Dropping the bomb saved hundreds of thousands of American lives. Period, end of sentence. How about Obama bringing up the horrific way the Japanese slaughtered the millions of Chinese citizens and how they tortured and murdered American prisoners. They deserved the bomb.

Quote:HIROSHIMA, Japan — For nearly 71 years, the consequences of the world’s first atomic bombing have remained close to the surface here.

Construction workers digging under the Peace Memorial Museum recently discovered the charred and mangled remains of a bicycle, a rice paddle, a toothbrush and a fountain pen, tangible artifacts of a civilization that was buried in ash on Aug. 6, 1945.

The memory of that moment has defined this Japanese city of 1.1 million for more than seven decades, but the ghosts of that horrifying past also have prevented a final reconciliation with the nation that dropped the bomb.

No sitting U.S. president has ever visited Hiroshima, out of concern that such a trip might be interpreted as an apology. The bombing killed 140,000 people but has been viewed by many Americans as a necessary evil to end World War II and save the lives of U.S. troops.

Today, however, there is growing sentiment inside the White House that President Obama, who in his first year envisioned a world without nuclear weapons, should cap his final year with a grand symbolic gesture in service of a goal that remains well out of reach.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...story.html

It's obvious America has done no right in his eyes. What the f*** is his problem? Next, will he apologize for the death of Hitler? Will he apologize to London for not paying taxes on that f***ng tea?

(04-10-2016 12:57 PM)Pyrizzo Wrote:  It's obvious America has done no right in his eyes. What the f*** is his problem? Next, will he apologize for the death of Hitler? Will he apologize to London for not paying taxes on that f***ng tea?

He'll apologize to Russia for winning the Cold War.

(04-10-2016 01:05 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(04-10-2016 12:57 PM)Pyrizzo Wrote:  It's obvious America has done no right in his eyes. What the f*** is his problem? Next, will he apologize for the death of Hitler? Will he apologize to London for not paying taxes on that f***ng tea?

He'll apologize to Russia for winning the Cold War.

He's already made it up to Cuba, why not?

There is a significant academic disagreement as to whether Japan has ever "truly" apologized for their actions.

As recently as last August,

Quote:Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, expressed “deepest remorse” and “sincere condolences” to Japan’s wartime victims, but risked angering the country’s neighbours by stopping short of issuing a fresh apology and by saying that future generations should not be “predestined” to apologise themselves.

Link

The Bataan Death March..

Quote:During the surrender discussions relating to Bataan, General Homma told Major General King that his troops would have to march from Bataan to their place of imprisonment at Camp O'Donnell, a distance of about 100 miles (161 km). General King pointed out to the Japanese commander that his troops had been on half rations since January (i.e. 3 months), and that all were starving and many were sick. He requested permission to drive the prisoners of war to Camp O'Donnell in American army trucks. Still smarting from the rebuke he had received from Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo and his demotion from overall command in the Philippines, Homma curtly dismissed King's request.

Immediately following the Bataan surrender on 9 April 1942, the prisoners of war were searched. Any prisoner found with Japanese equipment or other souvenirs was immediately killed. The Bataan Death March began at Mariveles on 10 April, and lasted for a week. During this hellish march, sick and starving prisoners were beaten randomly and denied any water. Any prisoner who asked for water was killed on the spot. When the Japanese guards needed a rest, they forced the prisoners to sit in the hot sun without any head covering. Any prisoner who fell behind or collapsed from heat, exhaustion and lack of water, was killed on the spot unless his comrades could carry him. During the week-long march, prisoners were denied food apart from a few handfuls of contaminated rice. At night, the prisoners were packed so tightly into enclosures that they were almost unable to move.

The US Army Center for Military History has estimated that as many as 650 American POWs and between 5,000-10,000 Filipino POWs were murdered by the Japanese during the Bataan Death March. The Japanese were particularly cruel to the Filipinos whom they regarded as American lackeys. Of 20,000 American troops captured by the Japanese in the Philippines, about half died in captivity before the Pacific War ended. Some were murdered swiftly, others were murdered slowly from starvation, sickness and brutal treatment.

If Obama apologizes for anything to the Japanese, he should be impeached.

http://www.pacificwar.org.au/JapWarCrime...March.html

Most people understand the 1st bomb. However, the 2nd bomb three days after? I don't think you can justify it that fast? Set it off over a harbor or something. Good on Obama in my eyes.

Put it this way. Would Jesus have dropped the 2nd bomb?

(04-10-2016 01:40 PM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Put it this way. Would Jesus have dropped the 2nd bomb?

You leftists need to make up your rabbit-assed minds. Do you want religion in government or not?


We knew from intercepted communications that the Japanese weren't ready to surrender after Hiroshima, but exploding it over an uninhabited area was going to change their minds?


They surrendered after Nagasaki and it didn't cost any American lives. The goal of war is to end it as quick as possible while saving the lives of as many of your people as possible. Mission accomplished.

(04-10-2016 01:40 PM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Put it this way. Would Jesus have dropped the 2nd bomb?

