mavik comments

There were many discussions over invasion plans prior to dropping the bombs. Most estimations were that combined casualties would exceed over 1 million between Americans and Japanese in the event of an actual invasion of the Japanese mainland. The Japanese Military was sworn to fight to the last man and many civilians were of a mindset by tradition to do the same. Basically the death toll from the 2 bombs was less than that would would have happened if there had been an actual invasion. The number of Japanese deaths was considerably less than the deaths inflicted upon the Allies, China and Korea by the Japanese Army. The deaths from the 2 bombs and all the other bombing raids on Japan belong squarely on the shoulders of the Japanese military and the Emperor, nowhere else. It had nothing to do with 'racist feelings' about the Japanese. I have spent time in Japan and only have fond memories of my stays and the Japanese people, however, I would not wanted to have been there during the years 1941-1946 and I personally thought dropping the first bomb off shore near Tokyo Bay might have been enough to send a message. But then I was only 5 years old back when it happened and who listens to a 5 year old.

Wouldn't it be a simple fix to the whole issue just to move the 14 "convicted war criminals" to another site so the Shrine would be cleansed of their affiliation and allow the other thousands of war dead to be remembered by their relatives? The stigma of the 14 shouldn't overshadow the thousands who were also their victims and others who had no relationship to WWII. Then the Chinese should be asked to apologize for the 20 million or so they killed during one of their purges and I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't some skeleton in the Korean National Closet that shouldn't be apologized for.