politics

Kerry's visit to Hiroshima grabbing spotlight at G-7 meeting

31 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

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31 Comments
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We, foreign people, can read many time through comments that Japanese learn and think they are the victims. In any country in Europe, saying that Japan government during WWII was a fair country is history denial, punished by law. My wife is Japanese and indeed learned to never discuss this topic. My Japanese colleagues never hinted to express bad role played by IJA.

Everyone wishes the atomic bombings not to have been necessary. But it was without single doubt. One does not exchange the life of one friend against 10 unknown people part of system meant to kill you.

You can forgive definitively only the one who has open his mind.

So far history is repeating.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Declaring war and broadcasting intent to attack are completely different.

No shit. Follow the thread.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ridiculous comment. Please tell me one nation that has proclaimed when and where they're gonna attack after declaring war.

Declaring war and broadcasting intent to attack are completely different. Nonetheless I'm of the opinion that Kerry shouldn't go to Hiroshima without some reciprocation from other Japanese leaders (by visiting Manila, the Death Railway etc)

1 ( +3 / -2 )

US has nothing to apologize about... The Imperial Army was wildly out of control!

Want proof? Take a look at the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department (関東軍防疫給水部本部) that was stationed in China!

If you got the stomach for it, here is the stuff that horror movies are made of.... Unit 713

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

It was planned that after 1 month of the Nuclear bombing, the Imperial Army was going Kamikaze attack the West Coast of the US with biological insect warfare.

This extremely sick, wide spread human experimental vivisection department that was under direct orders from the Empire of Japan should be more than enough reason to deem this Royal Family INVALID.... They are the DIRECT REASON OF THE NUCLEAR BOMBING AND SICKNESS OF WW2!

I honestly do not know any other incident in history that is more appalling..... nor do I know of horror movie that comes close.....

3 ( +5 / -2 )

the fleet that attacked pearl harbour left in total radio silence aka in stealth, they maintained that all the way up to the day of the attack, if thats not a sneak attack then I dont know what is,

Ridiculous comment

Please tell me one nation that has proclaimed when and where they're gonna attack after declaring war.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

@Schopenhauer

Do American textbooks at their schools tell that the atomic bombs were used in Japan to put an end to the war soon?

Yes.

We Japanese do not believe the excuse they use as a primary reason.

Yeah yeah, Japan was innocent in all of this.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Thanks, Moonraker. Most people around the world don't believe their lie (least of all the people who the Japanese claim to have been helping...ironic that).

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@wtfjapan

Yes... the Americans were very clever at Midway.

The Japanese made a lot of bad mistakes there.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

the fleet that attacked pearl harbour left in total radio silence aka in stealth, they maintained that all the way up to the day of the attack, if thats not a sneak attack then I dont know what is, but hey the US got them back with the own sneak attack in the battle of midway, the loses by the Japanese navy in that battle hurt them for the rest of the war. the Japanese navy way outgunned the US navy at the time, it was superior US tactics and many bad decisions by the J navy that cost them the pacific war.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

paulinusaAPR. 09, 2016 - 10:28AM JST He can express sympathy while not having to apologize. How about that?

It's hardly something he can aplogize for - Japan was hell bent on destruction of its self and every America it could until no one was left. What would you have done?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I thought historians have proven that 1. Japan declared war before the attack yet technical problems occurred in recieving the massage. 2. Foreknowledge of the attack was known yet DC decided to not send the warning.

That's correct. Japan sent the message but US said it arrived late.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Uhm... nobody is saying in the article anyone is demanding an apology from US about the bombs. It specifically says they aren't. They just want the visibility a high-profile visit will bring to the atrocities of a nuclear bomb. You guys sure like to go down the rabbit hole pretty fast.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Please notice that China doesn't care....in my own opinion, I'd say Shinzo Abe ought to go take a bow at Nanking before Obama does the same at Hiroshima since everyone wants to bring up the past and acknowledge past actions as mistakes.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

It was matter of time Japan surrendered without the war. once again you know sweet F all about WW2 , so if there was no war Japan would of just claimed all of asian PNG , AAustralia, NZ. and when its forces had consumed all the resources of those countries it would of attacked America. The IJA was a cancer , just like Hitlers Nazis, it was the allies that had to cut these cancers out before they spread all over the world, and i dont know of any way that could have stopped them without the use of force/WAR!

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

unlike the sneaky attack on Pearl Harbor.

I thought historians have proven that 1. Japan declared war before the attack yet technical problems occurred in recieving the massage. 2. Foreknowledge of the attack was known yet DC decided to not send the warning.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

It was not only the nuke bombs that not necessary but the war itself. Yes Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, but that was because US stopped food/oil/material supply to Japan. It was matter of time Japan surrendered without the war.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Japan had been repeatedly asked to surrender, which it refused to do. You didn't heed the warning, you suffer the consequences.

Don't anyone put this on the Americans. At least they had the decency to forewarn the Japanese what was coming, unlike the sneaky attack on Pearl Harbor.

'Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945—the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction".'

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

There were six, five-star officers in the US military at the end of the war. Five stated that the bombing was unnecessary and did nothing to end the war. Japan was going to surrender when Russia entered the war, and that was what happened.

