Japan's Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma is being forced to resign...

[popculturepooka]

...after commenting that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki "couldn't be helped." The comment came from a speech in which Kyuma said, "A countless number of people were victimized (by the bombs). But it helped end the war. I think it couldn't be helped". This caused an uproar especially among bomb survivors/relatives of those affected, and politicians. With pressure rapidly mounting against him, Kyuma had no choice but to resign.

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070630p2a00m0na011000c.html

And I think he was right to say that.
Thoughts?

[SunWuKong]

whether or not he was right, as a politician, he should have known better than to say something like that.

[tripostrophe]

Maybe this should be in the rant room. I totally disagree with the bombings, but...

[huangalex]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers205.html

the bomb wasn't total absolute necessary to end the war; the Japanese were surrendering anyways. It was mainly to scare the USSR. Why didn't they drop it on Germany? Because those damn yellow bastards look weird.

[popculturepooka]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers205.html

the bomb wasn't total absolute necessary to end the war;the Japanese were surrendering anyways. It was mainly to scare the USSR. Why didn't they drop it on Germany? Because those damn yellow bastards look weird.

REALLY now? I won't deny racism played a factor, but please, the Japanese were NOT about to surrender.

They were necessary to end the war - AT THAT TIME. Those are the key words. AT THAT TIME.
Maybe Japan would've gave up later on, if America and invaded the "old fashioned way". But that would've cost hundreds of thousands, even millions, more American and JAPANESE lives.

We're talking about the same Japanese who, in the battle of Okinawa, despite being in a losing situation, fought down to the last man, and civilians participated in mass-suicide to avoid the "monster" American soldiers, and also wouldn't give up after the firebombings, which were actually more devastating than the nuclear attacks. Those same Japanese?

Also the attitudes in Japan towards the war...are just...damn...they are just so...off.
The war is largely regarded in Japan as - "there was a war in the Pacific, and then we got a-bombed." That's it. Japan's involvement with Hitler and the Axis is rarely ever mentioned. Their invasion into China and Korea are barely mentioned in historical textbooks. And Pearl Harbor? haha, you're funny. If you talk about WWII in Japan, the convo goes straight to the a bomb and how pitiable Japan is.

I don't mean to say downplay the bombings, they were horrible and they should never happen again.
But, that sentiment isn't just for the bombings. It goes for all of the things that happened in that war. Of which, the Japanese participated in quite a few.

However,when it comes to any of Japan's faults during the war, their tune suddenly changes. The Rape of Nanking "wasn't that bad", or "you can't prove all that stuff actually happened." Other horrible atrocities committed in China and Korea are also flat-out ignored. Some politicians would have you believe that the Japanese were over there "helping" their Asian neighbors. Japan forced thousands of women into sex-slavery during the war; some of these survivors and their descents have been trying unsuccessfully to get recognition/compensation from the Japanese government about this. The government's response? "You can't really prove that the government sanctioned this" (despite there being proof otherwise) or "you girls weren't slaves, there was no coercion". Some will even go as far as to say that America forced Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor.

Textbooks are altered to completely gloss over these things. Recently, the government moved to strike any reference to the Japanese military forcing civilians to commit suicide in the Battle of Okinawa. Of course, anything else - the comfort women, the atrocities in China and Korea, are nowhere to be found. These things don't seem to matter. If you're Japanese, all that matters about WWII is how poor Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed.

Those same Japanese were close to surrendering?

[SunWuKong]

Recently, the government moved to strike any reference to the Japanese military forcing civilians to commit suicide in the Battle of Okinawa.

yeah read about that recently.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6229256.stm

[deez nuts]

REALLY now? I won't deny racism played a factor, but please, the Japanese were NOT about to surrender.

They were necessary to end the war - AT THAT TIME. Those are the key words. AT THAT TIME.
Maybe Japan would've gave up later on, if America and invaded the "old fashioned way". But that would've cost hundreds of thousands, even millions, more American and JAPANESE lives.

We're talking about the same Japanese who, in the battle of Okinawa, despite being in a losing situation, fought down to the last man, and civilians participated in mass-suicide to avoid the "monster" American soldiers, and also wouldn't give up after the firebombings, which were actually more devastating than the nuclear attacks. Those same Japanese?

Also the attitudes in Japan towards the war...are just...damn...they are just so...off.
The war is largely regarded in Japan as - "there was a war in the Pacific, and then we got a-bombed." That's it. Japan's involvement with Hitler and the Axis is rarely ever mentioned. Their invasion into China and Korea are barely mentioned in historical textbooks. And Pearl Harbor? haha, you're funny. If you talk about WWII in Japan, the convo goes straight to the a bomb and how pitiable Japan is.

