By I don’t really have a problem with this as long as the US ambassador doesn’t start getting into apology mode:
Today’s ceremony commemorating the 65th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima had something new: the presence of the U.S. ambassador to Japan. Never before had America sent an official participant in the annual memorial to those killed in the world’s first atomic attack. That this should occur during the administration of Barack Obama is no surprise. No previous American president has been at such pains to apologize for what he thinks are America’s sins. So while, thankfully, Ambassador John Roos did not speak at the Hiroshima event, the import of his presence there was undeniable.
In theory, there ought to be nothing wrong with an American representative appearing in Hiroshima. Mourning the loss of so many lives in the bombing is both understandable and appropriate. But the problem lies in the way Japan remembers World War II. One of the reasons why it would have been appropriate for the United States to avoid its official presence at this ceremony is that the Japanese have never taken full responsibility for their own conduct during the war that the Hiroshima bombing helped end. Indeed, to listen to the Japanese, their involvement in the war sounds limited to the incineration of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the fire bombings of many other urban centers in the country, followed by a humiliating American occupation. The horror of the two nuclear bombs didn’t just wipe out two cities and force Japan’s government to finally bow to the inevitable and surrender. For 65 years it has served as a magic event that has erased from the collective memory of the Japanese people the vicious aggression and countless war crimes committed against not only the Allied powers but also the peoples of Asia who fell under their cruel rule in the 1930s and 1940s. The bombing of Hiroshima was horrible, but it ought not, as it has for all these years, to serve as an excuse for the Japanese people to forget the crimes their government and armed forces committed throughout their empire during the years that preceded the dropping of the first nuclear bomb. [Commentary Magazine]
You can read the rest at the link, but I recommend everyone read my prior posting about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. I also recommend checking out pictures from my visit to the Trinity Site where the first atomic bomb was tested. I also recommend checking out my posting on my visit to the Yasukuni Shrine where the whitewashing of Japan’s Imperial past is quite evident.
10:16 pm on August 6th, 2010 1
I heard his visit bombed.
10:18 pm on August 6th, 2010 2
Sure, go the ceremony of an event that America cold bloodedly murdered hundreds of thousands of civilian people.
I would love to see that.
10:33 pm on August 6th, 2010 3
#2 Tommy boy, Now you're just showing how uneducated you are. You really have already made THAT point.
11:10 pm on August 6th, 2010 4
Leon,
"I heard his visit bombed."
Maybe his judgment was (mushroom) clouded.
Tom,
You realize… for the ambassador, it wasn't a memorial ceremony, it was a victory celebration…
…and a reminder that America was once had real leadership that was less concerned with satisfying the loudest whiners and more concerned with doing what had to be done…
…with, arguably, fantastic long-term results for everyone involved, in this case.
1:13 am on August 7th, 2010 5
If it wasn't for the US bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Liberation Day would have come a lot later.
8:22 am on August 7th, 2010 6
Just think. If the conditions of the treaty we signed with Japan not only allowed them to keep their emperor but keep Korea, we may have avoided the Korean War.
10:02 am on August 7th, 2010 7
One thing I don't know, and I'd like to know, is how public opinion in Asian countries reacted to the news of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
10:29 am on August 7th, 2010 8
I see no problem as long as the Japanese want him there, if he is not a distraction, the ceremony is conducted and speakers speak with dignity and respect and not turn it into an anti-US freak show. It is equally important that he express no regret and does not apologize. The Japanese themselves lit the fuse that blew up their cities and they know it.
10:33 am on August 7th, 2010 9
#7
Seeing as how most of them were being occupied by the Japanese, the reaction was probably overwhelmingly positive.
How did Japan conquer so much larger countries like China? They had vastly superior military and weapons. Many of them probably witness or knew of mass killings at the hands of the Japanese.
Many couldn't comprehend what an atomic bomb was. They just knew it was a new weapon in the inevitable escalation or war weapons that could cause massive killings of Japanese.
If the Japanese had developed it first, is there any question that thy would have used it?
Near the end of the movie, Empire in the Sun, the young British boy, Jim (the Christian Bale character) in occupied China, observes a bright light on the horizon. Later he hears a radio broadcast describing the atomic weapon attack.
10:37 am on August 7th, 2010 10
correction: Empire of the Sun
12:37 pm on August 7th, 2010 11
For the record, if anyone wants to look it up, the Japanese during WWII, or the Pacific war, lost approximately 580,000 civilians including those at Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the fire bombings of Tokyo.
The Chinese lost up to 16,000,000 civilians due to the Japanese,(thats millions, not a misquote and often used as the lowest number killed) India, 1.5-2.0 million civilians. Dutch East indies 3.0- 4.0 million, Malaya, 100,000. Philippenes 500,00 -1,000,000, Singapore 50,000.
I have no guilt over dropping the atomic bombs that brought Japan to its knees.
Tom, maybe you could tell all those in China how inhuman the Americans were for dropping the bombs, eh?