To think Obama SHOULD apologise to the people of Japan?

[HappenstanceMarmite]

For his country decimating Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Yes, he wasn't personally responsible. But I believe a heartfelt apology - and the taking of ownership for his country's atrocity - would mean a lot to the victims' families ...and all of Japan actually.

[TheEntWife]

How conversant are you with the actions of Japan during the war?

[CaveMum]

Did you know that there were plans to execute every single Japanese prisoner of war? Without the bombs, as awful as they were, thousands of men would have been murdered.

Japan was not prepared to surrender at that stage and there could have been months or even years of fighting, costing hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides.

[DrDreReturns]

Well - it was either use the atomic bombs or lose a similar or greater number of American servicemen. A no brainer for Truman.

[Quimby]

Apologise for swiftly ending the war

[P1nkP0ppy]

Stuff that OP.
The atrocities inflicted on POWs was every bit as horrifying and I don't think that the Japanese have ever apologised for their hideous ordeals.
I knew three former POWs and their stories of what happened were beyond belief.

[Helmetbymidnight]

What happened was so dreadfully sad.

I'm glad Obama is visiting but I don't see the need for an apology now. The Japanese people I know, and the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki tend not to feel as though they are owed an American apology either (obviously not speaking for everyone)

[ChoudeBruxelles]

Maybe when Japan apologies for their awful treatment of military and non military personnel

[Bolograph]

Any alternative history idea in which the war with Japan ends with less than twice the casualties in Japan is bolloxks. Japan would have been reduced to the Stone Age by a mixture of conventional bombing and operation starvation (look it up) prior to a very bloody invasion in 1946 or 1947, which would have killed a lot more Americans and British. Japan was only shocked into surrender by the atomic bombs (plural: Hiroshima wasn't enough to alter thinking). The idea that operations starvation and meetinghouse (the fire bombing of Tokyo which killed more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki) were enough to bring Japan to surrender is ahistorical.

[GreenishMe]

Japan was not prepared to surrender at that stage and there could have been months or even years of fighting, costing hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides

I'm a bit sceptical about whether it was necessary.....particularly the 2nd bomb, after only 3 days. I wonder if the opportunity to see the real effects on real cities and real people played a part in that decision.

Whether it was necessary or not IMO it still ranks highly amongst some of history's most inhumane acts.

[scarednoob]

No, I don't think so, for reasons set out above by PPs. That said, it is still sickening to think of it, so many dead. Such a hideous waste of life, on both sides.

And the thought of it happening elsewhere in the world today, given what else is going on in the news, is a sleepless night kind of worry too.

[FreckledLeopard]

If you have any idea of how the Japanese treated its enemies and prisoners of war, I don't think you'd be quite so keen for the Americans to apologise. The Rape of Nanking en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre is one of many atrocities committed by the Japanese.

Dropping the bombs was the only way to end the war quickly. Yes, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were horrific. Yes, thousands of innocent people died. But otherwise, even more people would likely have died.

[LikeDylanInTheMovies]

enter
Japs ????

Given Japan's determination to fight to the last man woman or child a land invasion of Japan would have cost many more Japanese and Allied lives than dropping two atomic bombs.

Given that Japan entered the war by an unprovoked attack on pearl harbour and conducted the war in a brutal and almost sadistic manner as evidenced in their treatment of allied prisoners of war it beggars belief that anyone should expect an apology from the US head of state to his Japanese counterpart.

[Bolograph]

.particularly the 2nd bomb, after only 3 days. I wonder if the opportunity to see the real effects on real cities and real people played a part in that decision.

The war cabinet did not even bother to meet for three days, and had decided to do nothing until news of Nagasaki came through and the emperor took action. The source work is "Japan's longest day" by the Pacific war research group, who had access to some of the principals in the 1960s.

It's also worth thinking how many people were dying each day from the prosecution of the conventional war plus the effects of operation starvation.

[Bolograph]

Obama apologising to Japan would give Donald trump a 50 state landslide. Clinton might be able to make her defeat slightly less humiliating by immediately denouncing it, which might get her one state. Might.

[HappenstanceMarmite]

Yes, of course I am aware of Japan's atrocities. I am of an age that the War wasn't too long in the past when I was growing up. I still don't think that two wrongs make a right.

But, as it is clear I am alone in my thoughts, I will let it rest there and agree to disagree.

[Abraid2]

They didn't understand about the future effects of radiation as we do now. And frankly, the casualties immediately after didn't look so very bad in comparison with the fire bombing of Tokyo, the leveling of Berlin and Hamburg and Dresden.

[CoolforKittyCats]

Yes YABU for all the reasons pp have said

[CaveMum]

Where I live now has a large number of former Japanese POWs and their families, as the local regiment was sent to the Far East during the war. If you had heard their stories and how many of them continued to have horrific nightmares until the day they died you might think differently.

Look also at the issue of "comfort women" to see how the Japanese treated women at the time.

[EveryoneElsie]

What CaveMum said. An uncle of mine was in a POW camp in Burma. He was never the same afterwards.

Japan refuses to apologise for its behaviour towards POW's, 'comfort women', and its human rights abuses, so no, Obama should not apologise.

Did you know Japan had its own 'mengeles' style medical experiments?

[PotOfYoghurt]

Good god Freckled that was horrifically upsetting reading. I knew little about what happened, and certainly nothing to that extent. Jesus Christ.

[Tiggeryoubastard]

Why would he apologise for them doing what they thought was the most sensible and humane, thing to do in the circumstances. What a ridiculously naive (and I'm being kind here) load of shite you're spouting.

[GreenishMe]

But, as it is clear I am alone in my thoughts, I will let it rest there and agree to disagree

I doubt you'll be allowed to Happen