1,139 Names Added To Nagasaki A-bomb Victims List
June 5th, 2007 by James
It may be over 60 years since an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, but the official number of victims continues to rise:
The city of Nagasaki began work Monday to add 1,139 names to its list of victims of U.S atomic bombing on Aug 9, 1945. The newly confirmed or reported victims since Aug 1 last year through March 31 will be added to the 140,144 names inscribed as of Aug 9 last year in 141 volumes of nominal list.
The books, to increase in number with the fresh additions, will be dedicated to the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for Atomic Bomb Victims at an annual memorial service Aug 9 this year.
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I see. So the foreign “comfort women,” Nanjing and Unit 731 survivors, former POWs and the like are supposed to “get over it and move on” when it comes to suffering endured during WWII, because the only victims worthy of respect and remembrance are the Japanese. Got it.
Is it worth pointing out the bizarre leap in logic here?
Probably not….
Is it not worth pointing out the bizarre double standards in Japan regarding perceptions on the war?
Only when you actually are, instead of suggesting that “Japan” doesn’t give a damn about its victims, and “Japan” is obsessed only with its own deaths. This is not “Japan”, this is the City of Nagasaki. If you wish to damn the hypocrisy of the City of Nagasaki, please talk about how the city has treated victims of Unit 731, for example. If you wish to damn the national government, explain why frequent apologies and funds and the like are being told “get over with it and move on”. If you wish to discuss the wide variety of discourse regarding the victims of Japan in WW2, then at least acknowledge that there IS a wide variety, and that many of the most damning critics of the “get over it” mindset are Japanese.
Yes, the Japanese are more interested in their own victims in the war, or any war. This is not remotely bizarre or unusual, however. You’d be hard-pressed to find a country that isn’t (how many Viet-Cong on that black stone wall in WDC?). You first need to establish that Japan is a “bizarre” outlier in this regard and preferably not by just looking at superficial Western media reports or blogs. Then you need to compare apples with apples, not with trees.
Regarding the perspective on WWII, I can’t see how Nagasaki’s municipal government and the national government’s positions are so terribly different if that is what you are suggesting, I think a general mindset of denial permeates Japan (recent gov’t “reports” denying Nanjing and sexual slavery for example, contrast with ever-inflating Nagasaki and Hiroshima death tolls)
Maybe there are no Viet Cong listed on the Vietnam Memorial, but we are discussing Japan not America, what is served drawing comparisons — have you seen the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin?
An official government report denying the Nanking Massacre? Or just a politician putting his foot in his mouth? Which govt report denied sexual slavery? Recent ones have denied an official army involvement in it, but certainly not the practice. It is important, when talking about double standards, to ensure that you are talking about one thing – it’s not fair to accuse two things of having two standards. As it is, it looks perilously like “all Japanese are the same” ideas: “Nagasaki City is a govt body, the Diet is a govt body, so they must be the same”.
Never been to Berlin, but the moment you label Japan’s stance with an adjective singling it out you are inviting comparison – after all, you yourself must have some basis for comparison to call it a “bizarre” double standard.
The Holocaust was quite unlike anything Japan did – whatever its crimes, it did not try and literally exterminate an entire people (that it was not even at war with).