Hiroshima survivor Hashizume Bun stands next to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in 2011 (AFP Photo/Madeleine Pradel)
AFP: Hiroshima atomic bomb victims want apology from Obama
Tokyo (AFP) - Victims of the atomic bombings of Japan want an apology from US President Barack Obama when he visits Hiroshima next week, the head of a survivors' group said Thursday.
Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, where the first atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, killing about 140,000 people in total.
Tens of thousands were killed by the fireball that the powerful Hiroshima blast generated, with many more succumbing to injuries or illnesses caused by radiation in the weeks, months and years afterwards.
Vast swathes of the city, including many of its military and industrial installations, were flattened.
The southern city of Nagasaki was hit by a second bomb days later, killing 74,000 people, in one of the final acts of World War II.
Read more ....
Update #1: A-Bomb Survivors Want Obama to Meet, Apologize in Hiroshima -- AP
Update #2: Hiroshima victims want Obama apology (The Hill)
WNU Editor: Not going to happen. An American apology would enrage the rest of Asia who are still fuming that Japan has not properly apologized and/or recognized the destruction that it caused before and during the Second World War. And as much as President Obama may want to apologize .... the disrespect and anger that will be directed at him from everyone else in Asia if he should do this is something that he does not want his Asian legacy to be remembered about.
3 comments:
WNU,
President Obama wants to apologize, these people want him to apologize, American wants to apologize, but are afraid of the reparations that likely would follow as well the even torrential flood of anti-Americanism that would ensue from such a move as America's enemies would smell even greater weakness seeing an opportunity to pile on even more.
In America, what really happened is irrelevant now. The American people have been subjected to much messaging about how bad this was and that America needs to apologize to Japan.
You had posted on this before and stated that much of Asia does not feel the United States owes Japan an apology. I would suggest that they please speak up, if this is the case. As it is, this POTUS or any future POTUS assuming this one does not issue the apology now will face growing pressure that will only multiply exponentially to apologize. Even now he is likely facing enormous pressure to apologize.
Again, these folks who don't think America should apologize and think Japan should do more to apologize or do something should PLEASE SPEAK UP. It's important that all information is presented so informed decisions can be made.
I don't agree with the suggestion that President Obama apologize. It was total war. Maybe Japanese planes weren't laying waste to American cities but it was only for lack of capability. It is relevant how Japan behaved in other Asian countries during the war, again, it was clearly total war.
The US killed nearly as many from conventional bombs in Tokyo as well, where is the call for apology there?
The question is that the U.S. government was divided among who want to show the power of the bomb in a inhabited but well visible area first, and who want to sudden hit a city with the bomb.
Obviously the terrorist option is the chose.
If U.S. apologize may start a chain of requests for others from different country (China, Korea, Japan, Philippine, Vietnam, ecc.) maybe, but if some of those country can't pose the necessity, the rancor remain, and in the future easily bear nasty fruits.
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