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Kerry, G7 foreign ministers visit A-bomb memorial in Hiroshima

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By Bradley Klapper

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“If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologise, the answer is no,” a senior U.S. official told reporters late on Sunday.

who asked this question? Kerry is right, also it's April and not August to discuss this issue.

1 ( +10 / -9 )

And nor should he. If it were to happen it would be a token gesture with little substance and the effect would be detrimental to the relationship between Japan and the US. A few other countries in the area could learn from this.

3 ( +12 / -9 )

America and Americans are very self righteous as much as arrogant - politically as well as individually. They are strong good and bad. They do not apologize to others or to foreign countries repeatedly.

-27 ( +11 / -38 )

Good. There is nothing to apologize for.

The Americans dropped the bombs to liberate the Japanese people from the clutches of the Imperial Japanese Army. If anything, Japanese should thank the Americans.

7 ( +27 / -20 )

He also said there was no Japanese effort to seek a U.S. apology, “nor is there any interest in reopening the question of blame for the sequence of events that culminated in the use of the atomic bomb.”

Because that would remind people of what really happened, not the official view provided by Japan's government over time.

0 ( +8 / -8 )

I think the Japanese is wise enough to focus on the much more pressing issues facing the world right now, ISIS anyone? Economy anyone? North Korea nuclear issue and South China Sea issue anyone?

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

if the Japanese are so big on apologises then a J prime minister should visit, Pearl Harbour, Nanking, and various other asian countries and offer apologise on behalf of all Japanese, afterall they were they were the ones that started the Pacific war. when and only when theyve done this , should others return with there own apologises.

3 ( +16 / -13 )

Why would it be expected for him to apologize? History shows Japan was developing nuclear weapons... Japan did as much damage to the world during the war as two bombs ever did. There are no winners in war.... stop playing the victim card.

4 ( +19 / -15 )

Nor should he.

3 ( +12 / -9 )

The nuking of H & N was the most disgusting and cowardly war crime ever committed. It was little more than a brutal and cynical live human experiment on women and children. The depravity and racism of the US government and military is apparent from Harry Truman`s demented giggling prior to his announcement of the mass murders at Hiroshima:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d42dMSAltnQ

See Kermit Beahan gloat as he claims responsibility for nuking the women and children of Nagasaki:

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

As Brig Gen. Carter W. Clarke, the officer in charge of preparing MAGIC intercepted cable summaries in 1945, 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 did not need to do it, and we knew we did not need to do it, and we knew that we knew we did not need to do it, we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs. "

As the historical record shows, six of the seven US WWII five star officers concluded that the nuking of hundreds of thousands of civilians was unnecessary. In fact, the nuking was one of the most brutal and cynical atrocities ever committed. As Admiral Chester W. Nimitz stated:

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

Truman`s own diaries show that he prolonged hostilities until the nukes were ready. We also know that he lied to the US public when he stated that Hiroshima was a "military target".

Prior to nuking Hiroshima, the US military had already obliterated over 60 Japanese cities with napalm and white phosphorous. This conclusively proves that Hiroshima and Nagasaki had little value other than as an opportunity for the US military to conduct nuke testing on human subjects.

In this connection, Paul Tibbets is on record as stating that Hiroshima was set aside as a "virgin" test city. Additionally, the primary targets at Hiroshima were residential in nature with the overwhelming majority of casualties being civilian. In fact, Hosokawa Elementary school was mere meters from the epicenter of the Hiroshima nuke strike. The fire-bombings and nuclear attacks on Japan were war crimes on par with the holocaust suffered by the Jews.

-2 ( +21 / -23 )

Japanese government has never demanded an apology to America. We know it is unproductive. Our attitude is "We do not repeat mistakes" which is inscribed in the memorial stone in Hroshima.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

Yes kerry and the USA should apologise for saving Japan from being overtaken by Russia. "NOT".The people pushing this are the simple fools.

-11 ( +5 / -16 )

Utorsa, Brilliant post. And I admire you for wanting to waste time in here...

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

if the Japanese are so big on apologises...

Where/when did they ask for an apology?

6 ( +11 / -5 )

Why should he offer an apology? Japan had it coming... Japan was the Nazi who started the war and raged mayhem first.

-1 ( +14 / -15 )

I guess the difference between opinions is between those who believe that the ends justify the means, and those that don't. There is no doubt that the end desired by the Americans was met - the war was ended and ended quick. Whether it was justified is a moral question for each person to decide between themselves, but don't expect others to agree with your morality no matter which side of the decision you fall.

