Posted on 06/30/2007 7:49:10 AM PDT by weef
TOKYO — Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma said the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan by the United States during World War II was an inevitable way to end the war, a news report said Saturday.
"I understand that the bombing ended the war, and I think that it couldn't be helped," Kyodo News agency quoted Kyuma as saying in a speech at a university in Chiba, just east of Tokyo.
Kyuma's remarks drew immediate criticism from Japanese atomic bomb survivors.
"The U.S. justifies the bombings saying they saved many 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Well said Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma. A voice of reason in Japan, where too many still won’t face the truth of WWII.
I think the defense minister got it right. Not the victim guy.
But most Japanese I know (when they talk about it) would agree with the defense minister.
I’m kinda dreaming of an Iranian defense minister twenty years from now saying, “Yeah, George Bush nuked us back in 2007, but it couldn’t be helped, ‘cause we were such islamonazi a$$holes back then”...
Hey,American lives are the only lives of value in a situation like the Pacific war. he should be happy we didn’t target the Imperial Palace when we easily could have.
Scary is what it is. Tojo and his henchmen were evil on a par with Stalin and Hitler. Let no one forget.
The winning of war means PEACE not negotiations which never have ended in peace.
Nuff said.
shikata ga nai, ne
The Americans placed about as much value on Japanese lives as did Japan's military machine. If Miyake has a problem its with his own country's history.
Uh...it also saved several MILLION Japnese lives. Japnan was a victim...a victim of its own leaders and a victim of themselves for engaging in such a war of conquest.
they face the truth indirectly, they would NEVER wage war with America again.......
Kyuma is right.
Stalin was to invade the northern part of Japan. So these wonderful oriental gentlemen ought to be thankful there is not a DMZ seperating South Japan from North Japan, and NJ is home to millions of backwards, poor, hideously underfed short commies eating pine cones for fun.
It was the afternoon of August 5, 1945. To a group of six hundred army officers assigned to the Hiroshima garrison, Professor Yoshitaka Mimura of Hiroshima Bunri University, a theoretical physicist, was explaining the scientific possibilities of new weapons which might reverse the tide of war. Japan had little Navy or Air Force left. Within months a massive invasion of the home islands seemed likely. “Could you tell us, sir”, a young lieutenant colonel asked, “what an atomic bomb is? Is there any possibility that the bomb will be deployed by the end of this war?”
Mimura chalked a rough sketch on the blackboard to illustrate the [nuclear] reactions required. Scientists at Tokyo University, he explained, have “theoretically penetrated” the secrets of nuclear fission. If they could apply their theories practically, an atomic bomb “could be smaller than a piece of caramel candy, but, if exploded five hundred meters above a populated city, it could destroy 200,000 lives.”
“When can we have that bomb?” “Well, it is difficult to say”, Mimura answered, knowing nothing of any Japanese enterprise to apply fission theory to bomb-making. “But I can tell you this much: not before the end of this war.”
Japan also had an atomic bomb project. As did Germany.
given the way the japanese thought, without the bombs that war would have taken a considerably higher toll on the japanese before the war would have ended
But... but... we went into those places and didn't find any WMDs! We entered WWII based on lies!!! /moonbattery
Japan is the country that performed medical experiments on live prisoners of war. They used female prisoners as ‘’comfort women.’’ Japan got what it had coming. They were not innocent victims.
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."
It's cr@p like that why .....
(never mind, I don't want to be banned.)
Japanese are an amazing island people. But no way did this hyperactive ant colony have enough people to subjugate Asia and take on the USA. By subjugate Asia I mean take over it’s oil and natural resources. Not to rule over all Asia
In the “secret history” (aka “tin foil hats”) community, there is some belief that Japs actually exploded their own nuke before the end of the war.
Have to wonder where they got the idea that they would be the size of a caramel candy, though; I think somebody misplaced a decimal point...
Germany did. Japan did not.
Hey just last week they denied that the rape of Nanking happened.
Aw, she was asking for it. Did you see how she was dressed?
By 1940, they had a pretty good start on it.
>> Japan also had an atomic bomb project. As did Germany.
And Japan set off “something” a few days after Nagasaki,
on an island off what is now North Korea. We probably
won’t know fer shure until PRK collapses, and the area
can be tested for residuals.
> But... but... we went into those places and didn’t find any WMDs!
Don’t be too sure. We wrecked a lot of Japanese nuke
stuff when the occupation began. Not sure all of it
was reported to the public.
The lack of an organization name made me curious as to who exactly this "Nobu Miyake" is. It turns out that he appears to be a lawyer located in the heart of Japan's government environs in Nagatacho. (Read "K Street" for the American equivalent. Interestingly enough, it appears from his biographical information that he also worked in Washington, D.C. at Mudge, Rose.)