I don't mean to say downplay the bombings, they were horrible and they should never happen again.
But, that sentiment isn't just for the bombings. It goes for all of the things that happened in that war. Of which, the Japanese participated in quite a few.

However,when it comes to any of Japan's faults during the war, their tune suddenly changes. The Rape of Nanking "wasn't that bad", or "you can't prove all that stuff actually happened." Other horrible atrocities committed in China and Korea are also flat-out ignored. Some politicians would have you believe that the Japanese were over there "helping" their Asian neighbors. Japan forced thousands of women into sex-slavery during the war; some of these survivors and their descents have been trying unsuccessfully to get recognition/compensation from the Japanese government about this. The government's response? "You can't really prove that the government sanctioned this" (despite there being proof otherwise) or "you girls weren't slaves, there was no coercion". Some will even go as far as to say that America forced Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor.

Textbooks are altered to completely gloss over these things. Recently, the government moved to strike any reference to the Japanese military forcing civilians to commit suicide in the Battle of Okinawa. Of course, anything else - the comfort women, the atrocities in China and Korea, are nowhere to be found. These things don't seem to matter. If you're Japanese, all that matters about WWII is how poor Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed.

Those same Japanese were close to surrendering?

yup i agree. in my opinion, dropping the first bomb on hiroshima was a necessary evil but the second bomb on nagasaki was overkill.

but whatever, it was a war and all is fair in love and war. the japanese used human missiles in the form of kamikaze. we used the atomic bomb and nuked them not once but twice. gg.

any debate after the fact in regards to whether using two a-bombs as being necessary or using the a-bomb was necessary at all is due to hindsight being 20/20.

[Golden Monkey]

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers205.html

White Asiaphile dork in Japan sucking up to Japanese self pity mythology

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/mike2.jpg

Mike Rogers

the bomb wasn't total absolute necessary to end the war; the Japanese were surrendering anyways. It was mainly to scare the USSR. Why didn't they drop it on Germany? Because those damn yellow bastards look weird.

Try again. More like Germany was already beaten, Hitler dead before the bomb had even been tested.

Besides, the US and Britain had already bombed the crap out of Germany including Dresden, notice the US never touched Kyoto.

And now, everybody's favorite Indian American:

http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/07/06/thank-god-for-the-atom-bomb/

Thank God for the Atom Bomb

Dinesh D'Souza

Posted Jul 6th 2007 12:49AM

A gaffe, the columnist Michael Kinsley once noted, is when a politician accidentally tells the truth. Japan's defense minister committed a huge gaffe recently and was forced to resign. Speaking at a university near Tokyo, Fumio Kyuma remarked that the U.S. dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war "and I think that it couldn't be helped."

The reaction brought savage denunciation from groups in Japan that claim to represent the families of bomb victims. Nobuo Miyake, director of one such group, indignantly said that "the U.S. justifies the bombings saying they saved American lives. It's outrageous for a Japanese politician to voice such thinking. Japan is a victim."

Actually, Japan started it with the attack on Pearl Harbor. So merciless was the Japanese war machine that there were virtually no American prisoners of war taken on the Pacific front. Even the Nazis held many Amerians as prisoners, while the Japanese basically killed all their captives. To say that "Japan is a victim" is as absurd as saying that "Germany is a victim" of World War II.

There is a legitimate moral debate about whether it's ever legitimate in war to target civilians. But that was not the issue that Truman considered in making his decision. His main consideration was whether the atomic bombs would save American lives and end the war.

Several years ago, in a powerful essay "Thank God for the Atom Bomb," the literary scholar Paul Fussell described how he and other soldiers were preparing to risk their lives in a massive American invasion of Japan. No one could even predict the casualties that could be expected, only that they would be enormous. Fussell reported that when American soldiers heard the news of the atomic explosions, the universal sentiment among them was one of relief. Moreover, the bombs did force Japan to surrender and so they did bring the war to an end.

Now, with the luxury of hindsight, politically correct pundits try to second-guess Truman even to the point of condemning him as a mass murderer. But before we excoriate the man let's at least consider seriously how we would act in his situation. What Japan's defense minister said was that virtually any leader in Truman's shoes would most likely have made the same decision. Is there any doubt that Japan, if she had the bomb, would have dropped it on America? So the defense minister was quite right to say that this tragic outcome, in a sense, "couldn't be helped." His firing over this shows that the Japanese are not willing to face facts, even a half century later.

[huangalex]

Sorry, I take back what I said. That guy really is exceedingly ugly.

[LaiSteve66]

I'm not sure what to make of this. Should I commend him for having the balls to come out and speak the truth, or call him a dumbass for saying something politically incorrect?

[popculturepooka]

I'm not sure what to make of this. Should I commend him for having the balls to come out and speak the truth, or call him a dumbass for saying something politically incorrect?

Both?

Oh man, I feel bad for the guy, he's going to be demonized so bad.