Painful chapter in Japan's history - 71st anniversary of atomic bombing

[ahojunk]

This was a painful chapter in Japan's history...
Let's hope this will never happen again.

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Japan's Hiroshima commemorates 71st anniversary of atomic bombing
Source: Xinhua | 2016-08-06 17:19:15 | Editor: huaxia

People lay bouquets to mourn victims of the atomic bombings at the Peace Momorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 2016. Hiroshima, the city that suffered U.S. atomic bombing in 1945 during World War II, commemorated the 71st anniversary of the bombing on Saturday at the city's Peace Memorial Park. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)

HIROSHIMA, Japan, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Hiroshima, the city that suffered U.S. atomic bombing in 1945 during World War II, commemorated the 71st anniversary of the bombing on Saturday at the city's Peace Memorial Park, with its mayor calling for a nuclear-weapon-free-world under a legal framework banning nuclear weapons.

"A nuclear-weapon-free-world would manifest the noble pacifism of the Japanese Constitution, and to ensure progress, a legal framework banning nuclear weapons is indispensable," said Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui while making a peace declaration at the ceremony, attended by survivors of the attack, their descendants, peace activists and representatives from about 91 countries and regions.

Earlier, despite nation-wide protests, the Abe administration forced passage of controversial security bills that would allow Japan's Self-Defense Forces to engage in armed conflicts overseas, in defiance of the country's pacifist constitution, a move closer to the Japanese prime minister's long-held goal of revising the pacifist constitution.

Japan's pacifist constitution bans the country from using force outside Japan. The new security bills have become legal foundation for the country's right-wing to take control of Japan's defense.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also attended the ceremony and delivered a speech, pledging to continue to uphold Japan's Three Non-Nuclear Principles of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into its soil.

Last year, Abe did not mention the principles in his speech, the first time for a Japanese prime minister to have made such an omission since 1994. Such an "oversight" on Abe's part fueled criticisms.

About 1,000 people from all over the country rallied around the park early Saturday morning, protesting against Abe's attendance at the ceremony and his right-minded policies including the controversial security bills. They held banners and shouted "Retract the war bills," "We strongly oppose the security-related bills" especially when Abe was delivering the speech at the ceremony.

Hiroshima citizen Jeong Izua told Xinhua that Abe has rolled out various right-wing policies since he took office in 2006.

Last year, the Abe administration forced the passage of new security bills, which changed Japan's long-held principle of "not engaged in wars," said Izua.

"A premier intending to wage war like Abe is not eligible to come here," he said.

Ishihama Motoki, a citizen from central Aichi prefecture, told Xinhua that he "absolutely opposes Abe's attendance at today's ceremony."

Referring to the Imperial Japan's repeated aggression against neighboring countries including China since the Meiji period, Motoki said "the Abe administration has kept whitewashing the country's history of aggression and seeking excuse for it."

"I oppose Abe's visit to Hiroshima as well as his talk of peace," said Motoki, who is also against Abe's attempt to revise the country's pacifist constitution.

Hoshino Fumio, a citizen from northeastern Niigata prefecture, told Xinhua that atomic bombing is a human tragedy brought by war; however, as for the reason why the tragedy took place, "postwar Japanese politicians including Abe have never reflected on it and never really taken responsibilities."

In addition, Fumio said, Abe's words and deeds on nuclear weapon are contradictory. Despite his calling for abolishment of nuclear weapons, Japan has huge stockpile of weapons-grade nuclear material and the government's statement in April said using nuclear weapons is not against its constitution, which wilfully distorted the pacifist constitution, said Fumio.

"Abe's attendance at the ceremony is just a show deceiving the public," said Fumio, who travelled over 800 km from Niigata to Saturday's ceremony here.

To accelerate Japan's surrender in the WWII, the U.S. forces dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

Another atomic bomb hit Nagasaki on Aug. 9 the same year, and Japan surrendered to Allied Forces on Aug. 15, six days after the Nagasaki nuclear attack, bringing an end to the war.

 

[Hamza913]

RIP

 

[sweetgrape]

They deserve the atomic bomb, I mean the whole Japan, hope they really introspect theirself, Chinese also need introspection: weakness is vulnerable to invasion, so be toughing is no only good to ourself, also good to our enemy

 

[TheTheoryOfMilitaryLogistics]

Atomic bomb is terrible,H-bomb is more terrible than Atomic bomb.China now has enough H-bombs,I hope China will never use them.