Not to be cynical, but I would point out that when such a lawyer starts labelling "victims", it isn't always just out of touching concern for humanity.
The atomic bombs also saved many Japanese lives. The devastation and loss of life from an American invasion of the home islands would have been apocalyptic for Japan. I’d wager that most Japanese alike today would not have been if the bombings had not forced them to surrender.
Japan was the perp.
It's like the mother that cries foul when her son, in the midst of an armed robbery in a crowded store - taking aim at a former military man - was shot dead by said military man: "He was a good boy. He had no right to shoot him."
When it whittles down to the bottom line - i,e, thousands more are going to die. Will it be the attackers or the attacked?
In the Defense Chief's words, I see a glimmer of hope - just maybe people and countries can look at things objectively, learn from them and, thereby, take a tiny step forward in the annals of mankind, instead of incessantly having to repeat the lessons because they went unlearned
Dream on. He doesn't even have the balls to increase sanctions. The man has lost his gonads.
>>>>Japan is a victim<<<<
Don’t bring a Zero to a Nuclear Bomb fight.
1 plane 1 bomb accomplished what 350 B-29’s were already doing to Tokyo with the firebomb raids.
LOL
hey, just put the word ‘black’ in the line and Al and Jesse will be right on it
Further, what would the effect on Japan have been had the Soviets really entered the war against them?
Japan had better count their blessings. The war they started would have still been ended, but at far higher cost to them than was the case.
They featured an old Army guy who fought his way all accross the pacific ocean and somehow lived to tell the tale.
They asked him about the atomic bombing of Japan. I can still quote him word-for-word.
"It was a pay-back for Pearl Harbor. And I hope that those (long pause) little people remember it!"
>> Dream on. He doesn’t even have the balls to increase sanctions. The man has lost his gonads.
Agreed. The operative word here is, “dream”.
It saved many American *and* Japanese lives.
More than just 11 million - it is far more likely that the Allies would have been forced to all but exterminate the Japanese people, due to the fanatical nature of the culture at the time. Every man, woman, and child able to carry a weapon over there would have attacked us, and the slaughter would have been unbelievable.
If you don’t think so, just read some of their pre-war literature. The highest goal of most Japanese was to die honorably, and preferably in battle.
It also saved the remainder of the country from being levelled with the ongoing incendiary bombing campaign which had severely damaged many cities already.
You've been to New Jersey, huh? Which exit?
Japan’s nuke project was located in what is now N Kor. They would have tested nearby if they tested. Present N Kor was the industrial heart of Korea.
Yes, that's certainly my experience also.
I think the news media, generally out great ignorance of any subject outside of popular entertainment, somehow feel obligated to find an "other side" in any news article that somehow doesn't square with their left-wing beliefs.
The equivalent to me would be something like a foreign reporter reporting on the U.S. who somehow felt compelled to find a LaRouchite every time that the subject of the Queen of England came up.
O.K. Let's rephrase that.
"The U.S. justifies the bombings saying they saved many Japanese lives."
Years later, on a business trip to Kyoto, I had a meeting with one of Japan's preeiminent material scientists. He treated me to lunch, (nagi) and during lunch, he revealed that, as a young army officer, he had been one of the first persons who went into Hiroshima after the bombing.
After I explained that, at the time, I was an "aka-chan", and my only recollection of the time was a hazy memory of adult comments about some sort of "secret weapon" being used, he said this:
"That was an awesome weapon. If Nippon had had it, Tojo Hideki undoubtedly would have used it on Los angeles and San Francisco. As you can see, I survived my trip into the devastation. Conversely, I almost certainly would not have survived the forthcoming U.S. invasion. You might say that the A-bombs made it possible for us to enjoy this lunch together."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can't get a much more personal observation and knowledgable opinion than that!
???
They also had a number of jet aircraft including a few high speed bombers..
I have never understood the significance of the manner of death in a war. Atomic bomb or conventional bomb, war is war, death is death. I would posit that an instantaneous nuclear death is far more humane than dying slowly under the resulting rubble of a conventional bomb explosion. To win a war, you must break the enemy’s will to fight. This can be accomplished in an extended bloody campaign or in a blinding flash of light. Either way, people die. The Hiroshima/Nagasaki debate is ludicrous. The anti-war crowd always calls to end war. The atomic bombs did just that.
My Dad managed to survive Okinawa and Iwo Jima. His unit was being prepared for the invasion of Japan when they dropped the bombs. He always said that if they had invaded he and most of his unit would not have survived. He thought the fighting would have been much worse than what they had seen to that point as they would have been fighting the civilian population as well as the military. He never forgave the Japanese and was grateful the bombs were used.
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