Author Topic: U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy lays wreath at Nagasaki memorial for 70,000 Japanese killed by American atom bomb  (Read 1385 times)

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Offline flowers

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2521169/U-S-Ambassador-Caroline-Kennedy-visits-Nagasaki--city-hit-World-War-II-atomic-bomb-killed-70-000.html

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U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy has visited the Japanese city of Nagasaki, where 70,000 Japanese were killed by an American atomic bomb attack in 1945.

Kennedy laid a wreath at the park commemorating the attack, which shocked the world and helped prompt Japan's surrender in World War II.

The daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy toured Nagasaki's Atomic Bomb Museum on Tuesday and met with some atomic bomb survivors.

Pearl Harbor day..........................not a thing from this adminstration that I could see


Offline Atomic Cow

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"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Oceander

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Traitor.

Why?  Simply because she laid a wreath at the memorial?  Unless she said anything that resembled an attempt to put the US at fault for using the bombs, I see nothing wrong with a simple acknowledgement that a lot of Nagasaki residents died because of the tragedy of WWII.  Time is supposed to heal all wounds and at this point - more than 60 years since the death of Nagasaki - it seems about time to start moving beyond that war.  In fact, if one wants to be pointed about it, by laying a wreath the US is implicitly saying that it is a shame these people had to die because of the war Japan started.

Offline Atomic Cow

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The left has been trying to find a way to apologize for and admit that the atomic bombings are war crimes for which the US will have to make amends.  Clinton almost did it, but backed down in the face of massive opposition from veterans.  Obama doesn't give a rat's ass and probably will do it sooner or later.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Offline Cincinnatus

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In fact, if one wants to be pointed about it, by laying a wreath the US is implicitly saying that it is a shame these people had to die because of the war Japan started.

Maybe, but it could also be interpreted, and will be, as her apologizing on our behalf for how we ended it.

Interesting, isn't it, that her own father almost died while fighting the very people she is now honoring?
We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid ~~ Samuel Adams

Oceander

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In fact, if one wants to be pointed about it, by laying a wreath the US is implicitly saying that it is a shame these people had to die because of the war Japan started.

Maybe, but it could also be interpreted, and will be, as her apologizing on our behalf for how we ended it.

Interesting, isn't it, that her own father almost died while fighting the very people she is now honoring?

Whom is she honoring?  The Japanese as such, or those who died at Nagasaki?  I didn't realize that JFK almost died fighting with civilians in Nagasaki.

Offline Cincinnatus

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Oh, puhlease, Oceander: I didn't realize that JFK almost died fighting with civilians in Nagasaki.

Whom is she honoring?  The Japanese as such, or those who died at Nagasaki?

It will be interpreted as the Japanese people.

Btw, Oceander, why did they have to die?
We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid ~~ Samuel Adams

Oceander

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Oh, puhlease, Oceander: I didn't realize that JFK almost died fighting with civilians in Nagasaki.

Whom is she honoring?  The Japanese as such, or those who died at Nagasaki?

It will be interpreted as the Japanese people.

Btw, Oceander, why did they have to die?

I already pointed that out, my friend:  because of the war that Japan started.

Offline Rapunzel

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If JFK had not moved his men off the first island they swam to Caroline would not be alive to lay the wreath at Nagasaki.  The Japanese were searching for and would have killed them all.  When has a Japanese ambassador laid a wreath on Pearl Harbor? 
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline Cincinnatus

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When has a Japanese ambassador laid a wreath on Pearl Harbor?

When has Caroline?
We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid ~~ Samuel Adams

Offline Rapunzel

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When has a Japanese ambassador laid a wreath on Pearl Harbor?

When has Caroline?

touche'
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline truth_seeker

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I already pointed that out, my friend:  because of the war that Japan started.
A war that Japan started, and refused to end, thus resulting in the US selecting the option which yielded the least further loss of lives on BOTH sides.

It was estimated at the time a amphib landing and battles, would kill far more Japanese civilians than the 2 nukes. And also cost more American GI lives and limbs.

That is why I say Truman's difficult decision is a humanitarian one; nukes saved lives.
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline Chieftain

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When has a Japanese ambassador laid a wreath on Pearl Harbor?

When has Caroline?

Caroline does not even speak Japanese...

Oceander

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A war that Japan started, and refused to end, thus resulting in the US selecting the option which yielded the least further loss of lives on BOTH sides.

It was estimated at the time a amphib landing and battles, would kill far more Japanese civilians than the 2 nukes. And also cost more American GI lives and limbs.

That is why I say Truman's difficult decision is a humanitarian one; nukes saved lives.

I completely agree.  It should be the ultimate cliche to say that war forces upon people the need to choose between evils, and, one hopes, the decision to use the atom bombs on Japan weighed heavily on Truman; however, at the end of the day the decision was the correct decision precisely because it brought the war to its inevitable end - the complete, unconditional surrender of Japan - with fewer casualties than the only other alternative, a large-scale conventional invasion of Japan, which would have involved a very ugly war of attrition as almost every Japanese individual fought tooth and nail to the bitter end.

To put it bluntly, dropping the atom bombs not only saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, it also saved the lives of millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians.  That makes it the right thing to have done.

Offline EC

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As an outsider, I see it more Oceander's way.

"We are sorry we had to drop the bomb. It was a horrific thing. Yet we did it anyway."
The universe doesn't hate you. Unless your name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi

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Offline mountaineer

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Looking for news accounts of what she said there. Her remarks appeared to be all about nuclear disarmament. Nothing like "Sorry about that bomb thingey, but we had to do it to end the war you guys started."


CNN:
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In comments at the museum, she referenced her late father, former President John F. Kennedy.

"President Kennedy was very proud that he was able to start the process of nuclear disarmament, and all of our family shares the commitment," she said. "And President Obama also has been working very hard on this issue."

ASAHI SHIMBUN:
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“I am deeply moved by my visit here and I hope to be able to help in these efforts in whatever way I can,” Kennedy said after the meeting, referring to the survivors' accounts and call for a reduction in nuclear stockpiles.

GLOBAL POST:
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Signing a visitors' register at the museum, Kennedy wrote that her father and former President John F. Kennedy's "proudest achievement was the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and I am honored to be in a city which has worked for so long to create a more peaceful world."

"I hope to be a part of your efforts in the years to come -- It is an inspiration to the world," she wrote.

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Offline Lipstick on a Hillary

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As an outsider, I see it more Oceander's way.

"We are sorry we had to drop the bomb. It was a horrific thing. Yet we did it anyway."

That is not quite what Oceander said.