 

[Zhu Rong Zheng Yang]

Months before the nuclear bombings, ... ...
the Defeat of Japan was a Foregone conclusion.
Why were Hiroshima and Nagasaki still nuked?

===

Author Kurt Vonnegut, best known for his World War II satirical novel “Slaughterhouse-Five,”
called the Nagasaki bombing the “most racist, nastiest act” of the U.S. after the enslavement of blacks.

Chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, Telford Taylor, once described the Nagasaki bombing as a huge war crime

Why does Japanese national traitor Shinzo Abe and all his neocons friends ignoring
this racist americans Nuclear Slaughter against Japanese ?



===
Some quotes below ... ...

BERLIN –
Two questions, however, remain unanswered to this day: Why did the U.S. carry out the twin atomic attacks when Japan appeared to be on the verge of unconditionally surrendering?

And why was the second bomb dropped just three days after the first, before Japan had time to fully grasp the strategic implications of the first nuclear attack?



Months before the nuclear bombings, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. Japan’s navy and air force had been destroyed and its economy devastated by a U.S. naval blockade and relentless American firebombing raids.

***

There can be no moral awakening without jettisoning the political-military thinking that sanctioned the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leaving as many as 220,000 people — mostly civilians — dead. As Hiroshima and Nagasaki lay in ruins, President Harry Truman sent a team of military engineers, fire experts and photographers to the scene to analyze the death and destruction wrought by the twin attacks. The team reported “an unprecedented casualty rate” in Hiroshima, with 30 percent of the population killed and another 30 percent seriously injured.

The nuclear attack on Nagasaki generated a higher blast yield but produced a smaller area of complete devastation and lower casualties because, unlike Hiroshima’s flat terrain and circular shape, Nagasaki is a city with large hills and twin valleys. The second attack killed about 74,000 people, about half as many as those who died in the Hiroshima bombing. A city’s terrain and layout, the U.S. team’s report stated, must be considered “in evaluating the effectiveness” of nuclear bombing.

***

what was the rationale for his action in nuking Nagasaki
just three days later on Aug. 9, before Japan had time to surrender?

***

In truth, Nagasaki’s nuclear incineration had no military imperative. If there was any rationale, it was technical or strategic in nature — to demonstrate the power of the world’s first plutonium bomb. The bomb that reduced Hiroshima to ashes was an untested uranium bomb, code-named “Little Boy,” with Truman applauding the bomb’s success as “the greatest achievement of organized science in history.” The bomb used in the Nagasaki attack was an implosion-type plutonium bomb. Code-named “Fat Man,” it had been secretly tested in the New Mexico desert on July 16, ... ...

***

Days later when Hiroshima was destroyed, Truman broke the news to his shipmates aboard the USS Augusta, saying, “The experiment has been an overwhelming success.” The Nagasaki bombing was his second nuclear “experiment.” The geopolitical logic of the nuclear bombings was to establish U.S. primacy in the postwar order.

***

Author Kurt Vonnegut, best known for his World War II satirical novel “Slaughterhouse-Five,” called the Nagasaki bombing the “most racist, nastiest act” of the U.S. after the enslavement of blacks.

And the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, Telford Taylor, once described the Nagasaki bombing as a war crime, saying: “The rights and wrongs of Hiroshima are debatable, but I have never heard a plausible justification of Nagasaki.”

***

Japan became something of a guinea pig as the U.S. sought to demonstrate to the world, particularly to the Soviet Union, that it had awesome destructive power at its disposal.

After Adolf Hitler, who symbolized the most potent military threat to the Allied powers, committed suicide in April 1945, just days after Truman took office, Japan became the test site for demonstration of America’s newborn nuclear might.

***

Source:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion...mmentary/why-was-nagasaki-nuked/#.V6XZtut97b3


1) Racist Truman, USA President

2) Racist Truman, USA President

3) Racist Truman, USA President

Yes, many people ( Vietnamese, Filipino, Japanese, Indians ) who defend USA believe they are on the right side.
These not well informed people do not realize that they are defending EVIL and SATANIC nation.

 

[ahojunk]

Nobody deserves the atom bomb. The US should be punished for it, but they are getting away with it.
The US neo-cons have cause havoc everywhere, especially in the Middle East. Nobody is able to hold them accountable.