Now that all said, sure it's too bad that all those civilians died (I think everyone is in agreement with that), but the fact is that Japan brought it upon itself. It's like if you keep provoking a mean dog. It's not supposed to attack you and bite your face off, but if it does, you only have yourself to blame for provoking it. Japan started it, and if they don't like the outcome, then they'd be best to remember that fact for the end of all time, to ensure that they don't do something to provoke such a response again.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

The Americans dropped the bombs to liberate the Japanese people from the clutches of the Imperial Japanese Army. If anything, Japanese should thank the Americans.

Thank the Americans? Why did it have to be A-bomb to end the war? The consequences of A-bomb has been inflicting much suffering on the people, and it continues from generation to generation.

I think that Kerry doesn't have to apologize, and that we shouldn't seek who was to blame or something as long as we learn from our past and understand how terrible A-bombs are. But, I just can't believe that you actually said Japanese should 'thank' the Americans and your comment has got thumbs-up.

0 ( +10 / -10 )

Both Gov's are trying to be grown up about the whole thing and move on. "Don't ask. Don't tell" Some people want to argue about who should visit/apologise first. Who provoked who. It finished. Over 70 years ago. We have a good relation now. Can we move on?

1 ( +6 / -5 )

He also said there was no Japanese effort to seek a U.S. apology, “nor is there any interest in reopening the question of blame for the sequence of events that culminated in the use of the atomic bomb.”

Hmm... And I wonder where all those posters who confidently asserted as fact that this visit was entirely a plot by Japan to present itself as a victim in order to get an apology out of the US are hiding.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

My remarks often get a lot of thumbs down. I wish both numbers of thumbs up and thumbs down are described. Suppose I got 10 thumbs down but that might be 50 thumbs down and 40 thumbs up. My impression will be very different.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Of course Kerry should not apologize. That is the president's job.

-10 ( +3 / -13 )

@cevin7

"Why did it have to be A-bomb to end the war?"

Because Japan ignored the Postdam surrender declaration 2 weeks earlier, and the rest of the world really, really wanted to the war to end as soon as possible.

3 ( +11 / -8 )

“If you are asking whether the secretary and I think all Americans and all Japanese are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes,” the [U.S.] official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.

It's inappropriate that a U.S. official refers to "all Japanese" in such a remark. In addition, it is not clear who he means by "our countrymen."

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

It's inappropriate that a U.S. official refers to "all Japanese" in such a remark.

I disagree that it's inappropriate, but I'm curious of your reasoning behind this statement.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Why should he? It was war. War is ugly, and WW2 had to come to an end, one way or another. I'll be in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, during the next two weeks, for several days each, for the first time in many trips to Japan, and while I feel deeply for the carnage caused by the A-bombs, it was that or continued warfare that would have killed many more, on both sides. How about we bet over it, and recognize that both sides had something greater to lose????

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Japan was wrong, wrong, wrong in its crimes against humanity, slaughtering nearly 20 million Chinese, most of them civilians, killing or causing death to millions of others in Asia; the Philippines, Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Pacific Islands, Australia, Burma and India. Kidnapping and forcing into sex slavery tens of thousands of women and girls as young as ten years old, putting civilians in occupied areas into slave labour, conducting human experiments on thousands of civilians and POW's, treating POW's as no better than vermin, abandoning the Geneva Convention and instituting a racist imperialist regime that rampaged throughout Asia and the Pacific bringing death and destruction in its wake. Dropping the Atom Bombs on Japan played a pivotal role in forcing Japan to surrender, ending the misery for millions and saving millions more lives. As ugly as it is to say, the decision to drop it was correct and brave. Good. Fine. Secretary Kerry is doing the right thing; Japan is doing the wrong thing by asking for an apology. Has Japan "apologized" annually since 1945 for the utterly ruthless death and destruction its empire inflicted on nation's it invaded and ravaged during WWII? So you want to revise history? Well, suppose the Pacific Allies invaded Japan's big island and laid waste to it? Utterly destroyed it; flattened Japan's economy and burned its people to more of a crisp than actually occurred. Suppose the Allies went for Japan's jugular..... But that is not what the Allies did. The two atomic bombs saved hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of casualties and fatalities. Oh, but Japan was about to surrender; no they were not, or if they were, that was not communicated to the Allies; or their overture did not seem genuine.

It's history. The Allies demanded unconditional surrender and finally got it...after two atomic bombs were dropped. How many allied military personnel...and then how many CIVILIANS was Japan's empire responsible for injuring or killing?

