Do you find it insulting when Japan has their ceremony for "victims" of Hiroshima?

Question

...they make it seem like the US was wrong and they were right.

There were no "innocent victims" in Japan during WW II. They got what was coming to them after they murdered, raped, and enslaved hundreds of millions in Asia.

America is the hero.

There should be NO CEREMONY at all to remember "innocent victims", but the ceremony should be to celebrate the bravery of the crew on the Enola Gay.

Answer 1

YOU KNOW WHAT INSULTED ME.......SLICK WILLY CLINTON, MAKING A PUBLIC APOLOGY TO JAPAN..............HE DID THIS WHILE HE WAS OUR PREZ AND IT MADE ME WANT TO PUKE..........GOOD OLE DEMOCRATS

Answer 2

Throughout History there has been a well established 'code of conduct' in War. This code is further specified under 'the Geneva Convention', a document which was signed by the US.
Both this ancient code, and the treaty, protect the lives of citizens and non-combatants; at Agincourt the French army under the Dauphin committed an act, which his father would never had condoned, of atrocity by attacking the drummer boys, who were behind the battlefield. Countries remember these acts because they are extremely rare, more often we hear of ceasefires at fall of dusk, so both sides in a battle could collect their wounded and bury their dead. Many doctors have treated enemy wounded. These codes of chivalry are what defined civlised countries.
The nuclear bombs (let's not forget Nagasaki) were in complete breach of every ethic of battle, and was not designed to minimise civillian casualties.
Only an American would think killing 100,000s of women and children heroic, along with the dead fish and mammals, the pollution which continued to kill unborn children and animals for decades afterwards. True valour is the Ghurka soldier, who with just a knife, overruns a machine gun nest pinning down his regiment, it is the soldier attacking the tank with just a few handgrenades.
Perhaps you should read the thoughts of the Enola Gays captain, and Oppenheimer; neither felt any pride in their achievement.

Answer 3

They have a right to a have ceremony for their victims. You use the word "they" to lump every Japanese person into the category of someone who did something awful, and just as most of us have no say in what goes in in Iraq, many of those people had no say about what their government or military did.

The United States did what was believed had to be done at the time and was responding to having been attacked, but there were innocent victims all around. To be a Japanese citizen who has no control over whether his country attacks Pearl Harbor and have some other country just drop some horrendous bomb on your town for nothing you and your family, personally, did is to be an innocent victim. The U.S. was not a hero to such innocent citizens.

Nobody is necessarily what the U.S. did was just some unprovoked attack for no reason, but believing Japanese people should just be thrilled about it and disregard their innocent people who were killed just kind of forgets that they are human and have a right to have a ceremony for their people.

Forgetting that others are human is one of the first steps toward crime or war. So is lumping all citizens of a country together as if their government acts on behalf of all of them. The world doesn't need more forgetting that human beings are individuals with rights to mourn their own losses and their own side to things.

Answer 4

People lost families and loved ones. You would forbid them from remembering who they lost?

Your idea of "bravery" is pushing a button 10,000 feet over a city to incinerate millions of living things below?

I am not saying that the dropping of a WMD on Tokyo and Nagasaki didn't save many lives in the long run, or that it wasn't necessary to bring an end to the war with Japan in this way, but I disagree that there were no "innocent victims" in Japan. They were not all kamikaze fanatics. They were mostly civilians.

By your standards, you would not be much of an innocent victim either. You would be a "racist that had it coming."

Answer 5

I don't find it any more insulting than I find memorial services on September 11 offensive.

I can't agree with your assessment that "there were no 'innocent victims' in Japan." I fail to see how infants were fighters, or even remotely responsible for the acts of atrocity committed by Japanese troops. I fail to see how schoolchildren or housewives were to blame, either.

The fact of the matter is that any war--from time immemorial on down to the present--had has its share of innocent victims, people who were being invaded, people who were defeated, people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And, by the way, don't think I don't appreciate the efforts and sacrifices of the American and other Allied troops during the Second World War. All three of my uncles served in some capacity and my stepfather survived being a POW--of the Japanese.

Answer 6

There are two main points to remember:

1) The US did not have to drop the bomb. Japan was willing to surrender, with some conditions. We could have negotiated their surrender without dropping the bomb, but we wanted an unconditional surrender.

2) Most of the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were innocent. These cities were filled with non-combatants and children. Tell me the children were guilty of rape and torture.

By the way, I am not sure about the "hundreds of millions" number, but without archival evidence, I will not argue it, just question it.

Yes, the US was the hero, but our methods may have been excessive. I understand and accept the decision that was made. I even support it. However, the people of Japan have a right and a duty to mourn the innocent lives lost.

By your logic, the attacks on the World Trade Center were acceptable.

Answer 7

That's a pretty black-and-white view of history. I don't think that everything we did during the war was "O.K." because it was America. I do think the bombing(s) [remember, there were two] were necessary to stop the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, but I also think that a more military-type target could have and should have been chosen. The women, children, and civilians in general who were killed had no control over the conduct of the Emporer or the militarists, so they did not really 'get what they had coming to them'. I also feel that population centers were deliberately chosen in order to maximize the civilian casualties, and bring forth an outcry against the war by the general populace of the country, and that this was an immoral and reprehensible decision on the part of Truman and the U.S. military chiefs.
Monday morning quarterbacking, yes, but my honest take on the bombings.

Answer 8

Compare this to the terrorists thinking its wrong to have us grieve or respect those who died in the towers- Terrorists aren't a country and all that but they probably think we are wrong too-if they think at all?!This is something for their country-not ours.There were alot of innocent in it- Japan's govn. started their war and individuals did horrible war crimes as well as their military itself, so yes that more than happened but children and others that died were just trying to live their lives. I do think that many, many more lives were spared by this harsh action though. The airmen on the Enola Gay had a hard and seriousjob, the display I saw in DC was wonderful and enlightening but certainly not a celebration- it shouldn't be. Respect and honor to all those who serve and do hard duties is what we need and education for our subsequent generations so they understand how hard it was for those who fought and our country as a whole. War sucks, but sometimes in our physical world, its the only choice- to defend.

Answer 9

Not every person in all of Japan was involved in murdering, raping, etc. It makes me feel uneasy that you are painting a picture of an entire country like that. There WERE innocent Japanese victims, just as much as there were innocent American victims, innocent victims of every nationality involved.
No matter what, when there is war, the innocent will die. It's easy to think of it as "us and them" but in the end, we all fought for what we thought was right, and we all lost some innocent people.

Answer 10

My great Grandmother was in Hiroshima when the bomb fell. She was an innocent civilian much like you and I trying to live a happy life. Much like you and I have made no decisions on what role our country plays in world affairs, she did not dictate the actions of the Japanese nation.

By the way your question is phrased, I would assume that you feel that 9/11 should celebrate the 'brave' muslims that had the courage to overtake the planes that were used to kill thousands on terrible American infidels. Do you see the parallel?

Answer 11

No I do not find it insulting. Most people from whatever country just wants to live in peace with enough food, shelter and medical care. Many of the Japanese at Hiroshima were children (automatically innocent of any crimes their parents or government committed). Women who did not have any say in the Japanese government at that time. Brainwashed young people who believed whatever they were told. We were not wrong to drop the bomb, because it saved many thousands if not millions of lives both American and Japanese. The Japanese need this ceremony to remind themselves that peace and trade is much better than war and death.