Lest we forget

For 1st time, U.S. official attends Hiroshima ceremony
Originally published: August 6, 2010 6:11 PM
By CHICO HARLAN. The Washington Post

SEOUL, South Korea - With a U.S. delegation in attendance for the first time, a Japanese ceremony Friday commemorating history's first atomic bomb attack coincided with renewed hopes that President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki, something no sitting U.S. president has done.

In what Japanese officials described as a significant first step, U.S. Ambassador John Roos represented Washington at the anniversary event at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park, 65 years after a U.S. bomb leveled the city, killing roughly 140,000. Three days after Hiroshima, a bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed an estimated 80,000 people. Japan surrendered six days later, ending World War II.

By several measurements, this year's ceremony was the biggest yet: Representatives from a record 74 countries showed up. Britain and France participated for the first time, as did UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

In a speech, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan described a "new momentum" toward nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation. He attributed that to Obama, who in April 2009 spoke of a "world without nuclear weapons," and who four months ago hosted world leaders at a nuclear summit in Washington.

U.S. unease with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorations has long prodded at a sensitive spot in an otherwise enduring alliance. And despite recent diplomatic wrangling over the relocation of a U.S. air base on Okinawa, Obama remains a popular figure in Japan. According to The Associated Press, Obama T-shirts were on sale Friday at the Peace Park's museum.

Obama has said he is open to visiting Hiroshima or Nagasaki. However, he declined an invitation last year, citing his busy schedule. His planned visit to Japan in November is likely to prompt another invitation - especially at a time when the average atomic bomb survivor is 76. "It is up to the United States to ultimately decide on it," Kan said, "and I would like to refrain from making any remarks that would lead to prejudgment."

Roos had visited Hiroshima once before, although not on the Aug. 6 anniversary. Roos did not speak at the event, but the U.S. Embassy in Japan released a statement in which he called for continued work toward nuclear disarmament "for the sake of future generations." The statement added that Japan and the United States "share a common goal of advancing President Obama's vision of a world without nuclear weapons."

The anniversary comes as Japan faces its own debate about the need for protection under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. The latest provocations from nuclear-capable North Korea have caused a spike in regional tensions. And although Japan has extensive ties with China, Tokyo is also wary of the rapid Chinese military expansion.
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Nagasaki marks 65th anniversary of US atomic bomb
Updated: August 9, 2010 10:20 AM
By The Associated Press
SHINO YUASA (Associated Press Writer)

TOKYO - (AP) — The Japanese city of Nagasaki marked the 65th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bomb attack on Monday with a record 32 countries attending — but no American representative.

A moment of silence was observed at 11:02 a.m., the time when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the southern Japanese city on Aug. 9, 1945, in the waning days of World War II.

Nagasaki was flattened three days after the United States detonated its first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. About 80,000 people were killed in Nagasaki, while some 140,000 people were killed or died within months in Hiroshima. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II.

The Nagasaki ceremony began with a chorus of aging survivors of the atomic bombing and Mayor Tomihisa Taue calling for a nuclear-free world.

"Nagasaki, together with Hiroshima, will continue to make the utmost efforts until the world gets rid of all nuclear weapons," he said.

While the United States sent Ambassador John Roos as the country's first delegate to Friday's memorial ceremony in Hiroshima, it did not dispatch a representative to the Nagasaki anniversary.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Monday the ambassador could not attend the Nagasaki ceremony due to schedule conflicts. The U.S. envoy recently called the city's mayor to tell him he hopes to visit Nagasaki in the future, according to the embassy.

A Nagasaki city official said delegations from a record 32 countries, including nuclear powers Britain and France, attended Monday's ceremony.

The United States decided to drop the bombs because Washington believed it would hasten the end of the war and avert the need to wage prolonged and bloody land battles on Japan's main island. That concern was heightened by Japan's desperate efforts to control outlying islands such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa as the Allies closed in.

Apart from Roos, former President Jimmy Carter visited Hiroshima's Peace Museum in 1984, years after he was out of office. The highest-ranking American to visit while in office is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who went in 2008. Roos also visited Hiroshima soon after assuming his post last year.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nagasaki-marks-65th-anniversary-of-us-atomic-bomb-1.2190132

I do believe that it was done to hasten the end of the war, a war we were forced into by the Japanese.

Do Freedom of Information Act Files Prove FDR Had Foreknowledge of Pearl Harbor?
March 11, 2002
Robert B. Stinnett, Douglas Cirignano


An Interview with Robert B. Stinnett by Douglas Cirignano

On November 25, 1941 Japan’s Admiral Yamamoto sent a radio message to the group of Japanese warships that would attack Pearl Harbor on December 7. Newly released naval records prove that from November 17 to 25 the United States Navy intercepted eighty-three messages that Yamamoto sent to his carriers. Part of the November 25 message read: “...the task force, keeping its movements strictly secret and maintaining close guard against submarines and aircraft, shall advance into Hawaiian waters, and upon the very opening of hostilities shall attack the main force of the United States fleet in Hawaii and deal it a mortal blow...”

