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Japanese Defense Chief: Atomic Bombing 'Couldn't Be Helped'
FoxNews.com ^ | 6/30/2007 | AP

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 ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: atomicbomb; geopolitics; hiroshima; history; japan; nagasaki; smithsonian; wwii
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To: YOUGOTIT
It also saved the lives of approximately 11,000,000 Japanese. Plus over 1,000,000 Americans. And it allowed Japan to be a free country.

It also saved the remainder of the country from being levelled with the ongoing incendiary bombing campaign which had severely damaged many cities already.

41 posted on 06/30/2007 8:50:55 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: junta
and NJ is home to millions of backwards, poor, hideously underfed short commies eating pine cones for fun.

You've been to New Jersey, huh? Which exit?

42 posted on 06/30/2007 8:51:06 AM PDT by sten
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To: Boundless

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.


43 posted on 06/30/2007 8:56:56 AM PDT by RightWhale (It's Brecht's donkey, not mine)
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To: Nervous Tick
But most Japanese I know (when they talk about it) would agree with the defense minister.

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.

44 posted on 06/30/2007 8:59:03 AM PDT by snowsislander
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To: weef
"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."

O.K. Let's rephrase that.

"The U.S. justifies the bombings saying they saved many Japanese lives."

Operation Downfall was the overall Allied plan for the invasion of Japan at the end of World War II..........Casualty predictions varied widely, but were extremely high for both sides: depending on the degree to which Japanese civilians resisted the invasion, estimates ran into the millions for American casualties[1] and the tens of millions for Japanese casualties.

45 posted on 06/30/2007 9:05:08 AM PDT by Polybius
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To: rbg81; B-Chan; weef
I lived in Japan for three years, (during the '60s) and I developed as deep and abiding love for the Japanese people.

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!

46 posted on 06/30/2007 9:10:49 AM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...)
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To: B-Chan

???


47 posted on 06/30/2007 9:14:21 AM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: RightWhale

They also had a number of jet aircraft including a few high speed bombers..


48 posted on 06/30/2007 9:16:24 AM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: weef

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.


49 posted on 06/30/2007 9:17:38 AM PDT by Right Brother
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To: weef

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.


50 posted on 06/30/2007 9:18:07 AM PDT by A Strict Constructionist (The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.)
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To: sheik yerbouty

That might be. Quite likely. They were running out of experienced pilots.


51 posted on 06/30/2007 9:18:17 AM PDT by RightWhale (It's Brecht's donkey, not mine)
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To: weef
Of course it was inevitable and anyone who doesn't think so is in denial. If a country has a wonder weapon that will end the war and prevent a huge loss of their own soldiers are they not going to use that weapon? If Japan or Germany had atomic bombs, does anyone believe that they would have not used them?

Given the nature of war, one that had seen the use of massive fire bombing campaigns against both German and Japanese cities, what would be different about dropping an atomic bomb? Death by poisonous gas, by fire, by any number of ways is still death and that's the point. Causing the death of those you are fighting against is a proven way to stop a war. Do it often enough and your opponent will almost always want to stop fighting.

52 posted on 06/30/2007 9:19:27 AM PDT by GBA (God Bless America!)
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To: weef

“Japan is a victim.”

Japan started the war and fought in a savage and inhumane manner against all who stood in their way. They could have surrendered earlier when defeat was inevetiable but instead readied themselves to defend to the last man, woman, and child at home. We would have lost hundreds of thousands in taking them out. They left us no choice.


53 posted on 06/30/2007 9:21:18 AM PDT by SmoothTalker
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To: weef

“”The U.S. justifies the bombings saying they saved many American live”

Probably also saved a lot of Japanese lives too. They would have fought to the end had we landed.


54 posted on 06/30/2007 9:22:05 AM PDT by SmoothTalker
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To: Polybius
Interesting stat at the bottom of the summary. The US manufactured so many Purple Heart medals in anticipation of the invasion of Japan that we’re still using this stockpile of medals in Iraq & Afghanistan.
55 posted on 06/30/2007 9:28:27 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: Gay State Conservative; Spktyr; Smokin' Joe; Polybius; LibKill; theBuckwheat; ckilmer; ...
See the "up-close and personal observation by a Japanese Army officer -- in #46...
56 posted on 06/30/2007 9:31:32 AM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...)
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To: TXnMA

Sagamihara & Yokohama, 1951-1961. Army brat.


57 posted on 06/30/2007 9:40:33 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Yokota 1961-1964 — USAF “spook” outfit...


58 posted on 06/30/2007 9:47:32 AM PDT by TXnMA ("Allah": Satan's current alias...)
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To: Boundless
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 big Japanese site I know of was in what is now North Korea. Which was occupied by the Soviets in August 1945.

The site, the scientists, the technicians all disappeared into the maw of the NKVD and never returned.

59 posted on 06/30/2007 9:56:11 AM PDT by Cheburashka (Occam's razor. It doesn't work 100% of the time, but 99%+ is not too shabby.)
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To: sheik yerbouty; B-Chan
My knowledge of Japanese is meager at best, but "shikata ga nai" means something like "it couldn't be helped". Dunno what the "ne" at the end might confer.
60 posted on 06/30/2007 10:24:55 AM PDT by Joe Brower (Sheep have three speeds: "graze", "stampede" and "cower".)
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