ve had many times with many people on both sides of the blood and land divides.

You say it’s not true that the atomic bombs saved any lives. I think it’s impossible to speculate accurately as we only have the hindsight of the aftermath of the bombs.

However most people (historians included) see Russia invading from the north, Japan refusing to surrender (this is hotly debated), and the US preparing its land invasion as well. There has also been an attempt to assasinate key figures high up in WWII era Japan who wanted to surrender.

Anyways, what I have heard mostly is that a land invasion would have been far worse over time with initial deaths, prolonged loss of life (months or years of civil war or infighting) and a divided Japan, who’s north would be Russia now.

But as to which method would have technically saved more lives, it’s probably impossible to say.

@thepersoniamnow, Japanese were trying to arrange peace/peace talks through Stalin, but Stalin had his own plans for taking over part of Japan, and delayed the conversation for his own purposes. I guess had he managed to invade Japan, we would be like Korea, communist north and capitalist south.

What are these Atomic Bombing storytellers going to be saying ? Everyone knows that Japan has a different version of History than the rest of the World, so I wonder if there's another message being sold here apart from the horrors of an Atomic experience ?

If the speaker doesn't first talk about how the IJA shared the same view as Nazis for world domination then it's never going to matter is it? It's terrible that the world stood up to dictators and put an end to them? Of course not. Could it have happened differently? Sure. But it didn't. The whole notion of speakers is confusing and has a sense of Nippon Kaigi tone deafness.

It'll come a time when the world will just take a pass on Japan. With the upcoming crippling demographic collapse in another decade or two, it doesn't matter.

About 100 people -- mostly local residents, who have been trained to pass on the experiences of the world's sole nuclear attacks in war 

And trained by whom? ICAN and other anti-nuclear organization to serve their political purpose and "trained" to pass on and emphasize the emotional victimization "experiences" of the horrors and atrocities of atomic bombs and promote the U.S. as the "aggressors" against the poor defenseless Japan. Unfortunate these local residents, however sincere and earnest, are being used as "useful idiots" for political reasons.

Sakuko Sasaki, who is set to become a Hiroshima city's "A-bomb legacy successor" in April, said, "I want to inherit the activities of the atomic bomb victims, who have continued to share (their experiences) with the next generations while suffering" at the same time.

"I am determined to go anywhere if I am requested," said the 67-year-old resident in the western Japan city.

Note she was born in POSTWAR Japan after 1945. Now we're going to have a new generation who will no doubt claim "atomic bomb victim" status and demand reparations for their "sufferings".

Apparently Japan was only weeks behind the USA's development of their own atomic bombs - one can only imagine what would have happened had they won the race.

They were and there's evidence to prove it:

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-bomb-20150805-story.html

https://www.amazon.com/Japans-Secret-War-Against-Atomic/dp/156924815X/ref=la_B000APTSYY_1_2/140-6329735-6697111?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519617217&sr=1-2

Of course Japan would have used it against the enemy.

This is something Japan and the leftists do not want to admit and are continuing to suppress. To admit Japan was pursuing an atomic bomb program, Japan would lose its "atomic bomb victim" sympathy status.

@Halwick

Imperial Japan was nowhere close to a working nuke.

@smithinjapan

That's not proof that it saved a single life -- it's speculation. I said prove it.

Hello, the dropping of the bomb was a strategic decision based on myriad calculations and estimates that included loss of life. Your demand for "proof" on this is a cynical rhetorical talking point, aimed at gaining argument points. This is a very different matter from a chemistry experiment or a police investilgation.

So tell me exactly the kind of "proof" you're looking for? The emperor's own surrender speech acknowledgment, throughly documented, isn't good enough for you. LOL.

Since you don't seem to know your history, Truman's Interim Committee of experts spent over a month running thru the scenarios, concluding that 2 uses of the a-bomb would quickly effect Japan's surrender at that point of time, ending most of the killing then talking place in Asia (50,000 deaths a week) and rendering a large-scale invasion of Japan unnecessary, whose death loss amounted to close to a million. They were right...as history proves.

Actually, I think this is a good way to stop the Nuclear weapon war.

Especially considering this age and generation, it seems that most

children in this generation are only concerned about internet and gadgets.

This is something Japan and the leftists do not want to admit and are continuing to suppress. To admit Japan was pursuing an atomic bomb program, Japan would lose its "atomic bomb victim" sympathy status.

Except that it was nowhere near it. Not even close.

But this is something that the murderous atomic bombers do not want to admit. They seek to justify the actions of a warlike and violent nation.