No. No apology for Japan. It is Japan who should be apologizing every year to a long list of countries it devastated during WWII.

-5 ( +10 / -15 )

He Definetly Shouldn't have to.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

Japanese survivors’ groups have campaigned for decades to bring leaders from the U.S. and other nuclear weapon states to see Hiroshima’s scars as part of a grassroots movement to abolish nuclear weapons.

I dont know why they always look outside to blame. They ask to ban nuclear weapons then the Fukushima disaster happens; true its not a weapon but still nuclear related and domestic.

There was a documentary on Japanese TV and one of the pilots or persons involved in the bombing visited Hiroshima and a Japanese victim was wailing and crying for him to apologize. He responded he would not, because he lost friends in the pearl harbor attack. It shut the guy up, but the whole victim mentality is disturbing for me. If Japan would of won the war, well now, all the atrocities they committed in the Emperors name were justified, as the rest of us are inferior and need to be schooled on the superior Imperial ways and lets get on with all becoming Japanese. Its when they loose, that oh now we are the victim and want sympathy. Ive seen this allot in Japan, this win/loose mentality without using any logic.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

utorsa is right. The reason for Japan's surrender was Russia, and the reason the US dropped the bombs was Russia. Russia was already at Japan's doorstep with Stalin honoring his promise made with FDR to aid on the Pacific front once Germany was taken care of. Japan feared a land invasion more than anything and was going to surrender anyway. They didn't even realize the true devastation of the bombs until much later. The bombs were overkill and nothing but a display and warning aimed at Stalin.

Growing up in the US, I was fed the story of the bombs being used to end the war quickly too, but read up on the history. FDR's death was a turning point and the beginnings of America's military industrial complex. FDR's VP pick was overlooked for the less-socialist, more pliable Truman who was basically a puppet to those bent on US dominance throughout the world. As terrible a dictator as Stalin was, he held a respect for FDR and his death followed by his successor's betrayal of trust led to the Cold War and all the turmoil in the Middle East, South America, Asia that entailed.

The US should definitely apologize. It might even set an example for Japan to apologize for what they did.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

@cevin7

I was parodying right wing Japanese's assertion that the IJA set out to liberate Asian countries from Western powers, even though strangely, that involved killing and maiming millions of civilian natives of those countries they were 'liberating'.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

No. No apology for Japan. It is Japan who should be apologizing every year

Japan didn't ask America to apologize, why do Americans think Japan is asking for an apology? Japan's is trying to spread the message to NOT repeat the same mistake (war), we're not talking about who is to blame.

sure Kerry doesn't need to apologize but it'd be nice if all the leaders from the world gather and spread the "no more war" message to the world. the "no more war" message is million times more powerful than a sorry.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Agreed

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Why would he apologize? The U.S. SAID they were going to drop nukes, if they didn't surrender. They had a chance to avoid it TWICE.

4 ( +10 / -6 )

He has nothing to do with bombing Japan

He is a guest. Welcome him as a guest.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

@Schopenhauer

America and Americans are very self righteous as much as arrogant - politically as well as individually. They are strong good and bad. They do not apologize to others or to foreign countries repeatedly

They didn't apologize for this.

Japanese government has never demanded an apology to America. We know it is unproductive. Our attitude is "We do not repeat mistakes" which is inscribed in the memorial stone in Hroshima.

Yeah, Hiroshima was just a random city that was chosen for this summit, right? But anyways, they wouldn't apologize even if the Japanese demanded it. Your first statement sounded it had resentment, which you then tried to hide with your second statement. Japanese people need to realize is that if they want any sort of apologies for Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo Fire Bombings and etc, then they should first apologize to the countries they invaded, which actually caused drastic measures like the A-bombs and etc to happen.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

At the Nagasaki A-bomb museum, there is a pictorial of WWII. Next to the picture of Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese bombing there, it says something like: "Dec 7, 1941 is when the Pacific War began." Somehow, the war just "began." Not that Japan bombed Hawaii, that it just "began."

Well, if "the Pacific War began," the A-bomb just "fell out of the sky."

