My question is: Are there any generally known rebuttals to these statements and what are they exactly?
My feelings exactly.The history of war is the history of pain
I think what is one of the most horrible things about the World War II is the profound human suffering, that particulary civilians had to endure( like in the case of Hiroshima)
I dont want to participate to the should have or could have debates about dropping of the bomb.
Is it important to talk about it? Yes, but I think arguing about it here and insulting other posters wont really change the past.
To me its more important, that we remember what took place during those years and teach to future generations about the horrors and history of WWII, so that we as a humanity wont repeat the same mistakes in the future.
Should US apologize? I dont know if its necessary..but showing respect to those who died is a good idea.
I sincerely hope that President Obama will visit the Hiroshima memorial in the near future and will lay some flowers there. This would send a profound message and would maybe help to heal the last remaining wounds still open in Hiroshima.
Well that depends on the context. Taking the event out of context, the US looks like a bunch of war criminals. When you start adding in all the facts however the picture starts to change.
“Anniversary” is an emotionally neutral word. It simply means the passing of X number of years since an event. It's customary to memorialize the anniversaries of sober and tragic events as well as happy ones.
Definetly. If an army is invading a nation as heavily populated nation as Japan, there is no doubt that more civilians will be killed than soldiers. Putting that aside, let's also not forget that a good chunk of American soldiers at the time were conscripts. They were civilians who were forced into the situation. Are their lives any less valuable because their nation made them fight? Also, it's not the responsibility of the US government to look out for the enemy in a time of war. The number one priority for the military in war time is to accomplish its objectives. It's second is to protect the lives of its soldiers. It's a tad unreasonable to expect any country to sacrifice millions of its citizens to prevent the deaths of a few thousand of the enemy.
Finishing the war in a way that Japan can't paint itself a victim. Unfortunately, MacArthur allowed just that during his tenure of initial occupation. Germany was allowed to behave much the same in the wake of the first world war. They painted themselves as victims of over aggressive victors among the right wing and the military. The Japanese wanted to negotiate a surrender, the allies were having none of it, and the atomic bombs were the underlining of that fact. Yet here we are, thanks to the soft peddling of Japan's war deeds of the prior 30+ years as victims. Let them, Emperor and Prime Minister stand there and apologize for that, let the Prime Minister and the Emperor apologize for all the trips to Yasukuni Shrine to honor the war dead, including Tojo there, and stop going there. Let them start living up to their past the way Germany has, otherwise, they have no claim what so ever on my sympathies.
