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Hiroshima atomic bombing survivor Sunao Tsuboi dies at 96

30 Comments
By YURI KAGEYAMA

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30 Comments
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Its a shame the horrific asian holocaust slaughter of 300 million innocent people all over Asia that Japan started ended with a horrific holocaust slaughter of innocent Japanese people in Japan that the USA and its allies ended.

Neither was necessary .

Its not the weapons its the people who use them .

-12 ( +6 / -18 )

Rest in peace.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

If "Playing the victim" were an Olympic sport, all the other competitors would give up; Japan would get the gold medal every time. The Japanese were inhuman and ferocious in their campaigns in WW2. The bomb stopped all that within a week. It was a necessary evil.

-3 ( +15 / -18 )

Its not the weapons its the people who use them .

Ha, if that’s your point why single out the Japanese? For Asia, why not start from 2000 bc to 2000 ad? Better yet, go global, remind us all how “unnecessary” all the death and destruction caused by the human race for the last 4000 years has been, just make sure to point out which ones have always been peaceful throughout this time period. Here’s a tip, it’s not Mongolia.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

No matter who started hostilities, most of the bombs victims were simply everyday citizens, people content with living quiet lives, people with very little say in the affairs of their country.

It is thus so in all wars. The common folk bear the burdens and the suffering, while the instigators enrich themselves.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

Beautiful photo of reconciliation above. Pure class. Unlike the wimpy Japanese leaders who never visit memorials in Korea, China etc.

4 ( +11 / -7 )

I didn't single out Japan i also mentioned USA and allies @fizzbit

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

No one is playing the victim, what would you say if some country threw an atomic bomb on your city and all your family, neighbors, friends, everyone dies and your city disappears ??..

I would say, "Well, this is horrible, but maybe we shouldn't have attacked the US in the first place? Or bayoneted so many babies in China?".

1 ( +13 / -12 )

Sadly it takes only one generation to forget the horrors of war. You can almost hear the rumblings on the horizon.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Lets stop killing each other over greed and prejudice.

The details of what the Japanese military were doing and all their experiments are too disturbing to share.

Pure evil.

That would be prior to the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Using violence to stop violence is not a good plan.

The elderly gentleman was indeed fortunate to have survived .

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Neither condoning nor condemning the decisions & events of the last days of WWII and there toll on civilians.

However, do have questions: It appears a portion of the first post was possibly ‘a typo’ and not exaggeration: “300 million innocent people all over Asia??

Care to clarify those figures and source??

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

There was absolutely no reason to bomb Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Such being said by Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man intimately acquainted with war and its necessity or lack hereof.

Eisenhower:  I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives…”

In August of 1945: Japan had no air force, no navy or resources to propel such. Its army had been defeated and decimated in the field. The domestic population suffered from a shortage of foodstuffs and basic daily needs were barely being provided for and there was no reason to invade the mainland. The evidence of an intent to surrender is established historical fact.

The murder of civilians is a war crime. Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the firebombing of Tokyo was the intentional killing of women, children, the elderly and entire families. The bomb in Hiroshima was dropped on a hospital and a nearby school. It was a savage act and barbaric.

1 ( +8 / -7 )

Yes let's all comment about a survivor whose dead.

And the facts are the Japanese military ruthlessly cruelly and unnecessarily slaughtered and tortured and experimented on innocent civilians during the war and the atomic bombing fatalities were no where near the same numbers.

Needless to say the loss of any innocent lives was not necessary in my opinion.

And emperor hirohito 124th war never held accountable !

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

300 million people were slaughtered during the reign of showa all over Asia and the Pacific.

Geeze people wake up.

Its not a typo !

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

To which, the U.S., AND their allies, may have been held accountable, IF Japan had prevailed:

@zichi 12:29pm: “Had America lost the war, the atomic bombings would have been war crimes”-

Britain backed use of A-bomb against Japan: U.S. documents” - KYODO - Aug 4, 2013

“*Britain supported the use of atomic bombs by the United States against Japan in World War II about a month before the first one was dropped on Hiroshima**, documents recently declassified by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration showed.*

The documents illustrate Britain’s involvement in the United States’ decision to carry out the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, something not widely known in Japan.

The British government officially expressed its support for using the new weapon against Japan at the Combined Policy Committee meeting in Washington on July 4, 1945, on the development and control of nuclear energy. Britain referred to atomic bombs as Tube Alloys, a codename it used for wartime research on nuclear weapons that was also used to refer to plutonium.

According to the declassified minutes, British Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson told the meeting chaired by U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson that the British government “concurred in the use of the T.A. weapon against Japan.”

“The Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States had agreed that T.A. weapons should be used by the United States against Japan, the agreement of the British Government having been communicated” by Wilson, the minutes said.

The committee was established based on the Quebec Agreement made in August 1943 by the United States, Britain and Canada on coordinated development of atomic weapons.

Britain’s official agreement on the use of atomic bombs came after U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed at their September 1944 meeting in New York that an atomic bomb might be used against Japan when it was developed.” -

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/08/04/national/history/britain-backed-use-of-a-bomb-against-japan-u-s-documents/

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Once again, Neither condone nor condemn the decisions & events of the last days of WWII and their toll on civilians..

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Thought you were claiming “3 million” but just your repeated assertions of otherwise, ‘unsubstantiated’ numbers a not enough @Kyowaheiyadayone 7:47am & 12:35pm:

*- @Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne 12:35pm: “300 million people were slaughtered during the reign of showa all over Asia and the Pacific. Geeze people wake up. Its not a typo ! ” -*

If it helps to reach a more substantiated numbered, some other, more fact-based estimates claim: “From the invasion of China in 1937 to the end of World War II, the Japanese military regime murdered near 3,000,000 to over 10,000,000 people, most probably almost 6,000,000 Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos, and Indochinese, among others, including Western prisoners of war.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Sure glad they did not firebomb nor nuke Kyoto and Kamakura, because we love traveling there and seeing the true history of Japan, but as the state department already published five more nukes were set and ready to go and am happy the Emperor boss finally gave in and quit. We had thousands of planes, new jets and over a hundred new flat tops.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

It appears that people thumbing here wanted those extra devices blown over all those other targets.Mr. tsuboi would cringe at your thumbs. Proud people and it was the emperor’s decision.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

rest in peace!

and very classy of Obama to visit him... will we ever see a japanese prime minister make a visit to Korea or Nanking, China to do something similar?

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Sunao Tsuboi, was a grate campainer and ambasador for the cause for nucular disarmament, I just hope he's not forgoten over night, and people take strength from his hard work and cary on the fight.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Got it *@Kyowaheiwadayone 11:50am***: Perhaps you were referring to ‘This’ forum from Thurs, Oct 28 ?? **

*- @Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne 11:50am: “@snowymountainhell it was a typo excuse me -30 million. (That's what happens when it too sunny and at the mercy of spellcheck at work.) - Mahalo*

ʻAʻole pilikia 

Thanks for the response but doesn’t 30 million still seem higher than most previous estimates ??

That’s, at least, 3 times higher than the highest estimates of dead the Japanese forces were responsible for in ALL of campaigns across Asia and S.E. Asia.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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