The U.S. delegation will not offer an apology for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki when it attends a ceremony in Japan on Friday marking the 65th anniversary of the attacks, which brought World War II to an end.
State Department spokesman Noel Clay said no apology will be offered by the delegation, to be led by U.S. Ambassador John Roos, at the ceremony in Hiroshima.
Gene Tibbets, son of Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., seen here, says Friday's visit to Hiroshima by U.S. Ambassador John Roos is an act of contrition that his late father would never have approved.
The U.S. delegation will not offer an apology for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki when it attends a ceremony in Japan on Friday marking the 65th anniversary of the attacks, which brought World War II to an end.
State Department spokesman Noel Clay said no apology will be offered by the
delegation, to be led by U.S. Ambassador John Roos, at the ceremony in Hiroshima.
"As Assistant Secretary [P.J.] Crowley stated, at this particular point, we thought it was the right thing to do," Clay said in an e-mail on Thursday. "Ambassador Roos will attend the ceremony to express respect for all the victims of World War II. From the tragedy of that war, the U.S. and Japan have become close friends and allies. We must continue to work together to ensure that such a tragedy does not happen again."
Some survivors of the bombing had indicated that they hoped Roos would offer an apology at the ceremony.
Terumi Tanaka, who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki at age 13 and is now secretary-general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Associations, said the "best thing" the delegation could do would be to apologize for the two bombings, which killed roughly 220,000 people.
"We welcome the visit," he told The Associated Press. "But without an apology, it is difficult for us. We aren't asking for reparations. We simply want the U.S. to apologize and get rid of its nuclear arsenal."
"We want America to get rid of all nukes!" Now doesn't that just figure. Some other things come to me out of this, including, did the government consider making the apology or did the Japanese ask them to make it?
The son of one of the men who dropped a bomb said that we were apologizing just by being there. I don't know. Maybe he's right.
On the IMAO post, which is where I first learned about this, one of the commentors pointed out that the Japanese haven't apologized for Pearl Harbor yet. It's a good point, and I'd like to add one more: where's our apology for the Bataan Death March? I don't think the Japanese have to much of a right to be after an apology.
One more thing: just in case Obummer doesn't know about this yet, let's not tell him that no one's apologizing until after this memorial is over.
It is hard to wrap one's mind around the fact that the bombs ultimately saved lives. An invasion of Japan would have cost so many more lives. I am saddened by the deaths of all people during the war. But an apology? Where is their apology. Why is it always on us.
ReplyDeleteTrue. I went back to IMAO later and saw on another post a discussion people were having about whther or not dropping the bomb was the right thing to do. Someone said that since Japan would have never invaded America, we shouldn't have done it. But they invaded everything around them, and I think dropping that bomb efectively stopped the war and saved lives, like you said. (And the less we speak of what the Japanese did to POWs during WW2, the better.)
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