Do you think that the U.S. should be apologetic for dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Or do you think that it was necessary in order to end the war? Obama thinks we should be apologetic, and made that clear during his recent visit there.
Are You APOLOGETIC, Like Obama, For NUKING Hiroshima & Nagasaki?
President Barack Obama delivered a pious anti-war address in Hiroshima highlighting “humanity’s core contradiction” of war, lamenting that humanity tried to justify war because of religion.
“How easily we learn to justify violence in the name of some higher cause,” he said. “Every great religion promises a pathway to love and peace and righteousness, and yet no religion has been spared from believers that have claimed their faith has a license to kill.”
Obama blamed “religious zeal” or “nationalist fervor” for inspiring humankind to war throughout history, but urged the world to seek a future filled with peace.
The president did not explicitly apologize for America using the nuclear bomb to end World War II but rhetorically painted a vivid scene of the bomb that wasted the entire city.
“Death fell from the sky and the world was changed,” he said, pointing to the “wall of fire” that ended the lives of thousands of people.
“Their souls speak to us, they ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become,” he said.
Read more: Breitbart
Obama paid tribute to the victims of the Hiroshima bombing as well:
HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — President Barack Obama paid tribute Friday to the “silent cry” of the 140,000 victims of the atomic bomb dropped 71 years ago on Hiroshima, and called on the world to abandon “the logic of fear” that encourages the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.
Obama’s trip to Hiroshima made him the first U.S. president to visit the site of the world’s first atomic bomb attack, and he sought to walk a delicate line between honoring the dead, pushing his as-yet unrealized anti-nuclear vision and avoiding any sense of apology for an act many Americans see as a justified end to a brutal war that Japan started with a sneak attack at Pearl Harbor.
“Death fell from the sky and the world was changed,” Obama said, after laying a wreath, closing his eyes and briefly bowing his head before an arched stone monument in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park that honors those killed on Aug. 6, 1945. “The flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.”
In a carefully choreographed display, Obama offered a somber reflection on the horrors of war and the dangers of technology that gives humans then “capacity for unmatched destruction.”
Read more: Breitbart
Here’s some history on the reason why America dropped the atomic bomb on Japan:
American soldiers and civilians were weary from four years of war, yet the Japanese military was refusing to give up their fight. American forces occupied Okinawa and Iwo Jima and were intensely fire bombing Japanese cities. But Japan had an army of 2 million strong stationed in the home islands guarding against invasion.
First, an Allied demand for an immediate unconditional surrender was made to the leadership in Japan. Although the demand stated that refusal would result in total destruction, no mention of any new weapons of mass destruction was made. The Japanese military command rejected the request for unconditional surrender, but there were indications that a conditional surrender was possible.
Regardless, on August 6, 1945, a plane called the ENOLA GAY dropped an atomic bomb on the city of HIROSHIMA. Instantly, 70,000 Japanese citizens were vaporized. In the months and years that followed, an additional 100,000 perished from burns and radiation sickness.
Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. On August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on NAGASAKI, where 80,000 Japanese people perished.
On August 14, 1945, the Japanese surrendered.
Critics have charged that Truman’s decision was a barbaric act that brought negative long-term consequences to the United States. A new age of nuclear terror led to a dangerous arms race.
Some military analysts insist that Japan was on its knees and the bombings were simply unnecessary. The American government was accused of racism on the grounds that such a device would never have been used against white civilians.
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Truman stated that his decision to drop the bomb was purely military. A Normandy-type amphibious landing would have cost an estimated million casualties. Truman believed that the bombs saved Japanese lives as well. Prolonging the war was not an option for the President. Over 3,500 Japanese kamikaze raids had already wrought great destruction and loss of American lives.
Read more: US History
