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68th anniv of Hiroshima bombing

18 Comments

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows in front of the cenotaph dedicated to the victims of the atomic bombing at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park during the ceremony to mark the 68th anniversary of the bombing, in Hiroshima, on Tuesday.

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my heart bleeds for japan always on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima rest in peace

6 ( +8 / -2 )

"I had been conscious of depression and so I voiced to (Sec. Of War Stimson) 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. It was my belief that Japan was, at this very moment, seeking a way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face.' "

General Dwight D. Eisenhower
10 ( +12 / -2 )

Today is Hiroshima Day, and a fitting memorial is to unearth the letters of the only man of those who took part in the bombing of Hiroshima to feel remorse, reconnaisance pilot Claude Eatherly, who it was gave the all clear to the following Enola Gay: and spent the rest o his life an outcast seeking repentence in a country that refused to recognised its own guilt Claude Eatherly and Gunter Anders: Letters http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/anders/Anders1962BurningConscienceEatherlyOCR.pdf

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@Saketown,

Shall we take another think of the American love for Japan? especially today to encourage Japan to confront conflictions arround.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I hope no other country has to suffer weapons like these being dropped on them.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

My deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies to the people of Hiroshima and to the souls of the victims of the atomic bombing including the families of the deceased and the survivors who despite surviving this calamity are still struggling with its after effect. We must never forget the complete destruction of human existence that can be caused by nuclear weapons . It is the responsibility of this generation to continue strongly pleading to this world for everlasting peace of mankind without nuclear weapons for a global society filled with unconditional love.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

In that great American tradition of forgive and forget, in May of 1955, only 10 years later from that August day we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, TV audiences from coast to coast watching a popular TV program "This is Your Life" witnessed first hand as a surprised survivor of Hiroshima nervously shook hands with the co-pilot of the plane that dropped the bomb. To learn more about this "bombshell" visit Hiroshima Hits Home http://envisioningtheamericandream.com/2012/08/07/hiroshima-hits-home/

4 ( +4 / -0 )

In that great American tradition of forgive and forget

Oh yes....

Remember the Alamo

Remember the Maine

Remember Pearl Harbor.

It's more like the great American tradition of massive self-delusion. The inability to see things as they truly are.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

@ yabits I agree, but remember as well the victors (no matter where you look in history.) ALWAYS write the history!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@asybot12. Yes, you are right. But also consider that each of us individuals has a duty to seek out and learn the history from the others' perspective.

Looking at things only from the victors' point of view is the surest way to become blind and arrogant.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I deeply and humbly apologize to the Japanese people for the terrible bombings of Japan in the Second World War, they were, both atomic and conventional, without ethics or respect and should never have happened. I am very sorry and nothing can really remove this great stain from the American conceince. I pray for the peace of all those people lost in these events and pray also that Americans will come to realize the depth of their depravity in this event. I have every right to make this apology, members of my family were in the US military in the Pacific, including the Captain of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbour and they sacrificed in the events, but they would never have wanted the bombings to happen. Peace.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Would prefer all Japanese politicians to pay homage to the war dead HERE and not Yasukuni. Makes more sense, is more humane. Pray for peace, not glory for the fighters.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were Japanese army's military equipment powerhouse.

Right. Uh-huh That's why they were left unscathed for years.

And you don't build equipment without resources, raw materials. Japan's supplies of vital raw materials had been completely cut off by 1945.

But you keep feeding yourself that crock; most can see it for what it is.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

To all of you knocking America for bombing Japan with nuclear weapons, go ask the Chinese if they regret us using such weapons. Or perhaps you people should read a little history and learn about the Japanese soldiers and how they treated not only their enemies but their own kind during the war. You look upon the Japanese as they are today and not how they were in the 1940's. They were savages.

Of course death in war is a tragic thing and I wish the word "war" didn't exist in our respective languages, but it's not like the decision to drop Fat Man and Little Boy was willy-nilly; it was carefully considered and executed over the course of many months. You people speak like the decision was made, a plane flew and it was over.

Go ask some veteran survivors of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Peleliu, Guadalcanal, New Guinea and the USS Indianpolis if they feel sorry we ended the war years early by the use of such weapons.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Or perhaps you people should read a little history and learn about the Japanese soldiers and how they treated not only their enemies but their own kind during the war.

I don't get this reasoning at all. The aims and purposes of the atomic bombings can be seen in many ways but in the end it was clearly an attack on Japanese society, the same people that were already being so brutally victimized, rather than their military.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It is interesting to get the opinions of people from a variety of countries (besides just the US, Japan and Europe).

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It is interesting to get the opinions of people from a variety of countries (besides just the US, Japan and Europe).

Definitely. That is why I appreciate historians like Hasegawa who rewrite the standard interpretation and for the first time put the last months of the war into international perspective.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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