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Obama To Become First US President To Visit Hiroshima Since 1945 Nuclear Attack (independent.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: The White House announced U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima, becoming the first sitting American President to do so since the city was destroyed in 1945 by a U.S. nuclear bomb. President Obama and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit the city on May 27th "to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. Obama said he hoped to visit both Hiroshima and Nagasaki when he first visited Japan in November 2009. "The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world, and I would be honored to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency," President Obama said at the time. At least 140,000 people died from the nuclear attack on Hiroshima on August 9, 1945. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second atomic weapon on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered to Allied forces within a week after that second attack.
Cue the millennials' halfwitted observation that the bombs were "unjust" and my grandparents should've gone into another brutal, horrifying ground war in Japan.
My grandfather had a stroke and spent the last eight years of his life screaming, "I'LL KILL THAT FUCKING HITLER, GOD DAMN HITLER!" He had never swore before the stroke. That ground war was burned into his mind, and was a burden he had to carry the rest of his life.
I tried to tell a joke to Obama about Hiroshima once...it bombed.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
So which US president(s) visited Hiroshima prior to 1945?
This is all a celebration of Obama. He is in "First President to do X" mode, in a vain attempt to make his terms in office, not look so horrible, when history ultimately judges it to be so.
The only question is if He will apologize for Pearl Harbor or not. You, mean America putting that island in the way of all of those Japanese planes and bombs.
This is ZERO republican, and 100% Obama.
I wonder if he'll get in any golf while he's over there?
Why would he stop now after seven years of doing it?
The U.S. president never has to say he’s sorry.
"I have to abbreviate the profanity for the crap filter"
Or maybe I don't. Oops.
Bring on orbital and near-c kinetic projectiles! :)
If the White House announces something, shouldn't the link be to whitehouse.gov? Like:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/10/statement-press-secretary-presidents-travel-vietnam-and-japan
Cue the millennials' halfwitted observation that the bombs were "unjust" ...
I wonder how many such millennials are here today because their great-grandfather did not have to be part of an invasion of the Japanese home islands.
... a few diplomats were interested in surrender. Diplomats who lived in fear of their beliefs coming to the attention of the militarists who would have promptly executed them for treason. Keep in mind that it was **ONLY** the emperors decision that enabled surrender. Even after that decision militarists assaulted the imperial palace to rescue to emperor from the "treasonous" advisors who were "lying" to him, to find and destroy the audio recording the emperor made to announce the surrender to the Japanese people, etc. The surrender nearly did not happen even after the god-like emperor made the decision. After the first atomic bombing the militarists were training troops/civilians to wear white sheets to protect them from the flash of this new weapon. The films of this looked like a friggin KKK training exercise. To the day of the surrender, the militarists, the people effectively running the country, thought they could inflict so many casualties on the Americans that they could negotiate a peace treaty. The suicide planes and boats were ready, the chemical weapons were targeted on landing beaches, school kids were learning to thrust a bamboo spear at americans, etc. Its is only the emperor's voice on the radio, speaking directly to the people, announcing the surrender, that ended this insanity. And the emperor did not make the decision until after the atomic bombs. He specifically cited these new weapons in his announcement.
And I wonder how many of their "Japanese friends" are only here because the war ended without such an invasion, without a famine inducing blockade that was one alternative to invasion, etc.
And before you start the "they were about to surrender" meme
In the twisted insane mathematics of war, the atomic bombs probably saved lives. We killed far greater numbers of people in the convention firebombing of Japan.
Do you all think it's accidental that as soon as we know who the candidates for president are going to be that Obama's approval ratings go up? It's as if people are saying, "Holy shit. Obama wasn't really so bad after all."
He's currently got a higher approval rating than Ronald Reagan at the same point in their terms.
You are welcome on my lawn.
A world without nuclear weapons? I wonder how many wars would have been fought if there were no nukes to make the superpowers realize they couldn't afford WWIII. That even if they won they'd still lose.
President Carter visited the site after his presidential term was complete.
I get you are a retard troll, but who has China now if not the Chinese?