@JeffLee

The emperor's own surrender speech acknowledgment, throughly documented, isn't good enough for you. 

The Emperor's imperial rescript surrender speech to Japanese troops made no acknowledgement of the bombs.

https://apjjf.org/-tsuyoshi-hasegawa/2501/article.html

In his speech to the soldiers and sailors, especially die-hard officers who might still wish to continue fighting, the emperor did not mention the atomic bomb. Rather, it was Soviet participation in the war that provided a more powerful justification to persuade the troops to lay down their arms.

The emperor did refer to bombs in his imperial rescript to the general Japanese population. However he also stated in the same speech:

We declared war....out of Our sincere desire to secure....stabilization of East Asia, it being far from Our thought either to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.

I suppose you believe everything the emperor said in this particular speech?

What motivated Hirohito was neither a pious wish to bring peace to humanity nor a sincere desire to save the people and the nation from destruction, as his imperial rescript stated and as the myth of the emperor’s “sacred decision” would have Americans eager to justify nuking civilians believe. More than anything else, it was a sense of personal survival and deep responsibility to maintain the imperial house (which Russian occupation would most certainly have dismantled), which had lasted in unbroken lineage since the Jinmu emperor.

Truman's Interim Committee of experts spent over a month running thru the scenarios, concluding that 2 uses of the a-bomb would quickly effect Japan's surrender at that point of time,

Demonstrably false. Even Truman himself knew that Russian entry into the war would quickly effect Japan's surrender. As Truman's 7/17/45 diary entry states:

He'll [Stalin and Russia] be in the Japanese War on August 15th. Fini Japanese when that comes about.

Nuking Japanese civilians was simply a cynical live human test much like The Guatemala Syphilis Experiment that American government was setting up at the same time.

...the a-bomb would quickly effect Japan's surrender at that point of time,

Russian entry into the war forced Japan to surrender and rendered a large-scale invasion of Japan unnecessary.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japan-stalin-did/

ending most of the killing then talking place in Asia (50,000 deaths a week)

The killing in Asia only intensified after the bombs. Some American sources cite that Mao alone went on to kill 80 million Chinese. Shortly after WWII ended the American government was also shipping French troops back to re-invade Vietnam leading to decades of pointless slaughter.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/07/17/how-many-died-new-evidence-suggests-far-higher-numbers-for-the-victims-of-mao-zedongs-era/01044df5-03dd-49f4-a453-a033c5287bce/?utm_term=.2c84dbead3ac

and rendering a large-scale invasion of Japan unnecessary, whose death loss amounted to close to a million. 

A laughable figure invented as an ex-post facto rationalization by the very same people trying to justify the war crime of genocidally slaughtering hundreds of thousands of women and children with nukes.

Smith: I wrote about the people on my side swallowing the "martyrdom" dogma with a heavy heart. I was one of them until I read Honda Katsuichi. He argued that Japanese "pacifism" was phony if it only centered on the A-bombs and avoided Japan's crimes against humanity. Once I saw the light I became a minority of one. I am bitterly opposed to American Imperialism and the self-righteous propaganda that supports it, but I cannot condemn the A-bombs per se. I believe the saturation bombing of civilians was immoral, though everyone did it.

I have been to conferences and read journals that blamed the U.S. with fake history. Example: The utter lie that Japan attempted to surrender multiple times but the U.S. ignored it. It was sad to see sincere antiwar people, who like me opposed the Vietnam war, hooking up ideologically (without realizing it) with the LDP and the Japanese right-wing.

If there was one war crime the US did commit: it was not bombing the Imperial Palace and the Navy and Army headquarters a few blocks away. That I believe would have ended the war faster and likely made the A-bombs unnecessary.

Finally, I have nothing against the Hiroshima narrators. I am sure they are sincere. Their sincerity will be badly misused by the Abe gang.

@Samit Basu and @Toasted Heretic:

Did you bother to check out the citings provided? Evidently too close-minded to even consider the possiblity.

By the way, the citings were provided by Your comrade friend Alfie Noakes and HE asserts there is evidence to prove it.

Alfie NoakesFeb. 26  12:59 pm JST

Japan was never even attempting to build a bomb.

They were and there's evidence to prove it:

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-bomb-20150805-story.html

https://www.amazon.com/Japans-Secret-War-Against-Atomic/dp/156924815X/ref=la_B000APTSYY_1_2/140-6329735-6697111?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519617217&sr=1-2

8( +8 / -0 )

@Kabukilover,

I have been to conferences and read journals that blamed the U.S. with fake history. Example: The utter lie that Japan attempted to surrender multiple times but the U.S. ignored it.

