posted on June 30, 2007 10:59:03 PM new
Looks like even in Japan, one is not free from the PC police. lol
Japanese Official: A-Bomb Was Inevitable
Jul 1, 12:28 AM (ET)
TOKYO (AP) - Japan's defense minister said Saturday that the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II was an inevitable way to end the war.
Fumio Kyuma's comments drew sharp criticism from survivors, and some opposition lawmakers called for his dismissal. He later apologized, saying Sunday that "I am sorry if my comments gave the impression I disrespect the victims."
The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II, in the world's only nuclear attacks.
Kyuma, who is from Nagasaki, said the bombing caused great suffering in the city. Part of his speech Saturday was aired by public broadcaster NHK.
"I understand that the bombing ended the war, and I think that it couldn't be helped," Kyuma said in the speech at a university in Chiba, just east of Tokyo.
He also said he did not resent the U.S. because the bombs prevented the Soviet Union from entering the war with Japan, according to Kyodo News agency.
The remarks, rare for a Japanese Cabinet minister, were quickly criticized by atomic bomb victims.
On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped a bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000 people in the world's first atomic bomb attack. Three days later, it dropped another atomic bomb, "Fat Man," on Nagasaki. City officials say about 74,000 died.
Japan, which had attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945.
Bombing survivors have developed various illnesses from radiation exposure, including cancer and liver diseases.
"The U.S. justifies the bombings saying they saved American lives," said Nobuo Miyake, 78, director-general of a group of victims living in Tokyo. "It's outrageous for a Japanese politician to voice such thinking. Japan is a victim."
Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue was quoted as saying by Kyodo, "The use of nuclear weapons constitutes the indiscriminate massacre of ordinary citizens, and it cannot be justified for any reason."
Opposition Social Democratic Party called for Kyuma's dismissal.
"We will question Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe's appointment of him and we will call for the minister's dismissal," said Tomoko Abe, a party policy chief, during a political program on network station TV Asahi Sunday before the reported apology.
The prime minister tried to play down Kyuma's comments.
"I understand he explained American views in those days," Abe was quoted as saying by Kyodo. "At any rate, it is Japan's mission to abolish nuclear weapons and Japan is playing a key role at the U.N.," he said, according to Kyodo.
In America, the bombings are widely seen as a weapon of last resort against an enemy that was determined to fight to the death but instead surrendered unconditionally, six days after Nagasaki was attacked.
Critics - including many Japanese and also some Americans - believe President Truman's government had other motives: a wish to test a terrifying weapon and the need to strengthen Washington's hand against Moscow in what would become the Cold War.
In January, Kyuma called the U.S. decision to invade Iraq a "mistake" because it was based on the false premise that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Kyuma later said those remarks, too, were misinterpreted. He said he meant to say that he thought at the time that the United States needed to be "more cautious."
Associated Press
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"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on July 2, 2007 03:38:33 PM new
It is kind of hard for whackos to right revisionist history here.
Japan goes on war of conquest.
Bumps off a few million people.
Attacks the US. (real geniuses.)
bumps off a few more million people.
Hiroshima incinerated.
Military cabinet votes to fight on.
Nagasaki incinerated.
Emperor prepares speech of capitulation.
Some troops attempt coup to stop broadcast.
If a damn clerk at the National Broadcast office hadn't hidden the recording, they'd have a few more incinerated cities.
posted on July 3, 2007 12:51:41 AM new
lol and agreed, desquirrel.
=======================================
But they'll keep trying to silence those who speak up about how it DID work to solve the problem. Or if they give ANY inclination that America had no choice but to use drastic measures....the anti-war folk/pacifists will crucify them for saying so.
To speak out lately appears to mean losing ones job....etc....because they've angered those who wish to never have the story told in the first place. Forget all the lives it SAVED, on both sides, only one side should EVER be presented.
Heck even with N.korea now testing their missiles....Japan IS considering changing the established policy they put in place after WWII. And I personally support them doing so.
posted on July 3, 2007 07:41:03 AM new
"""To speak out lately appears to mean losing ones job....etc....because they've angered those who wish to never have the story told in the first place""""
posted on July 4, 2007 12:17:43 AM new
As expected....the PC police won out.
Japan Official Resigns Over Bomb Remarks
By ERIC TALMADGE
Associated Press Writer
July 3, 2007, 2:34 PM EDT
TOKYO -- Japan's defense minister resigned Tuesday after suggesting the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were inevitable, a remark that stirred furious criticism in a nation where many consider the attacks an unjustified slaughter of civilians.
Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma, a native of Nagasaki, said he did not mean to condone the 1945 bombings, which Washington has argued were necessary to end World War II without a potentially bloody land invasion.
"I just meant that there was nothing we could do about it," he said after tendering his resignation to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose administration has seen its popularity plunge ahead of parliamentary elections this month. "I don't think people understood what I meant."
He hit a very sore nerve, however.
Kyuma's comments generated angry criticism from survivors of the bombings, opposition lawmakers and fellow Cabinet members. The mayor of Nagasaki was among the most vocal critics, telling Kyuma to stay away from a ceremony marking the bombing anniversary next month and saying the comment "tramples on the feelings of A-bomb victims."
In a speech Saturday, Kyuma said the atomic bombings caused great suffering. But he added that Japan would have otherwise kept fighting and ended up losing a greater part of its northern territory to the Soviet Union, which invaded Manchuria on the day Nagasaki was bombed.
"I understand that the bombings ended the war, and I think that it couldn't be helped," he said.
Though Kyuma's statement was similar to the interpretation in the United States that the bombings hastened the war's end and thus saved lives, it contradicted the generally held Japanese stance that the use of nuclear weapons is never acceptable.
A ban on possession of such weapons is a hallowed tenet of Japan's postwar pacifist policies. Kyuma's remarks were slammed as both a tacit acceptance of the U.S. decision in 1945 and of the use of nuclear weapons in general.
"Abe should have said this is outrageous," said Tomoaki Iwai, a political scientist at Nihon University. "The atomic bombings are something that Japanese people can never forgive."
Kyuma was succeeded by National Security Adviser Yuriko Koike, the first woman to assume the defense portfolio in Japan.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Kyuma's resignation was an internal matter for Japan. But he said the United States looked forward to working with Japan's first female defense minister.
Since Abe assumed office last September, controversies over World War II have become front-and-center issues.
Abe himself was the focus of international ire for denying that Japan forced "comfort women" to work at front-line brothels during the war, despite historical evidence to the contrary. And a large faction within Abe's party is rallying for a re-evaluation of the Rape of Nanking, in which the Chinese claim as many as 300,000 people were slaughtered.
The atomic bombings are an even more delicate matter.
On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped a bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000 people in the world's first atomic bomb attack. Three days later, the U.S. dropped another atomic bomb, "Fat Man," on Nagasaki, where about 74,000 are estimated to have been killed.
Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945.
Abe has not made his own position on the bombings public, saying instead that Kyuma "caused misunderstandings" with his remarks.
Koike, Kyuma's successor, also carefully avoided the topic in her first meeting with reporters.
"Japan wants to continue to be a leader toward nuclear abolishment," she said.
Kyuma was among the most outspoken of Abe's Cabinet ministers.