...a world without nuclear weapons...
You'd think these two heads of state, in particular, would already know that the things which come out of Pandora's Box can't just be wished away.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
The only question is if He will apologize for Pearl Harbor or not.
More appropriately he should probably apologize to Iran for putting a despot in power for nearly 30 years. (see TPAJAX Project)
It is mathematically impossible for Obama to beat Reagan's record for vacation time while in office, no matter how are he tries... but let's not confuse you with facts.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
It is mathematically impossible for Obama to beat Reagan's record for vacation time while in office, no matter how are he tries...
Presidents get paid to make decisions, not to dig ditches by the hour. If a vacation helps clear his mind, so he makes better decisions, then that is a good thing. Eisenhower once cut short a meeting on a proposal to send troops into Vietnam because he had an appointment to play golf. If Lyndon Johnson devoted as much time to golf, then 58,000 American casualties could have been avoided.
Republicans predicted he would do, and which he and his supporters previously said he would not. Every time his critics predict he will do something contrary to the national interest, he and his moronic sycophant supporters insist he won't and call those critics liars. Then a year or more later he does it. For progressives, the ends justify the means and there are no fixed standards, particularly for honesty. Now he and his people are so arrogant they are publicly laughing at how stupid and gullible their own liberal friends in the media are and how easily they were manipulated on the Iran deal.
Nothing new here; the record of Obama administration dishonesty and making Uncle Sam wearing a "kick me" sign on his back continues.
Who does Obama trust with nukes? Russia, China, Iran, North Korea... (the evil tyrannical governments)
Who does Obama not trust with nukes? The men and women of the US Military (who volunteer to serve the Constitution and follow the orders of leaders elected by the people)
it was far far less than had we NOT dropped the bomb.
Japan had no intention of surrendering and it was going to be a bloody battle all the way through Japan to make it happen.
By dropping the bombs, it solved everything with a lot fewer loss of lives, esp. of Allied lives who were attacked by Germany and Japan.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
That is a piss-poor excuse for bad presidents. The president does a lot more than make decisions, this trip to Hiroshima is not "making a decision," it's strengthening our relationship with Japan. It's an act of diplomacy, one of many responsibilities that the president has.
Destroying the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Ukraine, what government working in Iraq, Afghanistan, screwing over our relationships with Russia, China, Saudi Arabia letting Turkey fail to religious fascism, getting walked over by Iran and Cuba. The man should stay home locked away till the end of year if he wants to stop the pain.
The summary says Hiroshima was on the 9th, followed by Nagasaki three days later, but the Hiroshima bombing was on the 6th of August, 1945, followed by Nagasaki on the 9th.
No apology of any type should be issued.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
News flash:
Obama visits Hiroshima, apologizes for U.S., for starting World War II.
If the sitting US president wishes to visit Hiroshima, I see no harm in this, provided he does not toll the peace "Bell" at that city. That would be hypocrisy in its fullest. Why not visit the Shinto war memorial while you are at it.
Whereas Germany has accepted nearly all the responsibility of their acts and paid back heavily -the Japanese have stubbornly refused to accept the responsibility of any of their action leading to or during WW2. Not only that but their national history barely mentions any of the heinous crimes they committed. Until they do we should tell them politely to just shove off.
And the first idiot president who will show the regret for American's actions, totally dissing all of those people who lost their lives in death marches, Pearl Harbor, and the stinking Japanese who REFUSED to quit EVEN after the first bomb was dropped. They begged for more. And they didn't get enough of it.
Does he not realize how many wars have been prevented due to nuclear weapons?
Libertas in infinitum
Large numbers of humans have no critical thinking and no depth. They are beasts that roam the Earth. There fixed that for you!
except that the American government wanted an empire.
America at the end of WWII could have almost trivially conquered the world. It had an intact industrial base, unmolested population and was producing an atom bomb a month. What other power could have stood up to that? It could have done so for many years after the end of the war.
