How would U.S. Congress react if Japan requests U.S. apology for Atomic bombs on Hiroshima?

Question

and Nagasaki that killed 200,000 innocent civilians?

Answer 1

They wouldn't react. Japan reaped the result of it's attempts to use military might to expand it's empire during a volatile time frame in history. To most Americans of the time frame Pear Harbor justified the extermination of all of Japan. It is a horrible tragedy that the guilty rarely die in the wars they cause, and a sad but true aspect of warfare the the innocent suffer far more grievously than they should. Life is rarely just or fair, it simply is.

Our concerns should be focused on the possibility of such a horror reoccurring in today's world. World events, especially in the Middle East with the potential of a U.S. / Iranian war looming are as terrifying as any Islamic fundamentalist act.
With almost no warning, Hiroshima's horror can become today's Tehran, with a domino effect that could make the whole world endure what two Japanese cities did 60 plus years ago. It is almost a certainty that nuclear weapons will be used again in our life time. We can only pray it doesn't happen, it is out of our hands.

World War II resulted in the deaths of an estimated 50,000,000 people, most of them innocent civilians. An apology seems some what useless given the scope of such evil. Nuclear war today will result in the death of billions if it happens. The past exists so that we can learn from it, we can only hope humanity has done so.

Answer 2

I don't think the U.S. Congress would act on it.

The first question that would be asked would be "Where is Japan's apology for Pearl Harbor, the Rape of Nanking and other war atrocities in China, the Bataan Death March, the medical expirimentation with U.S. prisoners of war in Manchuria, etc. etc."

From what I understand, most of this is not taught to Japanese schoolchildren and is ignored and glossed over - Japan's warlike and militaristic past, and war crimes committed during WWII. America's sins are well-documented.

The dropping of the atomic bombs may not have been necessary, maybe the Japanese would have surrendered anyway and were looking for a way to do that while at the same time saving face and keeping their emperor. But this is all hindsight - Look at things from the viewpoint of those who were there at the time..... They were looking at an enemy who fought fanatically to the death, taking as many people with them as they could. The atomic bombs were viewed as a way to end the war quicker by convincing the enemy that further resistance was pointless. And who knows - they may have saved the lives of far more than 200,000 combined Americans and Japanese that might have died if the planned invasion of Japan proper would have went forward. Military experts of the day concluded that American military forces probably would have sustained at least one million casualties as the result of such an invasion.

Answer 3

They would first ask for an apology for Pearl Harbor, then murmur about how they had already apologized for the treatment of Japanese-American citizens during the war. In the long run, however the bombs were necessary to win. The United States completed many bombing missions on military targets that would have nearly ended the war, however the bombs being used were so inaccurate that only one hit the least effective location possible. So the United States designed bigger and bigger bombs to eliminate the need for precision. Thus, Hiroshima and Nagaski became victim, but it ended the war. Since that time, the United States has developed much smaller and precise bombs, capable of hitting within a few feet (or inches, few know exactly) of the intended target.

Answer 4

Regardless of weather or not it would ever happen, I would hope that even if the U. S. was "justified" in dropping the bomb, that we could apologize for the countless innocent lives that were lost. The problems with politics is that it seems to be very few people making all the big (and often wrong) decisions that effect so many people, who may or may not agree with national policy. What makes me so angry and sad is when innocent men, women, children and entire families fall victim to a few angry men playing war. So as a proud American, who doesn't even pretend to have any idea how to run a country, I will say that I am sorry for all the lives lost when our country dropped the atomic bomb on Japan.This does not mean I don't mourn the lives lost during the attack on Pearl Harbor, only that one death does not deserve another. I mean no disrespect to our Vets who served in the Second World War. I should hope that an intelligent person can differentiate compassion from anti - patriotism.