10 ( +17 / -7 )

Kerry should not apologize. America did not start this war. If the Japanese at the time had the nuclear capability I have no doubt that they would have dropped one too.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

There was a documentary on Japanese TV and one of the pilots or persons involved in the bombing visited Hiroshima and a Japanese victim was wailing and crying for him to apologize. He responded he would not, because he lost friends in the pearl harbor attack

I think this is the same NHK documentary that I watched. If it is the same documentary, the man was Harold Agnew, a physicist and observer on the Hiroshima bombing mission. I believe he shot the only existing movie of the bombing seen from the air. Like you, I was very angry at what happened to Harold at the end of the documentary. However, he stood his ground and did not back down. I agree with you about Japan always playing the victim card. It is becoming pathetic.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

I don't get it with people who think the nukes were dropped for one reason, they were dropped for MANY reasons!

In no particular order:

To test them, YES YES YES obviously doh.

For the Russians, YES YES YES obviously doh.

To end the war, a MASSIVE YES YES YES doh!

etc etc etc

And lets not forget Japan is estimated to have killed 20-30million, the lower number works out to about 330,000 dead EVERY month for FIVE years running!

So in one month Japan typically killed more then the combined dead at Hiroshima & Nagasaki & THEN kept killing for another 59months at that pace!!

Japan was a real killing machine & to date STILL wont acknowledge what it did!!

Guess it goes without saying I don't think the US owes any apology, BUT watch Japan try & twist this visit after the fact....

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Nonsense, JeffLee. Japan had already sued for peace before Potsdam through the Swiss. The terms of surrender were exactly the terms agreed to after the bombings. You can read it in Truman's diaries in his own handwriting. The question is whether or not you have the intellectual curiosity to do it.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

For example, one suggests that the United States used the weapon in part to justify the extraordinary costs of the Manhattan Project to develop it.

Really? The bombs were dropped to end the war and Japan's imperial rule of Asia and aspirations of world domination. The true irony is, the US actually did Japan a favor by dropping the bombs. There were nearly two million Russian troops lined up on their eastern coast ready to sweep through Japan with orders to kill everybody. If the Naomi's had not been dropped, there is a good chance we would be reading this article in Russian.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

GW,

What is boils down to is, were the bombs necessary? Considering the war was essentially over, the reasons you listed aren't good enough reasons. I don't think there will ever be a good enough reason for wiping out entire cities and that many civilian lives so easily.

How Japan reacts and deals with their own atrocities is irrelevant to whether the US should apologize for their own. The US at least has the good sense not to rub it in their many victims' faces, but fully owning up is a better way of moving forward in the long run, and it would set a good example. Of course, we'd have to stop our continued interference in other parts of the world for it to be truly meaningful, but that's another topic.

Disillusioned,

There were nearly two million Russian troops lined up on their eastern coast ready to sweep through Japan with orders to kill everybody.

Exactly. They're the real reason Japan surrendered. At the time, Japan thought the nukes were no worse than the Tokyo bombings.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

What is boils down to is, were the bombs necessary? Considering the war was essentially over, the reasons you listed aren't good enough reasons. I don't think there will ever be a good enough reason for wiping out entire cities and that many civilian lives so easily.

So what your saying is once Japan was beat back to Japan & Japan says ok sorry were bad, can we call it a day & leave it at that, ........that's crazy & actually Japan was STILL willing to send its own off to death thinking it could NEGOTIATE, Japan was in NO POSITION to dictate ANY terms of surrender & in the end I think the US let Japan off with an awful LOT! The Emperor skated, many war criminals that were not convicted formed new leadership, on all Japans atrocities again Japan skated & has now for 70+yrs & counting, Japan got off incredibly easy for what it did & most cant even see that

And to top it off the yanks agreed to defend Japan which they still do to this day

1 ( +3 / -2 )

“I don’t think it is something absolutely necessary when we think of the future of the world and peace for our next generation,” Masahiro Arimai, a 71-year-old Hiroshima restaurant owner, said of an apology. Yoshifumi Sasaki, a 68-year-old, longtime resident, agreed: “We all want understanding.”

these two quotes from people living in hiroshima, both of whom i assume were there when the bomb exploded, really brings to contrast the demands made by the korean sex slaves. words will do nothing to heal the scars of the war or the pain that they suffered. finding peace with oneself is more important than hearing a few words from men or women who were not even to blame for the war.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

GW,

So what your saying is once Japan was beat back to Japan & Japan says ok sorry were bad

You're saying it's OK to wipe entire cities off the map? When they've already been beaten back?

that's crazy & actually Japan was STILL willing to send its own off to death thinking it could NEGOTIATE

Still willing to send soldiers, but not willing to be invaded. Remember this is the country that evaded the Mongols and believed they had divine protection. They weren't about to suffer the humiliation of a Russian invasion.