Absolutely false. The US had a population and military very tired of war. One of the motivations for the atomic bombings was to get the war over with as soon as possible. Public support was getting more and more difficult, raising money through bond sales more and more difficult. There was fear of mutiny among some veterans who had fought in the European theatre when transferred to Asia for the invasion of Japan. They feared sending some units home to the US for retraining and reequipping so they were to go east from Europe to Asia. There was a real possibility that the Japanese militarist plan to inflict sufficient casualties upon the US to get the US to abandon unconditional surrender might work. The US public was getting closer and closer to the idea of abandoning unconditional surrender.
The US public would never have supported an attempt at conquest after Germany and Japan's surrender. As for the troops, they only thought of going home, and going home meant going through Berlin or Tokyo. That was the "deal" they had signed up under. Its lunacy to think they'd just go along with conquering additional lands.
The Soviet attack on the mainland of Asia was of little consequence. The Soviets did not possess the ability to launch a large scale amphibious attack on the Japanese home islands. The millions of Japanese troops on the Asian mainland could not be returned to the Japanese home islands for its defense due to the US Naval dominance of the sea. The threat against the home islands was entirely US, either invasion or blockade and famine.
... however these diplomats lived in fear of the militarists learning of their opinions and actions which would have resulted in immediate execution. Surrender was only possible for one and only one reason, the emperor decided so. And even after he decided so the militarists assaulted the imperial palace to rescue the emperor from the "lies" of these "traitors", and to capture the emperor's message to the Japanese people announcing the surrender.
We can argue about what diplomats might have thought and might have wanted and might have secretly made inquiries about
There is quite a bit of whitewashing and revisionism among Japanese sources. They often downplay the "ground truth" of the militarists control of the situation up to the moment of the Japanese people hearing the surrender broadcast of the emperor.
Its not that simple. Letting the war continue for a fraction of a year longer would most likely have resulted in far greater casualties due to disease and famine. These are the real historical killers in time of war, not enemy action. Even a naval blockade with no continued naval or air offensive against the home islands would probably have led to far greater casualties. Now consider a more plausible scenario with a continued naval and air offensive in preparation for an amphibious invasion, vastly increased casualties beyond a simple blockade now. The Tokyo firebombing seems to have had greater casualties than Hiroshima. In the cruel, insane mathematics of war the atomic bombing probably saved lives by ending the war sooner and beginning the humanitarian relief sooner. Even if the war came to an end before an amphibious invasion.
It constantly amazes me that the japenese don't appear to harbor extreme hatred to all americans. I know I would if they had nuked my country for whatever reason.
First, the nukes were such a small percentage of casualties. Civilians don't really distinguish between being nuked, firebombed or starved to death.
Secondly, you don't understand the perspective of the Japanese people at the time. After the war they quickly came to understand the truth about the magnitude of the lies their militarist government had told them, manipulated them into war. The Japanese public had a incredible turn of opinion against their former leaders. Many genuinely grew to like General MacArthur during the occupation. Having spent so much time in Asia earlier in his career he was one of the few generals who understood their culture and perspective on the world and was well equipped to co-opt that perspective.
Little things he did had a vast impact. When he first landed in Japan and went into Tokyo for the first time he allowed Japanese troops to line the streets on his route and provide security. He had minimal US security on that drive. The public noted that, was surprised at such "civilized" behavior by the American military. It didn't make sense, it didn't match what they had been told. Plus as people came home and told their stories of interactions with Americans even on the battlefield, the anger at the former government grew. In one documentary I recall a Japanese Army Nurse describing how Japanese soldiers on Okinawa gave them hand grenades to commit suicide with. Hers was a dud and failed to detonate when she tried to use it at a later date. She was wounded by mortars and when an American solder approached her, drew his knife, she expected to be raped and tortured and killed as all the American barbarian soldiers would do such things. She was absolutely shocked when he used the knife to cut open her pants near her wound and began to sanitize and bandage her wound before he moved on to another injured person. As she watched the Americans she began to realize she had been lied to, that they weren't barbarians. She had literally been told that some American soldiers were cannibals. Seeing victorious Americans act in humane and civilized ways was a complete shock to many Japanese given what they had been told for so many years. This had a huge impact on the post-war occupation. Probably the wisest, although most likely a quite unjust thing, that MacArthur did was to allow the emperor to live and continue on in a ceremonial role.