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Commentary: Japan must reflect on more than just the tragic atomic bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Source: Xinhua | 2016-08-06 10:17:47 | Editor: huaxia
by Xinhua Writer Zhu Feng

TOKYO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The time has come for Japan to mark the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by also making the solemn period an opportunity to reflect upon its history of aggression.

While full sympathy should be given to the innocent lives who perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the cities that were targeted by the U.S. in the atomic bombing in 1945 during WWII, it should also be kept in mind that those lives were, by no means, victims of the war Japan had initiated.

Millions of innocent people were mercilessly massacred, cities and villages pillaged, as the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) army invaded China and other Asian countries purely to satisfy its militaristic ambitions.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said "victims deserve sympathy, but perpetrators can never shirk their responsibility."

In Japanese society, it is commonly believed that Japan was the victim when its comes to the atomic bombings of its two cities. Few people, however, fully opt to think and probe the reason why Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered such attacks in the first place. This has hindered Japan from reflecting upon its responsibility for the war.

Nor has there been due attention paid to victims in neighboring countries who cannot forget the atrocities the Japanese aggressors once committed or due condemnation for Japan's crimes of aggression before and during WWII.

Instead, the administration of Prime Minster Shinzo Abe is more interested in highlighting the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki while ignoring the suffering of the countries that it brutalized before and during WWII.

Japan is, once again, trying to downplay its role as an aggressor and attempting to portray itself as a victim.

The rabidness of Japanese militarists during WWII is the fundamental reason the two cities were vaporized into mushroom clouds. Even facing a certain failure, Japanese militarists rejected the Potsdam Proclamation in 1945, because in their eyes the lives of civilians were irrelevant in comparison to their ambitions.

The tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, along with the heinous crimes the IJA committed in other countries, are both horrid examples of what frenzied militarism can result in.

Instead of admitting to war crimes, right-wing politicians in Japan are now keen on taking advantage of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings by claiming that Japan made such a great sacrifice in order to liberate Asia from colonial rule by Western powers.

At the time of commemorating the atomic bombings, right-wing forces in Japan, who owe a heartfelt apology to Asian neighbors victimized by fascist island country's brutal aggression and colonial rule during WWII, show no remorse or choose to reflection upon their nation's war past.

All peace-loving people should heighten vigilance against their evil intentions and encourage them too, to honestly reflect on Japan's past militaristic wrongdoings.

As the only country in the world that has ever been hit by atomic bombings, Japan has been extremely sensitive to "nuclear" issues. However, nowadays, some Japanese politicians are openly calling for Japan's possession of nuclear weapon. Japan's huge stockpile of weapons-grade nuclear material and the government's statement in April that using nuclear weapons is not against its constitution have put its neighbors on edge.

Another dangerous signal is that Abe did not mention Japan's long-held Three Non-Nuclear Principles of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons on its soil in his speech at the Hiroshima ceremony last year, the first time for a Japanese prime minister to make such an omission since 1994. Such an "oversight" on Abe's part fueled suspicions.

In the cabinet reshuffle this week, Abe appointed Tomomi Inada, policy chief in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as defense minister, which fueled worries from neighboring countries in Asia. Inada is known as a political hawk, with contentious views on history and a right wing stance on the future course of the nation's politics.

She has regularly visited Yasukuni Shrine, which is regarded as a symbol of the past Japanese militarism.

As a close ally of Abe, she urged amending Japan's pacifist Constitution, including scrapping the war-renouncing article 9 to allow Japan's self-defense forces to act more like a conventional army. The clause forbids Japan from using force to settle international disputes and restricts its land, air and naval forces to a strictly defensive role.

Though 71 years have passed, it seems that the only lesson the Japanese right-wing force has learned is that as long as it ties up with the world's top power, it can continue its beggar-thy-neighbor policy and trouble-making behavior without worrying about any ramifications.

In a statement delivered by Abe on Aug. 15 last year at a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, instead of offering an unambiguous apology for war atrocities committed by Imperial Japan, Abe, the revisionist premier and also a hawkish nationalist, hinted Japan's wartime aggression and colonial rule deserved credit. His statement put its neighbors on high alert.

While commemorating the victims of the atomic bombings, Japan should not forget the reason why Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed in the first place. Only through deep and sincere reflection upon its history of aggression and all sorts of crimes committed upon neighboring countries in Asia, can Japan truly recover from the painful memory of war.

