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.

[Bolograph]

It would not have been easy to get the weapon to Tokyo and decapitating the government would have left surrender a very uncertain business: it was Hirohito's personal intervention which ended the war anyway.

[Bolograph]

Oh, and OP, decimated rather underplays it. If only the death toll had been that low.

[ThisCakeFilledIsle]

Watch out for a rewriting of this part of history. Check out Rupert Wingfield Hayes's bbc online article on Hiroshima which had to be modified after historian Antony Beevor's complaint was upheld. ( That is in March 2016's bbc complaint adjudications.)

[vvviola]

I think that was why they ruled out Niigata also (although that was the way the story was told when I lived just outside the city, and I have since learned to be skeptical of the various versions of history I was told in my time in Japan).

[Bolograph]

I told colleagues I was going to Hiroshima and they immediately assumed the floating temple. Younger people told me japanese education until quite recently stopped in about 1920 and didn't restart until 1955. Between those dates was rather hazy.

[mathanxiety]

Truman made the correct strategic decision. It was correct on all sides - he had got the measure of Stalin and he understood the toll that invasion of the home islands would take.

I don't think there should be an apology. It took two bombs for the Japanese to surrender. The junta was willing to carry on after the first one, and also, as Bolograph said, after they saw the effects of firebombing. Kamikaze pilots had demonstrated the intense resistance the US was likely to encounter on the home islands.

The Japanese still have not come to grips with the issue of 'comfort women'.

I don't think there should be an apology for Dresden or any other firebombing of German cities either.

[Bolograph]

I had not seen that adjudication. Wow.

[Bolograph]

You can make a case Dresden was pointless. The source work is Rv Jones' memoirs, which point out that by late 1944 a strategic bombing campaign against oil would have shortened the war. The allies got into area bombing because precision bombing was not possible in 1941. But it was later: pff, oboe, air supremacy. So they could have switched back to strategic targets and stopped the war by early 1945. But that is post war analysis. They had hit too good at area bombing (hence the firestorms) but didn"t realise the implications.

[mathanxiety]

Palmtree, your grandfather's diary sounds like a stunning document. How brilliant to have it, and how courageous he was to keep it. Have your family ever considered having it published?

He and his comrades were right in their speculation about the Soviets. They annexed the disputed Kuril Islands later in 1945.

(Kyoto was dismissed from the target list because of its historical/architectural/cultural significance iirc. The argument for removing it from the list included a point about the danger of turning Japanese sentiment towards the USSR as a result of what might be seen as wanton destruction of a sacred place.)

[VulcanWoman]

Here's an idea, what about Obama on behalf of the United States saying sorry to all the people that suffered due to the bombs being dropped. What they did whether right or wrong, doesn't me they can't apologise for the suffering. The same goes for the Japanese, then maybe we can move forward.

[KaRsKiN]

Personally I'd rather Obama apologise to the innocent people of the world that have been killed as a result of drone strikes and other means during his term in office. The ones that he's responsible for.

[RandyMagnum]

He shouldn't apologise, had nothing to do with him. Plus, conventional war on the mainland islands would have killed many more people, on all sides. Casualty numbers at places like the Philippines and Okinawa were immense, the Japanese people weren't going to give it up easy.

[Hidingtonothing]

I honestly don't get this concept of holding an entire country responsible (for all eternity it would seem) for the decisions of its government at that time. Even democratically elected governments have free reign once in power until the next election and the people of that country will not necessarily agree with all the decisions made during that governments term of office. It just seems ludicrous to me that people who had no involvement should be expected to apologise for the actions of their country as a whole. Is that not the way terrorists justify attacks on innocent people, blaming foreign policy and past political decisions for killing and maiming ordinary folk who had no part and no say in the things they are 'protesting' about? So no, I don't think Obama should apologise and I don't think America as a whole should 'take ownership', the responsibility lies with those in power at the time, no one else.

