Obama in Japan Refuses to Defend U.S. Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki »
Posted By avoth 1 week, 6 days ago in Political OpinionHere is video of President Obama in Japan today where he refused to defend the U.S. dropping of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.
A Japanese reporter put him on the spot by asking him if he wanted to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki while in office, and asked him if he thought the dropping of the bombs "was the right decision."
Obama said he would find it "meaningful" to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but that he has no immediate travel plans. The reporter tried to ask the "was it right" question again, and instead Obama brushed it off and answered a question about North Korea instead.
This was a tough spot for Obama in Japan. I'll grant that. But like other Presidents before him, Obama could have firmly but politely said that the decision was made to end the war and save lives. The dropping of the bombs did both. It ended the war, and it saved hundreds of thousands of lives - on both sides. The Japanese would have fought to the last man for their home islands. U.S. Forces already had estimated it could cost 1 million U.S. casualties to launch an invasion of Japan. Truman did exactly the right thing, and Obama should have politely affirmed his fellow Democrat.
Read Full Story at freedomslighthouse.com »
236 Views Share Story 159 Comments Report
Submitted By:
avoth
Married to a wonderful woman with two great kids, I evaluate controls within automated systems and applications for a living and operate a Personal Training ...
Who Also Submitted:
RSS Join the Discussion
+ Add CommentComments So Far: 159 (view all)
-
37%
avoth1 week, 6 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
"A Japanese reporter put him on the spot by asking him if he wanted to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki while in office, and asked him if he thought the dropping of the bombs "was the right decision.""
Reply
In all fairness, it would take a person who truly loved America and the principles for which it stands to have the courage and integrity to answer this openly and honestly. It was an unfair question for Obama.-
75%
jakesguile1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I truly love America and the principles for which it stands
Reply
There was NO REASON AT ALL IN ANY FRAMEWORK OF REALITY for us to EVER drop the Atomic Bomb once OR twice.
Don't like it, then tough luck, that's history, and we haven't reached the point where your scummy buddies succeed to rewrite history... though you people are certainly trying
Go rewrite a Bible earth-traitor -
100%
blowback1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
.
Reply
It is irrelevant what Obama did or did not say,
should or should not say.
It is irrelevant to say the question was unfair.
What is relevant is that a Japanese reporter
would ask this question of a US president.
A question that has not been asked before.
The tide of Japanese sentiment is turning.
.
-
-
71%
slate1 week, 6 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
It was an unfair question indeed. He read a pre written response that was not about the subject question. Then he winged a lame ish response.
Reply
He could have said something about it was an unfortunate end to a war started by the host country. He could have followed with it was done to end a war that would have caused many more civilian deaths in Japan, as well as young American soldiers.
He could have continued saying that 'if Japan had not sneaked attacked Pearl Harbor in the first place', the sad historic event would not have been necessary and possibly not have been necessary to be in Human historic records.
Too bad his writers hadn't thought to write that or something similar down for him to read.
Those two bombings were tragic events in human history, so was the bombing of Dresden, the Death Camps, the Death Marches and the hundreds of millions of lives lost because of the actions of Germany and Japan.
How then can Japan take the stance that they were innocently killed after all the death and destruction they spread prior to the days those bombs were dropped?-
63%
avoth1 week, 6 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
"How then can Japan take the stance that they were innocently killed after all the death and destruction they spread prior to the days those bombs were dropped?"
Reply
Most people can't admit the truth about themselves. Is it any different with nations? -
64%
bigurn1 week, 6 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Slate, I have often marveled at and enjoyed your even-tempered and wise responses.
Reply
He could have been a statesman, saying how unfortuante is was that our two nations were in conflict, but how good it is now that we are friends. He could have remarked that the deaths of our citizens are equally mourned in both countries, and that we should strive to avoid such conflicts in the future. But he chose to avoid being a leader.
Historical note: The firebombing of Japanese cities (notably Tokyo) killed 2-3X as many Japanese citizens as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. That probably ended the war, not the bombs.
-
-
-
-
45%
MisterX1 week, 6 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Why didn't he just say we did it because we were a MEAN nation?
Reply
If the US didn't drop the bomb, Imperial Japan would have had a good chance to regroup the Axes powers and extend the war. But that is old history, so it doesn't count anymore.-
64%
almos_vagyok1 week, 6 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Is this a plant or a real demonstration of the ignorance of the Obama haters?