 

[Nike]

actually it kinda ironic on how some of the Chinese member see the atomic bombing of Japan and blame the American for do that

especially given the facts of about the presence of more than 2 million Army personnel in China mainland altogether with their equipment and logistics

 

[Nike]

The Indonesia Massacre 1965 1967 1998
This is your Indonesia commit crimes

@Hu Songshan please deleted this immature post and irrelevant post about the thread

 

[+4vsgorillas-Apebane]

actually it kinda ironic on how some of the Chinese member see the atomic bombing of Japan and blame the American for do that

especially given the facts of about the presence of more than 2 million Army personnel in China mainland altogether with their equipment and logistics

I think most Chinese support the American bombing.

The Japanese were the most vicious, brutal and depraved killers and rapists with no honor.

Their policy in China:

Kill all
Loot all
Burn all.

The nukes were a blessing as an American conventional assault on the Japanese mainland would have caused even more deaths.

 

[TheTheoryOfMilitaryLogistics]

The Indonesia Massacre 1965 1967 1998.This is your Indonesia commit crimes

Chinese people can remember most things in 5000 years of history.
And sometimes we should pretend to forget it,hehe.

 

[Nike]

I think most Chinese support the American bombing.

The Japanese were the most vicious, brutal and depraved killers and rapists with no honor.

Their policy in China:

Kill all
Loot all
Burn all.

The nukes were a blessing as an American conventional assault on the Japanese mainland would have caused even more deaths.

Well that's a blessing in my country too, as the bomb dropped the Japanese got surrender more sooner than what we expected and we got the chance to declare our independence

ah and tell your friend @long to stick to the topics as i merely stating the fact and giving no words to starts the hostilities against China in this thread

 

[Zhu Rong Zheng Yang]

Beware of Western Anglo Saxon nations Trap using
DIVIDE and CONQUER strategy

@madokafc

The Indonesia Massacre 1965 1967 1998
This is your Indonesia commit crimes

IMHO, ... ...
Let's not fall into DIVIDE and CONQUER Trap setup by the western anglo saxon nations.
Western anglo saxon nations would very much enjoy when INDONESIA and PRC become mortal enemies.

1) This Genocide in Indonesia was organized and coordinated by american CIA using Suharto as puppet which at the end Suharto and his CIA lackeys ruined Indonesian economy for at least 30 years.

@madokafc

BTW, which nations is continuously stealing and robbing Indonesian Natural resources ( Gold + Oils ) in Western Papua and Eastern Kalimantan ??


2) Similarly in 1989, PRC was also suffering those sneaky hidden attack from americans during the 1989 TianAnMen Square attack organized and coordinated by CIA.

Proof_1:

... international panel of judges has declared that ... ... committed crimes against humanity
during the 1965–66 mass killings and that the
U.S., the U.K. and Australia
were Master Minds behind the crimes. ... ...

Source: http://time.com/4414438/indonesia-crimes-against-humanity-1965/


Proof_2:

... Robert J. Martens, who from 1963 to 1966 was a political officer at the
United States Embassy in Jakarta, as saying that he had
headed an embassy group of State Department and Central Intelligence Agency officers who ...
... killed six senior military officials ... ... The 1965–66 bloodbath was triggered by the murders of six generals and other officers on the night of Sept. 30, 1965 and in the early hours of Oct. 1.
Suharto, a CIA installed General ... ...

Source_1: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/07/indo1-j19.html

Source_2:
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/12/world/cia-tie-asserted-in-indonesia-purge.html?pagewanted=all
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/01/indonesia.comment

Source_3:
This article is from Pacific Affairs, 58, Summer 1985, pages 239-264. Peter Dale Scott

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The western anglo saxon medias are always so smart in releasing the news 20 years down the road in special timing to boost the western anglo saxon nations DIVIDE and CONQUER strategy.

 

[Kiss_of_the_Dragon]

Well that's a blessing in my country too, as the bomb dropped the Japanese got surrender more sooner than what we expected and we got the chance to declare our independence

ah and tell your friend @long to stick to the topics as i merely stating the fact and giving no words to starts the hostilities against China in this thread

Lol I thought you're 2nd generation 二世 (ni sek) of Japanese living in Indonesia .

 

[Nike]

Lol I thought you're 2nd generation 二世 (ni sek) of Japanese living in Indonesia .

actually i am third gen, i am more proudly to be called as Indonesian first though

 

[Imran Khan]

humans will never learn from past . even today many of them working day night to wipe out other humans