do you think the American people still have hard feeling about the bombing of Pearl harbor?

Answer 1

Like most horrible things that happen in war, a couple generations later people who didn't live through it acknowledge its awfulness without much of the attached emotional baggage, which is where America is now. So I don't think there are many "hard feelings" simply because so few living experienced it viscerally. History books tend to suck the horror out of horrible things.

megalomaniac,
Not minimizing the enormity of Hiroshima et. al., for sure, but I do take some issue with one phrase you used.
Did the firebombing of Dresden "make up" for that whole Holocaust thing? Nukes killed women and children, no doubt, but so did the Japanese--and the A-Bomb didn't do it face to face. Which is more immoral, pressing the button that drops the bomb that kills thousands of women and children, murdering "just one" child in front of it's mother and then raping that "just one" woman and looking her in the eye when you kill her? That sort of thing's been done by Japanese in China and Americans in Vietnam, does that "make up" for either of them? Let's not open up an atrocity exchange on Wall Street -- everyone would be in debt.

Answer 2

I am not sure if "hard feelings" is the correct term but I would suggest that very much below the surface of the American psyche there is this collection of "bad things" that have happened to the U.S. over its history and that from time to time the government and special interest groups remind the public of them. Pearl Harbour is definitely one of them. A few other events might be the killings of JFK and MLK Jr. and other significant Americans (RFK, Lincoln, McKinley, etc.), the hostage taking in Iran (1979), Gulf of Tonkin, and of course the attacks of September 11. Many of these incidents are not part of the working memory of much of America; some are, and will continue to be because at the appropriate times they will be described in a certain context so that support can be garnered (or even fever whipped up) to rally the cry against a perceived enemy. Every society has these historical touchstones that help define the character of a country. Pearl Harbour is used from time to time. Hard feelings may develop for some who have a connection - a death of a relative or loved one or combat experience against the Japanese - but to most Americans it is really just an action movie about an attack that caused the U.S. to enter the war.

Answer 3

Last summer, the veterans of Pearl Harbor - both the Americans and the Japanese - got together and had a wonderful time playing baseball with each other and visiting the USS Arizona Memorial together. Afterwards, they all said they found their former enemies to be gentlemen of sterling character. If these men who once tried their damnedest to kill each other can forgive and befriend the other guy, why should the rest of us hold a grudge?

Answer 4

Yes and No. Many of my family- that I never got a chance to know were killed in that attack. I am young, however, since they say history repeats itself, I do not have hard feeling- but an aware eye. Also, I try to buy American made products- I think any country should support it's own people.

Answer 5

I think that the bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo (don't forget that Tokyo and other cities were flattened too) kind of made up for that. I think that Americans have moved on, at least judging by the number of Hondas, Toyotas and Sony products floating around the USA.

Answer 6

We should forgive but not forget. I am sure the Japanese and German people have changed for the better, but you might wonder if they are fully rehabilitated.
American history books are pretty candid about mistakes made. We can make informed judgments about the A-bomb, Vietnam, and other controversial topics. I have heard the history books in other countries are not as honest.

Answer 7

Hard feelings against who? Most of the involved people are dead. Of course we are saddened by the fact that it happened, but we can't continue to blame generations to come for something that they had nothing to do with.