Posted on Aug 7, 2015
Should the United States apologize to Japan for dropping the atomic bomb?
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Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the United States using the first atomic bomb dropping it on Japan, many news organizations and individuals recognized this historic event. A post by one of my friends caught my eye “…why Japan had apologized for its wartime atrocities repeatedly, but the people of Japan had never received an apology for the dropping of two atomic bombs.” Should the United States apologize for the use of atomic weapons that ultimately ended World War II?
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 131
No. The decisions made by our leaders then, who are now long dead, determined that the threat they posed was too great to ignore. It's like apologizing for flattening most of the major cities in Germany. This day and age when we as a country feel the need to "apologize" for everything due to this political correctness or sensitivity is crap. War is something that is calculates the risk vs. rewards. We weighed the risk and rewards, and determined that it was appropriate to respond with a bomb. Haven't had any issues with Japan 70 years. Looking for similar references, look at Pershing's actions with the Muslims or Vlad Dracul of Romania. Such atrocities forced certain parties to avoid conflict for a very long time. Sometimes brutality guarantees a lasting peace.
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SGT David Ewers, You tell us whether they should be forgiven. I lost an Uncle at Pearl, and another on the Bataan March. They started it with their strategic plans at Pearl. We ended it with our strategic plans at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. They liked playing dirty? We liked it also, but ours saved lives.
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SGT (Join to see)
PO3 Donald Murphy - I'm trying to find out. I sent a text to one of my cousins who should know.
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SGT (Join to see)
PO3 Donald Murphy - My cousin replied and I was wrong. He wasn't killed in Pearl. He was killed in North Africa when a bomber he was on crashed. Sorry for the wrong place. He is still one of my heroes. Here's his gravestone and obit.
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We do not need to apologize for ending the war and saving hundreds of thousands of lives (U.S. and Japanese). We did not wait for a reason. In order to gain surrender, we had to convince Japan that we had a virtually unlimited inventory of the devices. There were at least three more in the pipeline that we cancelled. I think the government of Japan should thank us for not dropping the rest of them.
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Never. It's bad enough that the United States rebuilt their country and now we're selling ours to them.
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Absolutely not! The Japanese bombed us at Pearl Harbor and brought it upon their heads with their aggression and atrocities in the Pacific.
Had the Japanese developed the bomb first, they would have used it offensively against us. As it was, a conventional attack on Japan would have resulted in many more casualties -- both American and their own civilian population. The two bombs we dropped brought the war to a swift conclusion, saving more lives than those killed by the bombs.
Had the Japanese developed the bomb first, they would have used it offensively against us. As it was, a conventional attack on Japan would have resulted in many more casualties -- both American and their own civilian population. The two bombs we dropped brought the war to a swift conclusion, saving more lives than those killed by the bombs.
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SGT David Ewers
I have no doubt in my mind that if the roles were reversed, Japan would do the same to the United States.
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No... what we should do is round up some of the survivors and have them brief the North Korean about the scunion that will rain down on them if they ever hit a US city or US interests in the region with a missile. No apologies... ever. We don't start them but we can finish them.
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I have lived in both Europe and Asia for over 50 years. It is my observation that the Germans are certainly disliked by Europeans because of the war but it is nothing compared to the hostility that Asians exhibit toward the Japanese for the war. I was told in the 70's that when Japanese merchant ships put in at harbors in the Philipines that the Japanese sailors would not leave the ship because if the philipinos caught them under the right circumstances they would kill them.
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SPC David Hannaman
There's a lot of pre-war history there too, for instance according to what I was told when I was in Korea, when the Japanese left Korea in 1945 they took every tree off the peninsula except one (that tree was pointed out to me, it was on top of a cliff and very hard to get to).
Point is, they were brutal occupying forces, and that makes enemies, fosters racism, etc. Word of warning when OUR soldiers are in foreign countries... treat the locals with respect and kindness or you may have to fight them in the future.
Point is, they were brutal occupying forces, and that makes enemies, fosters racism, etc. Word of warning when OUR soldiers are in foreign countries... treat the locals with respect and kindness or you may have to fight them in the future.
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No, hell NO! The first "no" is for me and the "hell no" is for my uncle that served on the USS Tennessee during the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
I'm happy to say that my uncle survived the war and retired from the USNR.
I'm happy to say that my uncle survived the war and retired from the USNR.
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