Donald Trump also complains about "fake news" when confronted with inconvenient truths:

We brought them [the Japanese] down to an abject surrender through the accelerated sinking of their merchant marine and hunger alone, and when we didn't need to do it, and we knew we didn't need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn't need to do it, we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs.

Brigadier Gen. Carter W. Clarke, the officer in charge of preparing MAGIC intercepted cable summaries in 1945

[T]he use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. . . .[I]n being the first to use it, we . . . adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages.

Admiral William D. Leahy

Privately, on June 18, 1945--almost a month before the Emperor's July intervention to seek an end to the war and seven weeks before the atomic bomb was used--Leahy recorded in his diary:

It is my opinion at the present time that a surrender of Japan can be arranged with terms that can be accepted by Japan and that will make fully satisfactory provisions for America's defense against future trans-Pacific aggression. 

Admiral William D. Leahy

The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace before the atomic age was announced to the world with the destruction of Hiroshima and before the Russian entry into the war..... The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military standpoint, in the defeat of Japan.

Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

The first atomic bomb was an unnecessary experiment. . . . It was a mistake to ever drop it. . . . [the scientists] had this toy and they wanted to try it out, so they dropped it. . . . It killed a lot of J#ps, but the J#ps had put out a lot of peace feelers through Russia long before.

Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander U.S. Third Fleet

In a private letter to Navy historian Robert G. Albion concerning a clearer assurance that the Emperor would not be displaced, Admiral L. Lewis Strauss observed:

This was omitted from the Potsdam declaration and as you are undoubtedly aware was the only reason why it was not immediately accepted by the Japanese who were beaten and knew it before the first atomic bomb was dropped. 

Admiral L. Lewis Strauss

Russia's entry into the Japanese war was the decisive factor in speeding its end and would have been so even if no atomic bombs had been dropped. . . . 

Air Force General Claire Chennault

It was sad to see sincere antiwar people....hooking up ideologically (without realizing it) with the LDP and the Japanese right-wing.

No different than hooking up with the American right-wing eager to justify the mass murder of women and children with nukes.

If there was one war crime the US did commit: it was not bombing the Imperial Palace and the Navy and Army headquarters a few blocks away.

In reality, the American military targeted elementary school students for nuclear annihilation. Honkawa elementary school being meters from the epicenter of the Hiroshima bomb.

That I believe would have ended the war faster and likely made the A-bombs unnecessary.

Nuking hundreds of thousands of children and women was never necessary except in the minds of right-wing extremists and their supporters.

@utorsa

"The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace before the atomic age was announced ..."

Nice quote. Too bad it isn't true. The Japanese govt ignored the Potsdam Ultimatum in late July 1945. They were in no mood to surrender, until the Nagasaki bombing, and even then the emporer had to intervene on the Supreme War Council to break its deadlock on the issue of surrender.

This is all well documented by both sides.

Nice quote. Too bad it isn't true.

Wrong. I suggest you learn the meaning of "sue for peace". As Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz correctly stated, Japan had, in fact, already sued for peace.

They were in no mood to surrender, until the Nagasaki bombing

Incorrect. Russian entry into the war forced Japan to surrender. Nagasaki was simply a cynical live human experiment on innocent civilians.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japan-stalin-did/

Russia's entry into the Japanese war was the decisive factor in speeding its end and would have been so even if no atomic bombs had been dropped. . . . 

Air Force General Claire Chennault

We brought them [the Japanese] down to an abject surrender through the accelerated sinking of their merchant marine and hunger alone, and when we didn't need to do it, and we knew we didn't need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn't need to do it, we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs.

Brigadier Gen. Carter W. Clarke, the officer in charge of preparing MAGIC intercepted cable summaries in 1945

@JeffLee

Nice quote. Too bad it isn't true.

Wrong. I suggest you learn the meaning of "sue for peace". As Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz correctly stated, Japan had, in fact, already sued for peace.

They were in no mood to surrender, until the Nagasaki bombing

Incorrect. Russian entry into the war forced Japan to surrender. Nagasaki was simply a cynical live human experiment on innocent civilians.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japan-stalin-did/

Russia's entry into the Japanese war was the decisive factor in speeding its end and would have been so even if no atomic bombs had been dropped

Air Force General Claire Chennault

We brought them [the Japanese] down to an abject surrender through the accelerated sinking of their merchant marine and hunger alone, and when we didn't need to do it, and we knew we didn't need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn't need to do it, we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs.