Reply
September 3, 1943: Italy signs armistice.
May 7, 1945: German unconditional surrender.
August 6, 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
See http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/dates.html -
-
75%
jakesguile1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
By the day we did it, we'd Carpet Bombed Japan into oblivion you fool.
Reply
You've seen the old pictures of the fighter planes dropping like 30 bombs out of their cargo hatches right? What makes you so confident we couldn't have just done that up and down the countryside over and over again without the use of the Atomic Bomb? I always wondered why we needed ground troops at all when we could do that...
Now take 3 f*cking guesses if we did or not? I'll answer that question for you, WE DID
-
-
100%
NoWayMan1 week, 6 days ago
-
67%
BronxBomber1 week, 6 days ago
-
75%
bigurn1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Yes. After the first bomb, we asked the Japanese to surrender unconditionally. We told them we had another bomb and would use it. They declined our surrender offer, effectively calling our bluff. Just a few days later, they realized it was a terrible judgement error.
Reply
Historical revelations have shown that several War Ministry members wanted to surrender, and that it was hotly debated. The War Ministry consisted of moderates who wanted to win, but not destroy the country and a group of more agressive military leaders led by Tojo who were willing to die to the last man to win. General Tojo won the debate by force of will. -
-
-
83%
BronxBomber1 week, 6 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Obama should've stated that the bombing was necessary to shorten the war, and the more the war dragged on, the more lives of American servicemen and women would've cost if it were allowed to be lengthened to be more accurate. We had to make sure that Japan conceded, they were stern hold outs during the war.
Reply -
rshibridgeComment removed: Retracted by user2 Replies
-
50%
IRONBLUEEYES1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Japan has a horrendous record of human slaughter in the last century. Amazingly they have never taken any responsibility for their actions. Let me help jog their memory:
Reply
1. The rape of Nanking
2. Their treatment of Allied prisoners of war
3. The Korean "comfort Women" issue
4. Vivisection of live American pilots
5, Bataan death march
6. Their brutal occupation of China
7. Their atrocities in the Phillipines during occupation
8. Their attack on Pearl Harbor
Didn't Obama study history in school? I didn't have to go to Harvard to come up with this list.-
-
-
Neutral
Daylight1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
All these crimes are not even closer to the criminal act America has committed for the last 50 years. I am not saying the Japanese are angels but if you are equating with another criminal to justify your action then you are a criminal too.
Reply
-
-
83%
Klarissa1 week, 5 days ago
-
-
86%
NoWayMan1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
that last fact (the pilot of Enola Gay committed suicide) should have all americans soul searching about those bombs.
Reply
sadly. not the case.
even robert mcnamera said it was wrong (especially the second one) and he was in on the decision. -
-
-
Neutral
IRONBLUEEYES1 week, 4 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
This is an absolute lie. The pilot of the Enola Gay died in 2007 at the age of 92 as a result of a series of strokes and heart failure. He never regretted his role in the bombing and he specifically directed that he be cremated so that his burial site would not become a pilgrimage site for people who opposed the use of nuclear weapons. This is all laid out in Wikipedia, look it up. This post is classic revisionist history .
Reply
-
-
80%
bubba21 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
So what if Obama didn't answer the question?
Reply
Why is it SO important to YOU all that he didn't?
You all are always b!tching when anyone brings up anything previous to Obama (like Bush, maybe?).
Then you get all huffy about a question asked Obama, which is about a war that ended OVER SIXTY YEARS AGO.
Besides - you would have criticized his answer REGARDLESS of what it was! You criticize EVERYTHING Obama does because you hate him.
This post, like all of the rest from your ilk, is loaded with superfluous, pompous cr*p. -
58%
jdhatl1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
The reason we dropped the bombs on two inhabited cities was to keep the Soviets from participating in the Pacific war and invasion of Japan. Japan was incapable of fighting anymore, we could have made our point by bombing an isolated area, not two medium-sized cities. It was a war crime by any definition.
Reply -
75%
purpleicon1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
War is ugly and evil. It seems like humans have not figured this out yet. Yes, Obama should have said that the decision was made to end the war since many more lives would be lost. Japanese soldiers made their own citizens jump off cliffs rather than surrender to the American forces. It is true that casualties could have been up to 1 million US soldiers. My father was to be on a B-29 bomber plane for the invasion of Japan. He could have died. Horror and bloodshed continue today. War is evil.