I think the US let Japan off with an awful LOT...

This has more to do with America's handling of the post-war situation. They allowed much of Japan's ruling elite to remain in power to prevent the communist movement that was spreading throughout Asia. The US screwed things up in a lot of the world in the name of fighting big bad Communism.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Yes, GW, what the Allies wanted was the unconditional Japanese surrender. Why? Because the WW1 armistice lead to the rise of Nazi Germany and WW2.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

The nuking of H & N was the most disgusting and cowardly war crime ever committed. It was little more than a brutal and cynical live human experiment on women and children.

I wonder if you stand in front of your mirror in the morning an throw up both of your arms and yell fanatically "TennoHeika Banzai" three times to start your day.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The Japanese do not teach their people about WW II. They refer to the war in terms of an aggression in which the Japanese were innocent victims. The Japanese people are completely clueless about the role of Japan leading up to and during the war. When they hear the truth, they have been taught that it is merely Western propaganda, as if Japan had no role whatsoever in the war, let alone the horrors they committed. There is no apology necessary. Japan started a war with the US on 12/7/41. The US finished it. Japan was never going to surrender even though they were defeated. Why apologize for saving millions of lives on both sides? A lot of people today may have never been born if the A-Bombs weren't used.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

With so many people dead, it will always bring strong emotions. There's no perfect way to describe it.

But the bigger picture is how quickly the US and Japan became allies. Obviously China and Japan have a long way to go to bury the anger so I don't support the view that anger will solve anything. People who teach that anger to their kids never move past anything.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

There was a documentary on Japanese TV and one of the pilots or persons involved in the bombing visited Hiroshima and a Japanese victim was wailing and crying for him to apologize. He responded he would not, because he lost friends in the pearl harbor attack

@5petals, @Guy Fawkes

Here is a link to that video (English/Japanese subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNxQpDcYHKU

In that video, they took advantage of Harold Agnew. The producers shamelessly painted Japan as the victim, while fully brushing aside Japan's role as aggressor. They even edited out painful truths where Harold talked specifically about Japan's atrocities in the Philippines and elsewhere.

I think John Kerry and Obama should not visit Hiroshima because, like this video, it is very likely that they will be taken advantage of to promote Japan's victim narrative.

It is well known that Foreign Minister Kishida and other members of the Abe government and the Nippon Kaigi are taking steps to rewrite history, denying atrocities committed by Japan, while speaking loud and clear about atrocities committed against Japanese people.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

Apologise for what? Starting the war, or ending it quicker then expected.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Kerry didn’t speak publicly at the ceremony, though could be seen with his arm around Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida,

This is a no touch culture. Did he not study anything before his visit?

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

0

CrisGerSan

I learned today from reading the news that Kerry refused to apologize for the nuclear holocaust that the US Armed forces and the President ordered to these two cities filled with innocent civilians. There was and Is no justification for such a barbaric act. I am appalled at the continued blind arrogance of the US Government. Though members of my own family including the Captain of the USS Arizona died in the war, I personally do apologize to the Japanese people for this horrible act. The bombs if they needed to be used could have been dropped on a vacant island off shore killing no one. Instead they were used in the most horrific way. I am very very sorry that this was done and I apologize now and forever to Japan for this. I am glad our countries now have good relations, but we the US need to learn to respect and honour other countries and be sincere and honest about our own mistakes not only in the present and the future but the past as well to show our good faith.

I pray for the hundreds of thousands who died in these bombs and the fire bombs as well none of which were justified. No matter what other countries do, our own must never indulge in such acts and must take responsiblity for them when they have occured.

Apr. 11, 2016 - 03:49PM JST

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

There are a lot here using the war crime imperial japanese army to validate the act of killing innocent civilian. thats what war is! the killing of mostly civilians, more than 60million people died during WW2, 2/3rds of those were civilians, the vast majority were not Japanese as many would like you think but Soviets/Jews Chinese Koreans. these deaths were the direct result of Hitlers Nazis and the IJA. these two powers were the representatives of Germany and Japan at the time whether there population like it or not. so if either of these two countries require an apology for the killing of its civilians then they should first apologise to every countries innocent civilians they slaughtered as well. good thing is Germany has repeatedly apologised for the deaths caused by Hitler and never asked for an apology in return, or expected to be treated like a victim. they face there history head on. sadly same cant be said of Japan

1 ( +3 / -2 )

You're saying it's OK to wipe entire cities off the map? When they've already been beaten back?