One might wonder if the theory that President Franklin Roosevelt had a foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack would have been alluded to in this summer’s movie, Pearl Harbor. Since World War II many people have suspected that Washington knew the attack was coming. When Thomas Dewey was running for president against Roosevelt in 1944 he found out about America’s ability to intercept Japan’s radio messages, and thought this knowledge would enable him to defeat the popular FDR. In the fall of that year, Dewey planned a series of speeches charging FDR with foreknowledge of the attack. Ultimately, General George Marshall, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, persuaded Dewey not to make the speeches. Japan’s naval leaders did not realize America had cracked their codes, and Dewey’s speeches could have sacrificed America’s code-breaking advantage. So, Dewey said nothing, and in November FDR was elected president for the fourth time.

Now, though, according to Robert Stinnett, author of Simon & Schuster’s Day Of Deceit, we have the proof. Stinnett’s book is dedicated to Congressman John Moss, the author of America’s Freedom of Information Act. According to Stinnett, the answers to the mysteries of Pearl Harbor can be found in the extraordinary number of documents he was able to attain through Freedom of Information Act requests. Cable after cable of decryptions, scores of military messages that America was intercepting, clearly showed that Japanese ships were preparing for war and heading straight for Hawaii. Stinnett, an author, journalist, and World War II veteran, spent sixteen years delving into the National Archives. He poured over more than 200,000 documents, and conducted dozens of interviews. This meticulous research led Stinnet to a firmly held conclusion: FDR knew.

“Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars,” was Roosevelt’s famous campaign statement of 1940. He wasn’t being ingenuous. FDR’s military and State Department leaders were agreeing that a victorious Nazi Germany would threaten the national security of the United States. In White House meetings the strong feeling was that America needed a call to action. This is not what the public wanted, though. Eighty to ninety percent of the American people wanted nothing to do with Europe’s war. So, according to Stinnett, Roosevelt provoked Japan to attack us, let it happen at Pearl Harbor, and thus galvanized the country to war. Many who came into contact with Roosevelt during that time hinted that FDR wasn’t being forthright about his intentions in Europe. After the attack, on the Sunday evening of December 7, 1941, Roosevelt had a brief meeting in the White House with Edward R. Murrow, the famed journalist, and William Donovan, the founder of the Office of Strategic Services. Later Donovan told an assistant that he believed FDR welcomed the attack and didn’t seem surprised. The only thing Roosevelt seemed to care about, Donovan felt, was if the public would now support a declaration of war. According to Day Of Deceit, in October 1940 FDR adopted a specific strategy to incite Japan to commit an overt act of war. Part of the strategy was to move America’s Pacific fleet out of California and anchor it in Pearl Harbor. Admiral James Richardson, the commander of the Pacific fleet, strongly opposed keeping the ships in harm’s way in Hawaii. He expressed this to Roosevelt, and so the President relieved him of his command. Later Richardson quoted Roosevelt as saying: “Sooner or later the Japanese will commit an overt act against the United States and the nation will be willing to enter the war.”

To those who believe that government conspiracies can’t possibly happen, Day Of Deceit could prove to them otherwise. Stinnett’s well-documented book makes a convincing case that the highest officials of the government—including the highest official—fooled and deceived millions of Americans about one of the most important days in the history of the country.


http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=408

From that inferno rose the first mushroom cloud ever, on planet Earth.

America remains the only country to use the atomic bomb on a population, so, in that sense, many see it as "original sin".

It was a terrible thing to do to civilians, mainly women and children, when the enemy was already beaten and trying desperately to surrender, demanding only that they keep their emperor.

You can’t help but think that, more than anything, the dropping of the "bomb" on Hiroshima and three days later another on Nagasaki was motivated by revenge for Pearl Harbour.

Personally, I have never felt that the bombing of Hiroshima was "revenge for Pearl Harbor". I do believe that it was done to hasten the end of the war, a war we were forced into by the Japanese. However, I also feel it was a morally reprehensible act, given that such horrific destruction was directed at a helpless civilian population.

I feel that even more strongly about the bombing of Nagasaki, for which I have never been able to find sufficient justification in my own mind.

War and morality are often at odds with each other. And I also think our view of the situation now is tempered more with reason than was likely the case in 1945. We wanted that war over. And the dropping of those bombs did achieve that objective. The bombing of Hiroshima might have been strategically necessary at the time, to stop the war, but that does not mean it was fully morally justified. Nagasaki was in no way justified, not even to end the war. Just threatening the use of another bomb at that point should have sufficed to end the war without dropping another one. And lives, on both sides, were saved by ending the war.

They are lucky they surrendered in time to avoid the third bomb.

Oralloy wrote:

They are lucky they surrendered in time to avoid the third bomb.

Now you're just making things up, as you so often do.

We are lucky that they decided to surrender without calling our bluff--we had no third bomb to drop on them.

after the Hiroshima attack, Paul Tibbets took him aside and told him:
. . .
Delivery of the third bomb was several weeks away."

Setanta is quite correct -- after we nuked Nagasaki, we had used up all our ammo, so to speak.

When Japan made their conditional surrender offer, shipment of the plutonium pit was delayed a few days to give them some breathing room, but even with the delay the third bomb would have been dropped around August 20-21.

EDIT: Leaving aside that i'll take Tibbet's testimony over yours any day, you're making more things up. At the end of 1945, there were only two bombs in our atomic arsenal, not the three you claim were available in September. Once again, you make things up, and i've seen you do it again and again. . . .

Bite me, you puffed up delusional lunatic. Why don't you go fellate your hand guns, and leave the grown-ups to discuss serious matters?

how about, Lets We Forget, and move on