The "saved a millions lives" line was made up by Truman at a hotel years later because he was continually hounded by the press that the bombing of innocent civilians was "unAmerican."

0 ( +8 / -8 )

Nagasaki and Hiroshima are imo 2 of the worse atrocities committed in the name of freedom. The free world certainly didn't win on these days.

Incorrect the US & its allies won BIG TIME after those bombings! The war quickly ended a MASSIVE PLUS for ALL concerned, simple fact!

Now Japan has estimated killing between 20-30million during WWII, lets use the lower end, 20million, from 1940-1945(even though it ended in Aug).

So over 60months, 5 years Japan killed about 333,000 people PER MONTH, EVERY MONTH for 5 YEARS NON-STOP! One hell of an atrocity that, and it doesn't include wounded, survivors...........and 70yrs & counting Japan denies most of it................

Just saying

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Good stuff, Moonraker. Thanks.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Tsuboi, who survived the bombing despite severe injuries that left him unconscious for weeks, says he has long since lost a desire to seek an apology from the U.S

Still think an official apology from any us government post ww2 would have been great and may have filled the void between so called 'good' vs evil. There is no good nor purely evil people in this world, we are all capable of the worse.

Nagasaki and Hiroshima are imo 2 of the worse atrocities committed in the name of freedom. The free world certainly didn't win on these days.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

He can express sympathy while not having to apologize. How about that?

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Healing better than blaming. Admitting who started war with attacks on pearl harbor better than hiding in dark rooms of history. Brave Kerry. Boo rightwing nationalists of Japan.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Unfortunately, having Kerry visit Hiroshima will be used politically by the powers that be. There is a prevailing revisionist attitude among many politicians (and maybe society at large) which seeps through and is troubling. This visit will somehow make many Japanese feel redeemed of what the country did during the war.

Moon,

Kishida (and many of his oyaji chums) is the Japanese equivalent of Holocaust deniers. In most societies, such people are considered somewhat deluded and are not really taken seriously. Laughable that this is not the case in Japan.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

I wanted to jump on the "They started it, so we finished it" bandwagon, but I stopped for a sec. Estimates are that almost a quarter of a million civilians were killed (within the first 2-4 months) by the atomic bombs, and another 100,000 in the Tokyo fire bombings. Maybe it's about time we start healing instead of blaming.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Just over a week ago Japan passed laws that would allow its troops to fight along with its allies for the first time, and now, the highest ranking American will visit Hiroshima. I wonder, if going forward a Japanese troop dies alongside with an American in a conflict, will the U.S. President visit too. Sometimes we need to share new wounds to heal the old.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The world's press covering this event might like to know that Fumio Kishida belongs to the 自民党歴史検討委員会 (Liberal Democratic Party Committee for Historical Investigation) - "The central assertion of the group is that the “Greater East Asia War” was not a war of aggression but rather a war to free Asia from Euro-American imperialism.” He also belongs to 日本会議国会議員懇談会 (Nippon Kaigi -Diet Representative ‘Japan Conference’ Round-Table) "dedicated to popularizing conservative ideas – constitutional revision, moral education, the centrality of the imperial family in Japanese history and culture, and respect for the flag and anthem.” He also belongs to 日本の前途と歴史教科書を考える議員の会 (Diet Member Group for Considering Japan’s Future and History Textbooks) and 神道政治連盟国会議員懇談会 (Shinto Political Alliance Diet Member’s Roundtable).

11 ( +15 / -4 )

American learn about A bomb more than text books. From Las Vegas kBlvd. People go to east and attend atomic bomb experience theater. The show simulate dropped feelings. I don't know how many times you young Japanese visited Hiroshima but US ambassador Kenney periodically visit both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in Nagasaki she visit GenbakuKoji who spent entire their life in Genbaku Hospital. Stop blaming all Americans. Truman ordered. Blame Truman, not other Americans. And learn more.

10 ( +13 / -3 )

"Next week, Secretary of State John Kerry will become the highest-ranking American government official to visit Hiroshima, where 140,000 Japanese died from the first of two atomic bombs dropped by the U.S. in the closing days of World War II more than 70 years ago."

How do they know it was 140,000?? I think the numbers are grossly exaggerated by the nation (sound familiar, guys?). And why is this history still being brought up when it was over 70 years ago? Why do they keep asking heads of state to come and acknowledge it instead of just letting it go already so that the nations can move forward on the issue?

See? Sounds pretty awful and ridiculous when you hear it coming towards you instead of when you're just the one spouting it, eh?

I'm glad Kerry is going, and hope a president does in the future. But right now is not the time as it will be used mainly for right-wing propaganda purposes.

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

Do American textbooks at their schools tell that the atomic bombs were used in Japan to put an end to the war soon? All Americans do not fail to say so when asked about the bomings. We Japanese do not believe the excuse they use as a primary reason. However. we do not do a rude thing like placing a statue of the victims in front of the American embassy in Tokyo.

-3 ( +11 / -14 )

Make sure you tell them why your country used those A-bombs Mr. Kerry. They weren't the only victims of war. I don't think he has the spine though.

4 ( +13 / -9 )

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