Answer 5

The Atomic bombs were terrible things but it wasn't the US who initated the war...it was Japan. And the US only dropped the bomb after Japan refused to surrender...twice in fact. So it was the Japanese's fault the bombs were dropped on innocent civilians. And many innocent civilians were killed in other countries because Japan felt like starting a war so let's not get on our high horses here about poor Japan and the bombs.

Answer 6

That has already happened, and Japan didn't have to ask!

Besides, if they wouldn't have killed so many innocent people like the Chinese, Korean and Pacific Islanders, not to mention our own men and women in Hawaii they wouldn't even have been on the receiving end this terrible weapon.

They are just lucky the USA didn't decide to be more Vengeful and take out their Capital or their most holy cities!!!

They were a mercy less murdering regime bent on taking over the world.....and they aligned themselves with the Nazi's.
Were you hoping that Hitler's Nazi's would take over the world with the help of Tojo? The whole world was against them....but no one could stop them alone.
It was a terrible time for the world and something had to be done to stop the war.

Answer 7

What would an apology do for 100000 person who burnt alive? US shall claim it was an "act of war" by you after the incident of Pearl harbour and she will plea it was only a self defence. and that japanese joined the racist Nazis in the war; bla bla bla... US must apologize for almost all the countries of the world.

See? Most answers of the American fellas here reflects what their media taught them, as if it is reasonable to kill innocent civilians, children and unborn children inside the Wombs to reply for pearl harbour. Let me tell you something you don't know people, before Truman orders the atomic attack, Nipon was already not a party to the war.. It surrenderd; but you made the bomb and wanted to test it in real life on Humans.. That's what most of the "Atomic" generals declared later. BTW, killing Civilians in any war is not by any means justified, unless we can Justify what the terrorist Bin Laden did, he was in a war with America.

Answer 8

Since we are asking for apologies with some numbers. Let's try these for size: should China DEMAND apology for the rape of Nanking, where 300,000 chinese civilians were slaughtered in 3 days after Nanking was surrendered to Japanese during the dawn of Japanese Invasion of china? Is Japan ready to admit the human experients done to thousands of civilians for biological warfare in Manchuria china, where chinese civilians were treated like how the lab rats are treated in today's scientific effors?

Is Japan ready to accept the responsibility of festering communist china when they were getting wiped out right before Japanese invasion of china? How about the millions deaths of chinese died during cultural revolution and countless other suffering caused by the communist china? Should Japan also apologize for the standards of living that China is enjoying now when it should have enjoyed 50 years ago when its domestic industries were taking off before the war?

Of course I know what you are thinking. Those things never happened, it's because that is what your Japanese teachers did not want to let you know about the shame, which is why superficial apologies from Japan are just enough for its past aggressions. The new generation of Japanese has no need for history like that, and that is why it is okay for Japan Prime Minsters to visit the the same memorials where the war-crime criminals were buried, while simple relocation of those graves to another location is just too difficult to do because you don't want to.

Honoring the deaths of those soldiers is just too important to exclude those soldiers who had done wrong, and Japan is wondering why there was such a strong reaction from chinese people when Prime Minister Koizumi visit the memorial? Gee, I can't think of a reason why not.


XR

Answer 9

Our current Congress would probably grovel for the chance. The congress we had back in 1945 would tell them: "If you don't like the first 2 we delivered we'll send you 2 more of the vastly improved type we have today. Far fetched? Not really. Those who say these people were innocent are full of it. Literally millions of these "innocents" would've been killed if we had invaded due to their belief system in the emperor being a god. So tell me which was better? Tens of thousands or MILLIONS? War is terrible but there it was. You make the decision.

Answer 10

First, Japan should apologize to China. Then to America for starting the war with its sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan started the war and we had to end it since Germany was very close to creating the atom bomb. If Hitler had taken over the world, many more than 200,000 would have died including all the Jews in the world. Then it would have been all religious people, all minorities, etc., until you were down to the master race: Blond, blue eyed and tall with no physical flaws. One exception would be Hitler who was a brunette ugly man.