Dear Obama,
If you want to visit Japan, would you do me a favor? Never say "We are sorry".
I am Japanese, sadly, and I really hate this country because of overwork(karoshi), peer pressure,
its culture, and so on. I've always looking for a way to get out from this hellhole and start a new
life in other countries, including your greatest country, U.S.A..
Back to the topic, why I don't want you to say "sorry"? Because you, the U.S.A.. made a right choice.
If you didn't bomb Japanese, many people will die, both Japanese and Americans. Just my opinion,
but this nuclear options is completely acceptable.
The root of Japanese are crazy peoples; they force other people to be the same person
and also force to do something for their country. Many young people, including myself, want to get out
from this country(yes, really), but most of them doesn't know what to do.
Again, your country made a right decision at that time.
Some Japanese(mostly older peoples) will hate Americans because of this, but please consider it as minority issue.
Sincerely,
Just some Japanese who seeks for a living outside of this F' country
It is a strong act of a strong leader.
Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out.
As serious of a topic the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is (being the terror bombing and murder of thousands of people); thinking of the current US president as being a serial killer in the large scope of things, I couldn't help but think of that thing from movies, about serial killers returning to the scene of the crime. Not his crime ofc.
He seems to be trying to dissuade Abe (Japanese PM) from taking a more aggressive military stance and retreating from Japan's pacifist constitution.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You needed to make two replies to this like the "Republicans, they just want us all to die" guy.
It would be bad to have a president die of leukemia while in office.
Hopefully the ground is safe now.
When a president signs a treaty to end WWII *that* is historic.
A visit is essentially meaningless. Obama's visit to Cuba is also meaningless.
I DID serve. I was probably wearing my uniform when you were in diapers.
As for posting a/c: It's quick and convenient. I generally surf the web with cookies off, flash disabled, etc and do not like to log onto every site on the web and participate in all the soul-sucking and spying by billionaires who are out to hack the entire planet. I do not want to effectively run around the web with slashdot or any other site credentials exposed, and usually do not want to waste time logging in to post a comment responding to some web troll with spittle hanging from his lip.
You cited no lies. You sound like one of those stupid ignorant millennials who knows very little but shrieks "unconstitutional!", without knowing what's even in the constitution, when he disagrees with some policy, or who shrieks "racist!" when confronted with somebody who has a different opinion.
As for the NAZI comment: "NAZI" is a nick-name - the actual name of the party was "National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei" (National Socialist German Workers' Party) and you can see the initials "NSDAP" on the standards carried in parades by troops in the old newsreels. The word NAZI comes from the way the Germans pronounced the first word of the party name, which came out as "nahtzeeohnahl". The NAZIs were typical big government socialists like Bernie and Hillary (VERY far from Republican beliefs), with huge skin color fixations (again, like the Democrats who have always thought skin color mattered, unlike Republicans who were founded by Christians opposed to the idea that blacks were subhumans deserving to be slaves of the Democrats), and a big fixation on military might (Modern Republicans have this, but so have most famous Democrats like JFK, LBJ, and FDR), pumped-up by Hatred of Jews (always a fixation of left-wing parties around the world, plus a relative handful of mysteriously suicidal loudmouthed secular Jewish intellectuals in safe places like NYC)
With Obama, the lies constitute a mountain:
He promised people would be able to keep their health insurance and doctors and would save $2500/year with his Obamacare. Instead, over 6 million were documented losing their policies and most are paying more per year for worse policies now (I certainly am).
He promised that illegal aliens would not get healthcare from Obamacare (this was the statement that provoked a Republican in congress to yell out "you lie!" on live TV), but his own administration has now admitted that they are getting it, and Hillary is now promising to make it official and permanent.
He took an oath of office to faithfully enforce the laws, and has deliberately and very publicly refused to enforce the immigration and border laws, and refused to obey the laws related to prisoner transfers from Gitmo. The US Supreme Court has unanimously swatted him down for violating the Constitution over a dozen times.