I actually think that is a fair point to make and I certainly hope that Truman went through some soul searching, prayer, hand wringing or whatever you want to call it before ordering the 2nd attack. However, that has to be balanced against the cost of an invasion of the Japanese mainland. If they won't surrender after dropping the bomb, what is it going to be like when waves of soldiers and marines start trying to push through the country? We would have eventually taken Japan, but it would have been an utterly bloody mess. When looked at that way, the 2nd bomb doesn't seem like such a bad option.

I would have gave it at least two weeks.

(04-10-2016 02:00 PM)Machiavelli Wrote:  I would have gave it at least two weeks.

You are completely clueless. Your non realistic bleeding heart liberalism has blinded you to the reality of what WWII was. The Germans and Japanese had been hard at work to be the first to succeed at making an atomic bomb. If they had succeeded, I dare say you wouldn't be here today or at least not in what you call America today.

It is so easy to be a history revisionist and forget the horrendous war that had been waged against the world by Germany and Japan. They had killed millions in their march to rule the world. There was no time for your stupid liberal ideals, this was a war for the survival of the free world. My father, after leaving Europe, had headed to the Pacific to be involved in the invasion of Japan. He and hundreds of thousands of fellow Americans would have been at risk of losing their lives. Are you even aware that the incendiary bombing of Japan's cities actually killed far more Japanese than the two atomic bombs did?
Here is part of the warning given to the Japanese before the bombs were dropped:

Quote:A Warning to Japan Urging Surrender: Excerpts from President Truman's radio address to the American people, August 9, 1945

The British, Chinese, and United States Governments have given the Japanese people adequate warning of what is in store for them. We have laid down the general terms on which they can surrender. Our warning went unheeded; our terms were rejected. Since then the Japanese have seen what our atomic bomb can do. They can foresee what it will do in the future.

The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost. I urge Japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately, and save themselves from destruction.

I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb.

Its production and its use were not lightly undertaken by this Government. But we knew that our enemies were on the search for it. We know now how close they were to finding it. And we knew the disaster, which would come to this Nation, and to all peace-loving nations, to all civilization, if they had found it first.

That is why we felt compelled to undertake the long and uncertain and costly labor of discovery and production.

We won the race of discovery against the Germans. Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.

We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan's power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us.

The Japanese had days to surrender after the first bomb was dropped and were warned. It was their leaders fault the second bomb was dropped, not America's.
If a mutiny by some Japanese military leaders had succeeded, Japan would never have surrendered.

(04-10-2016 02:00 PM)Machiavelli Wrote:  I would have gave it at least two weeks.

Why 2 weeks? Why not 10 days or maybe 15? If it is apparent that surrender isn't coming, why stick to some arbitrary date?

I do not feel an ounce of guilt over dropping the bombs. It was the right thing to do.

(04-10-2016 02:00 PM)Machiavelli Wrote:  I would have gave it at least two weeks.

Very comforting to know some random guy on a message board in 2016 who never lived through a world war, draft or ever had to make a single decision as a leader of a nation would have "given it 2 weeks". Thank goodness we have men like Mach today to sit in judgment of the decisions of men like Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.

Your can say some dumb*** stuff sometimes.

I would have dropped the bomb on Tokyo.

It was completely justified. Japan started the war and you get what you get especially when you consider their prison camps, Unit 731, murders and destruction of China.

Have they ever apologized for Pearl Harbor?

It's just a little sneaky... Kinda like'a Pearl Harbour!

Dropping the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the most humane of the three options available to end the war with Japan. There is no evidence that the Japanese government was anywhere near considering surrender before the bombs and thus it was down to invasion (Operations Olympic and Coronet) which would have cost American lives and multiples more of Japanese lives than those lost in the two bombings. The other option, a naval blockade, would have resulted in millions of starved to death Japanese, especially among the young and elderly. Also, we wouldn't have stopped the bombing campaign for either option, so the firebombing campaign would have racked up even more dead Japanese. Also, both of the "conventional" options would have most likely resulted in the Soviet invasion of Hokkaido and maybe even Honshu, and the resultant decades of political division. Since my grandfather would have probably been shipped across the planet for the invasion, I'm very personally glad President Truman made the correct choice.

Best thing about this image, it's a double faux pas. You either bow OR shake hands since both are now forms of greeting in Japan. The US President is a fellow head of state with the Emperor, so both exchanging light bows would have been acceptable forms of greeting. Obama is practically performing a standing form of dogeza. Honestly, whoever was responsible for Obama's cultural briefing on that trip should have been fired, assuming Barry didn't go rouge.

How can Obama not understand that until this day, Japan is probably the most racist country on the face of the earth. Read about how black American servicemen are treated in Japan. Or how Japan allows virtually no immigrants. In 2015 they accepted 11,yeah, that's eleven, asylum seeking immigrants.

Obama has to be diplomatic but there is absolutely no need to kiss anyone's ass.

After Nagasaki, the leaders of Japan's military considered a coup against the emperor because he wanted to surrender. Most wanted to sacrifice the lives of every Japanese rather than "lose face" over surrender. They all did the right thing and committed ritual suicide.