[Palmtree]

Mathanxiety thank you. As with so many of his contemporaries, he never, ever, spoke about the war afterwards. I don't think Obama needs to apologise.

[calamityjam]

As a granddaughter of a POW who worked on the Burma railway, I feel that my grandfather and his peers would not welcome any apology. In 1998 the Japanese made a very half arsed attempt at an apology to all POWs which was late coming as many had died of old age. My nanna was given a pittence compensation and I think I am entitled to an all expenses paid 2 weeks tour of Japan as a grandchild of a POW. Apart from all this, if governments start to apologise for historical acts of war, where will this end? will this set a precedence for other nations asking for apologies from current governments for actions taken in times gone by, when in reality we cannot know every detail of the thinking behind the action which was taken in a totally different world to how ours is today.

[LikeDylanInTheMovies]

Vulcan Obama isn't talking as Joe Blogs, he is speaking as the President of the USA and an apology is tantamount to saying that his predecessor did something morally wrong and the actions of the us government reprehensible.

[Turbinaria]

OP then perhaps the Japanese premier would like to apologise to China, Malaysia, Korea and Singapore for their wartime atrocities. You really need to read up on your history such as 'The Rape of Nanking' before you start spouting shite

[VulcanWoman]

Vulcan Obama isn't talking as Joe Blogs, he is speaking as the President of the USA and an apology is tantamount to saying that his predecessor did something morally wrong and the actions of the us government reprehensible.
I don't agree with that, I believe you can be sorry for the suffering caused.
On the news, Obama and the old man embraced, we have to do this and move forward, we have to or else we'll be stuck, this doesn't mean forgetting but forgiving. We must never forget, hopefully to stop it ever happening again.

[Furiosa]

Do the Japanese even want an apology? Surely any apology for atrocities committed to them would only highlight the deafening silence on their end regarding their own participation in unspeakable acts of violence?

I would have thought Japan would rather keep this stuff in the past.

[BadLad]

Prominent Japanese politicians deny Nanking, let alone apologise for it.

The Atomic Bomb museums are actually quite fair and objective. The war museum at Yasukuni Shrine, however, insists that Japan fought a defensive war intended to liberate Asia.

[CaveMum]

calamity I know someone who is married to the son of an ex POW, who died at the age of 96 last year. One of her daughters took up the opportunity to go to Japan when she was 16 under that arrangement. By all accounts she had a wonderful time and the elderly couple she stayed with went to the effort of learning English just for her visit.

[Samcro]

icouldabeenacontender Fri 27-May-16 14:45:03
My grandad was a POW in Burma.
I can give you a definite NO to your question.


theres the reason why he shouldn't

[Turbinaria]

Ive been to the Hiroshima atomic bomb museum and do not deny the suffering of ordinary the Japanese following the event however no where in the museum does it tell you what Japan had done during the war to cause the Allies to take the action they did. I came out of it thinking it was very one sided and designed to evoke sympathy for the Japanese with its calls for world peace and no more Hiroshimas/ Nagasakis

The Japanese and the Nazis were the main aggressors during the Second World War the difference is the Germans have acknowledge their actions but the Japanese still play the victim with their bloody yearly worship of the Yaskuni shrine by politicians and their right wing facist supporters. The people buried at that shrine are acknowledged by the rest of the world as war criminals same as Joseph Mengeles but they are held up by some right wing Japanese and their politicians as martyrs. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_Yasukuni_Shrine

And yes I have relatives who died at the hands of the Japanese imperial army in WW2 in the most horrible ways imaginable

[icouldabeenacontender]

Museum at the remains of The Bridge on the River Kwai is very much a fingers in their ears singing la-la-la fiasco also.
(Disclaimer) 20 years since I've been.

[HappenstanceMarmite]

OP then perhaps the Japanese premier would like to apologise to China, Malaysia, Korea and Singapore for their wartime atrocities.

Yes I agree. I think all nations should be held accountable and apologise for their respective acts of horror.