Brigadier Gen. Carter W. Clarke, the officer in charge of preparing MAGIC intercepted cable summaries in 1945

Everything JeffLee just wrote about the decision to use the bomb is wrong.

Truman wrote in his diary months before that Japan would surrender when Russia entered the war and that is the exact date Japan surrendered.

Read his diary. It’s online. Five of the six 5-star officers in the US said the bomb was unnecessary, that Japan was ready to surrender and no invasion of the mainland would be necessary.

The US whitewashed history in the years soon after the war is a classic lesson in how propaganda can change the truth for generations.

@utorsa

Every year you trot out the same context-less, cherry-picked quotes, which I then feel obliged to rip apart. I dont have the energy to go thru all that again.

Only to point out, In its "suing for peace," Japan insiste it hold on to Korea and Manchuria, which the world community would have never accepted, never mind the Chinese or Koreans! Japan was in no position to make such demands, especially to the Americans, who had soundly defeated its navy, air force and cut off all shipping.

@domtoidi

Truman wrote in his diary months before that Japan would surrender when Russia entered the war 

But they didn't. The Japanese continued fighting the Soviets until September. The horrific battle of Hutou was Aug. 26, and it dragged on because the Japanese garrison refused to, well, surrender. The Soviets killed nearly every single Japanese man, woman and child after their surrender ultimatium was ignored. Japan did however, surrender to the US earlier -- right after and because of the a-bombings. The emporer even said so in his famous speech. But what does he know, eh? He only made the final decision.

Anyway, Truman's diary entry says the a-bombs plus Russia would be sure to force a Japanese surrender. let's hear it for context.

Everything JeffLee just wrote about the decision to use the bomb is wrong.

No, everything I've written is right.

@JeffLee,

Every year you trot out the same context-less, cherry-picked quotes, which I then feel obliged to rip apart. I dont have the energy to go thru all that again.

Every year you trot out the same opinions while claiming (without any supporting documentation) to "rip apart" quotes from mainstream historians, politicians and military leaders. Still waiting evidence supporting your opinions.

Only to point out, In its "suing for peace," Japan insiste it hold on to Korea and Manchuria....

Incorrect. In a private letter to Navy historian Robert G. Albion concerning a clearer assurance that the Emperor would not be displaced, Admiral L. Lewis Strauss observed:

This was omitted from the Potsdam declaration and as you are undoubtedly aware was the only reason why it was not immediately accepted by the Japanese who were beaten and knew it before the first atomic bomb was dropped. 

As Brigadier General Carter W. Clarke stated:

We brought them [the Japanese] down to an abject surrender through the accelerated sinking of their merchant marine and hunger alone, and when we didn't need to do it, and we knew we didn't need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn't need to do it, we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs.

Brigadier Gen. Carter W. Clarke, the officer in charge of preparing MAGIC intercepted cable summaries in 1945

Japan did however, surrender to the US earlier -- right after and because of the a-bombings. 

Incorrect. Japan surrendered to the US earlier because of the Russian entry into the war:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/30/the-bomb-didnt-beat-japan-stalin-did/

The emporer even said so in his famous speech. But what does he know, eh? He only made the final decision

The Emperor's imperial rescript surrender speech to Japanese troops made no acknowledgement of the bombs.

https://apjjf.org/-tsuyoshi-hasegawa/2501/article.html

In his speech to the soldiers and sailors, especially die-hard officers who might still wish to continue fighting, the emperor did not mention the atomic bomb. Rather, it was Soviet participation in the war that provided a more powerful justification to persuade the troops to lay down their arms.

The emperor did refer to bombs in his imperial rescript to the general Japanese population. However he also stated in the same speech:

We declared war....out of Our sincere desire to secure....stabilization of East Asia, it being far from Our thought either to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.

I suppose you believe everything the Emperor said?

What motivated Hirohito to surrender to the U.S. was neither a pious wish to bring peace to humanity nor a sincere desire to save the people and the nation from destruction, as his imperial rescript stated and as the myth of the emperor’s “sacred decision” would have Americans eager to justify nuking civilians believe. More than anything else, it was a sense of personal survival and deep responsibility to maintain the imperial house (which Russian occupation would most certainly have dismantled), which had lasted in unbroken lineage since the Jinmu emperor.

The Japanese continued fighting the Soviets until September.

Japanese stragglers from the IJA were still resisting the Americans in the 1970s. 

Nuking hundreds of thousands of innocent women saved no one and was simply a cynical live human experiment on a people deemed subhuman by American propaganda.