If your talking Japan Aug 1945 then YES! And need I remind you Japan DIDNT surrender after Hiroshima, a second nuke needed to be used THATS how crazy Imperial Japan was at THAT time, thankfully two was enough.

And if the situation was reversed with Japan having nukes, the only decisions would have been about when/where & how many do we need!

Let me say I get NO JOY typing these posts but it amazes me how dishonest Japan has been about all this for 70+yrs and counting, and reading the posts from people here who seem to have little knowledge of what Japan did...........

3 ( +5 / -2 )

And need I remind you Japan DIDNT surrender after Hiroshima, a second nuke needed to be used THATS how crazy Imperial Japan was at THAT time

There might be some argument for the first one (none I agree with), but there's no excuse for the second. Russia had officially declared war on Japan the day before. The US didn't even give them time to react. Many generals and experts at the time argued against the necessity of the either bomb, but Truman's pro-US military dominance advisors were bent on using them no matter what.

And if the situation was reversed with Japan having nukes, the only decisions would have been about when/where & how many do we need!

It's called taking the moral high ground. You kind of need it if you're going to ask other countries to stop doing bad things.

Let me say I get NO JOY typing these posts but it amazes me how dishonest Japan has been about all this for 70+yrs and counting

And I'm not defending Japan's dishonest white-washing and victim-playing. The US had no choice in entering the war, but we could've ended it on a better note and we didn't. There's nothing wrong with admitting that.

reading the posts from people here who seem to have little knowledge of what Japan did

Japan gets a lot of deserved criticism for their history education, but US schools have their fair share of white washing too. The difference is that we're exposed to a lot more vocal criticism in the US via books, TV, movies, domestic media, international media, etc. We have easier access to the truth if we're willing to look at it.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

in the war at that time there was limited knowledge as to what the bomb would do - or if it would go off.

that aside

there will not be an apology- but there should always be a respectful push to severely limit or stop all Nuclear Arms based on the history that Hiroshima and Nagasaki has presented to the world.

a push for an apology will not bring that dialogue, it will only open more dialogue regarding Japan's pacific war history

1 ( +2 / -1 )

MrBum, Japan is not white-washing. There was research by Americans to compare the history textbooks of Japan, US, China, SK, and they found that Japan's textbooks are the most objective, US is the next. Please read Japanese textbooks yourself. History look different from the other side, but that is not white-washing.

praack, Japan is not pushing for any apology.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

The US should definitely apologize. It might even set an example for Japan to apologize for what they did. No Japan should set the example first just like Germany, after all both countries were the aggressors. When and only when people are tired or had enough of hearing Japan heartfelt forgiveness then the apologise they secretly desire will come. asking the victors and victims of Japans aggressions to apologise first is just plain insulting

4 ( +5 / -1 )

@Schopenhauer

Pot calling the kettle black....

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Trouble:Total correct. the bombing was to have two effect on the outcome of the pacific war; The first was to deter Russian of evading the north of Japan and the other is to save many allies soldiers lives by forcing the Japan into total surrender and avoiding a land invasion.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

And regarding apologizes the people of Hiroshima haven't asked for one, instead we are seeking a visit by President Obama to push both nuclear disarmament forward and to show the world the power of reconciliation.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

As much as I would like a nuclear-free world going ahead into the future that is not being realistic Mr.Kerry! We consistently have politicians visiting memorials such as the one in Hiroshima and one would think they would have learned something by now!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Nonsense, JeffLee. Japan had already sued for peace before Potsdam through the Swiss."

No they didn't.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3397180?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Did you read Truman's diary and his response to Stalin, who answered the Japanese peace proposal?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

"Did you read Truman's diary and his response to Stalin, who answered the Japanese peace proposal?"

Did you read the link I posted, from a respected historian, which utterly defeats your claim?

Yes, I've read numerious entries in the diary, and you don't specify which one. I imagine you mean the one where the Japanese wanted a surrender on their own terms, which would have been a disaster. Anyway, the Soviets declared war on Japan on Aug. 8, so the whole thing would have failed anyway.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@trouble: his speech with he talking have beendisplayed every time big shots speak about Hiroshima. Have you ever watched before?

But it sure stopped war. Japanese Gov't does not want apology. I know why.. If USA apology, Japan have to apology every Asian countries and everywhere in each country. Japan has been helping these countries technologically instead. The talk said US embassy advised apology is not good idea and When you think how many places Japan will have to apology, stop such idea of apology.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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