Reply -
50%
cheif1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
I would suggest any doubters of how the Japanese think go to
Reply
DocumentaryHeaven.com and look at the documentary on the Rape of Nanking...it shows how sick these people were and the extent
to which they would go to kill/exploit 'inferior' people. They still feel they're superior to everyone even to this day.
After watching what they did to the Chinese, and knowing of their atrocities in the Bataan death march and numerous sick ways they killed people show the bomb dropping on them was deserved and should have been dropped 10 more times.
I'm still sick about what they did in Nanking....
Apoligize? Hell no!!! -
100%
cowboygrandpa1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
The Japanese were guilty of so many war crimes it is joke for them to even question why we did anything but wipe them out !!!!!!!
Reply
Now I understand the people today not comprehending the decisions that were made.
They did not see the horrific treatment of the Chinese, the American POWs, POWs of any nation were treated as slave laborers or murdered.
Obama should have just said.
You are still a nation because we allowed you to survive.
We could have easily destroyed your emperor and wiped your nation out, instead we helped to rebuild you.
Do not ever ask that question of us again !!!!!-
80%
Ratskii1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Cowboyg,
Reply
I had one high school teacher who was shot down over Japan. Japanese surgeons saved his life. He told how Japenese prisoners of the US were murdered in their cells. I had a college professor (as well as friends of my parents) who were imprisoned in American concentration camps.
You say you are a Christian: Ye who are without sin cast the first stone. -
Neutral
Daylight1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
You are still a nation because we allowed you to survive.
Reply
Yeah America is the Lord of the worlds and it feeds and protect every living thing? You don't even feel remorse at all or ashamed to justify the most heinous crime ever committed by an international thug.
-
-
100%
Daylight1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
This was a tough spot for Obama in Japan. I'll grant that. But like other Presidents before him, Obama could have firmly but politely said that the decision was made to end the war and save lives.
Reply
American regime’s actions are still the same and not changed at all, they bomb countries, destroy everything that that can be seen, whether it is movable or immovable and kill innocent people by various means of destructive weapons and defending it saying it was not meant to kill people but to target terrorists. People who are fighting the Americans or NATO in their own countries are not terrorists they are liberators of this evil conspiratorial regimes that existed/exists in the name of freedom and Democracy in America.
It is the same peoiple who argue that they want to free people from oppression and then bombs are doped made of depleted uranium on the population it occupying now, and thousand of babies are born deformed and also thousands of innocent people are suffering from cancer. So every good American says he/she is sympathetic to the people who are suffering because their governments' oppression or the crimes of their puppet regimes but little they realize that they are cause of this problem and those who come out to oppose on to the streets strongly against their government which they elected are called leftists or liberals.
How long do you American feel you can fool the world? You are being exposed to such an extent where Obama is ashamed to stand in front of the people and say to them that America is a civilized country.
It is time America withdraw all its forces and stop supporting the regime that occupying Palestinian land and then repent for the crimes it committed against the world for the last 50 years which includes Muslim and non-Muslim countries alike. Killing people to force a system of government or an ideology is out dated and there are better means of doing that in today's world. -
100%
oldslowjim1 week, 5 days ago
This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »
Klarissa has it right, "It was done because those in charge thought it the best way to end the war."
Reply
All this talk about the morality simply ignores the all the information available AT THE TIME. No one here has discussed all of the real issues dealt with about ending the war. Here are a few.
- What shape was our economy in? Could we have afforded to continue the war for another 6 months or a year?
- There is a difference between unconditional surrender, i.e. capitulation, and defeat through occupation. How different would Japan and world today be if we had simply done what we had already done to Japanese islands and simply invade/occupy Japan? Would the populace have looked upon us as victors or occupiers? What would their attitudes be?
- What would the economic costs of invasion/occupation have been to our nation? Look at Afghanistan for a possible answer.
- What would the economic costs of invasion/occupation have been to Japan? Could we have afforded to not only rebuild Europe but a totally bombed out Japan also?
These are all issues I'm quite sure were discussed. I fully believe that Truman made his decision based upon a number of factors, not the least of which was how to best change the Japanese culture of war.
All these other considerations are basically conspiracy theories derived to devalue the decision that was made. Hindsight is nice but try discussing the decision to drop the bombs based upon the information that was available at the time. -
rshibridgeComment removed: Retracted by user
Submit a Story
Advertisement
Add a Comment
Sign In With Your Propeller Account
Please keep your comments relevant to this story.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.