He said the rise on new moderates in Iran led to his Iran nuke deal negotiations. His own administration has now admitted this was a lie and that they fooled all their liberal friends in the press - they started the negotiations with the hardliners before those elections and their partners have always been the hardliners.
He denied any involvement in the Fast&Furious gun running scandal, then when his attorney general was ordered to hand over the documents to congress Obama withheld them and asserted "executive privilege" - which can only be done over things the president himself is directly involved in (this one will be tied up in the courts long after he leaves office but JUST LIKE NIXON he will eventually lose)
He ran as a Christian who opposed gay marriage (see the video of his appearance at Rick Warren's church), and in office has been pushing gay marriage and attacking any Christians who refuse to go along. Now he says anybody who has the position he campaigned on in 2008 is a bigot.
I could waste typing a hundred more examples but I'm not going to waste any more time on you, as you have made a spectacular fool of yourself.
So another president visited Hiroshima on 1945?... I don't think so... at least since 1941 or before no president of the U.S. set foot in Hiroshima.
I'd suggest asking them to keep him, but it's such a beautiful city and I'd feel guilty doing that to them.
Is he taking Reverend Wright with him? According to his Pastor we dropped the bomb and 'didn't bat an eyelash' about it. They forget to mention the decision was made (one I happen to agree with) by a Democrat President, Harry Truman. Unfortunately, for all of us we don't have any more Democrats like that (or Republicans for that matter) who can make painfully difficult military decisions focused on the total outcome of human lives effected instead of how it effects them or their party politically or how the world may view the action. And it is rarely discussed how much communication took place to Japan's leadership describing the potential damage and capabilities of the weapon. The dropping of millions of leaflets that could not be suppressed by Japanese military leadership helped force the emperor to accept defeat and in the end certainly limited casualties on both sides. It is still a sad statement that the conflict had to resort to such a devastating weapon, nonetheless.
I found Obama's gesture a nice thing, but seeing the quality of answers here, I see how much more hard to do it is. Good thing the Japanese government has the wisdom and courage to allow it.
Now and then you still come up with good surprises, Barack. I wish you and your family many years of happiness after your retirement, which I believe is not too far away.
Actually, scratch that, I wish we all can be happy and live in a better world -- one which you are certainly working to make a reality. Well done!
Boo Fucking Hoo! Maybe if you weren't being a goddamned Hitler and going all Nazi on Europe, we wouldn't have had to bomb your sorry, goose-steppin asses back to Berlin. You're just being a Numbers Nazi now. 5 times? 3 times? 1.21 Jiggatimes? Does it really fucking matter? That AC even said "Not sure whether that has moral implications though, are 1,000 deaths more immoral than 1?" How about you take your shitty techno blaring Porsche (or as they're known in America- the Hitlermobile) and find a nice Polak to drive it straight up your wiener gobbling asshole until he knocks your kraut chomping teeth out, ya Gerry bastard! Truman '48! WOOOOOOOOOOO!
Is that not a textbook example of diplomacy?
I've heard this as well, it is probably hard to tell really. The bombs being distinct points in time are easy to point to and are the accepted rationale.
However from what I heard it wasn't so much about where the Japanese had troops deployed for defense, but rather the eventual outcome. I think the leaders knew what was coming, if they decided to unconditionally surrender or not, they were going to lose, and have an occupying force.
Would you prefer that force to be the Americans, or the Soviets? From what I have heard in many cases the Soviets could be just as brutal as the Japanese during the war, so there is that. There is also the fact, that it is more than likely Japan would have become a Soviet state (until it all broke up later of course).
So yeah, taken all those considerations the bomb while perhaps helped in the decision, may have been a convenient excuse to essentially pick a winner, what was probably thought of at the time as the lesser of two evils.
You're equating a government with the people ruled by that government. Not at all the same. Not in the slighest. Not even remotely close.
But, as usual, it isn't the government that pays the ultimate price -- it's the people ruled by that government that pay the ultimate price.