Comments

Posts

US House speaker to visit Hiroshima A-bomb memorial

AFP reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is about to become the ighest-ranking sitting US official to visit the atomic bomb memorial in Hiroshima:

No sitting US president or vice president has ever paid respects to the dead of the US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a sore point for many survivors in Japan.

Pelosi will travel to Hiroshima for a meeting of parliament speakers from the Group of Eight major industrial nations. Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency, is a member of Barack Obama’s Democratic Party.

On Tuesday, Pelosi and the other speakers will lay flowers at a memorial in Hiroshima, hear testimony from a bomb survivor and hold discussions on disarmament, according to Japanese officials.

45 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - September 2, 2008 at 6:43 am

Categories: Foreigners in Japan, Politics Tags: a-bomb, hiroshima, nancy pelosi

James

Love the reactions
WGP

Dear America,

You gave us the Bomb.

Thanks very much.

love from

The World.

Level3

Dear Japan, Germany, et al.,

You prodded us to use our brains (and some of yours who were smart enough to leave your countries) and develop The Bomb to end your wars of agression.

Since then, we have been a superpower.

Thanks very much,

Love from

The USA

helical

Meh, sure it might have hastened the end of war, but I have a feeling the US only intended to show it off to Russia.
Ending a war of aggression was just a convenient excuse.

morningstar

I am glade that Pelosi will attend and pay respect .
Doodles

Note, I don’t know if your American or not but I thought you should just know, Pelosi is NOT 2nd in line for the presidency. She’s 3rd. Both Bush and Cheney have to croque before she can become President. Same will be said whoever wins the Presidential race in November.

jmadsen

that means she’s second IN LINE. Bush isn’t in line, he’s already President.

The article is correct.
jmadsen

Pelosi is 2nd IN LINE for the Presidency. Bush is the President, so he is not in line.

The article is correct.

jmadsen

I’m right both times. (sorry)
http://www.japaneconomynews.com/ Ken

Although, it seems only the Vice President can technically assume the title of “President of the United States.” The others, from Speaker of the House on down, can only assume the title “Acting President of the United States.”

Section 1 of the 25th amendment. It’s not perfectly clear, of course…

http://www.hormel.com VonSkippy

So how many Japanese leaders have visited the Perl Harbor memorial – and acknowledged that they started the whole mess.

Kevin

I’m not sure what that has to do with Pelosi visiting Hiroshima.

But just for your information, the Emperor has visited the cemetery where soldiers killed at Pearl Harbor are buried to express his condolences.

Emperor visits Pearl Harbor cemetery

He was pressured by right wing groups to stay away from the Arizona Memorial, but I’d say that his gesture is valid.
Karasu-kun

So wait, there’s a memorial for a programming language now?

Yeah, nothing like a flimsy pretext to go to war based on something that the people there knew about already, they proved that with the submarine that they found in the early 2000′s. Not to mention the fact that Hawaii wasn’t even incorporated as a state until 1959, and of course the ham-fisted manifest destiny brandishing idiots waaaaay before that essentially stole the islands with the “bayonet constitution” I believe it was called. Kamehameha bitch.

sod

there should be a caption contest for the photo! its perfect for it.

Bob

Pelosi: “US nuclear disarmament is a very important subject and we are… Oh, I left the gas on at home.”
Bob

Nuclear disarmament… and I am whistling Dixie.

Bob

Japanese Lady: So I take it you will not be having a second glass of Wasabi-cha?

Osakesan

haha

Level3

“I’m truly apologize for the reckless acts of the Republican president who dropped the Bomb on your cities…

huh?

He was a Democrat?

Ohhhhhhhh..”
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Japanese woman in Kimono: “Here are the six symbolic drinks in memory of Hiroshima, representing “peace”, “love”, “honor”, “will”, “sacrifice”, and…where the hell did “hope” go?”
Mister M

That is history and nothing can be more tragic than this terrible episode where 300 thousand civilians were killed by Yankees. Now US/Japan relation is better than before, but Bush adminisration is making it worse.

Dr.Yu

Here comes again the japanese to cry about the “poor” japanese victims of the WWII …
I agree that every single live deserves respect, but do Japan thing the same? Do Japan feel sorry about the chinese, vietnamese, filipino, korean, australian, americans poor victims?

ponta

Let me ask you an question in order to know in what sense you are asking the question.
Do Korea feel sorry about the Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Canadian,
Americans etc poor victims?
The Overthinker

“Dr Yu”: Yes.

Dr.Yu

Ponta, don’t waste your time asking me this question, it is irrelevant.
I’m sure if Japan showed sincere attitude of regret for what they did in WWII we wouldn’t be having this kind of conversation.
I’m sure that many people are willing to forget this issue in name of good relationship with Japan, but Japan is the only hindrance for this to happen.

ponta

Ponta, don’t waste your time asking me this question,

Then don’t ask your question in the first place.
Japan has apologized to Korea many times.
Japan has paid reparation to Korea.
It is just that Korean ultra-nationalism does not want to accept the fact and does not want to move on.
I really feel sorry for Korean ethnic intellectual people who are not eroded by Korean ethnocentrism. I am so overwhelmed by Korean ultra ethnocentrism that it is sometime difficult to resist the temptation to —mistakenly—say that ethnic Koreans are ultra-nationalist.

ZoneDaiatlas

What about the Filipinos? Don’t they deserve an apology fromt he Japanese Governement?

ponta

I am not sure if JG specifically expressed apology to Filipino, but it expressed apologies to people of Asian nations it invaded.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E4%BA%89%E8%AC%9D%E7%BD%AA%E7%99%BA%E8%A8%80%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7
And Japan paid compensation to Philippine.
http://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~worldjpn/documents/texts/JPSEA/19560509.T1J.html
And some Filipino comfort women accepted an apology from PM and received compensation.
Dr.Yu

Ponta,
This is Japanese and this could be anything from a cake recipe to a Japanese novel.
Don’t you have in english?
ZoneDaiatlas

Well according to this…

“Then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said there was no proof the Filipino women were coerced into sex slavery” and that “The US House of Representatives, the Dutch and Canadian parliaments have passed nonbinding motions urging Tokyo to offer a formal apology, but Japan has refused.”

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20080815-154894/Filipino-women-seek-Japans-apology-for-WWII-rapes

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2008/08/15/filipino_women_seek_japans_apology_for_wwii_rapes/
ponta

ZoneDaiatlas
It is well known among the researchers about comfort women, that in case of Philippine, it was blatant cases of rapes by individual soldiers.

Abe’s statement should be put in a wider context.

What has been happening at the time of the war or war-like situation as for the sexual abuse of women , as far as I understand, is the followings.

(1)There are cases of rapes.

(2)Military uses local brothels.
ⅰ）Local agents recruit women for prostitutes.
Out of poverty, some women apply for it.
ⅱ）Local agents sometimes deceive and/or force women into brothels.

3)Military is in one way or another involved with the prostitutes to prevent V.D. from spreading.

（ⅰ）Some military just turn an blind eye on soldiers involvement with prostitutes and agent’s abuse of women.

（ⅱ）Some military legalized prostitutes and regulated agents.

（ⅲ）Some military systematically recruited and/or kidnapped women in their own hands to make them prostitutes　.

(1)to(3)(ⅰ）are the case with almost all the military in the world. It happened in Vietnam　and it has been happening elsewhere.
(3)ⅱ）was the case with Japanese military.
Korean military emulated Japanese military in Korean War.
(3)ⅲ）was the case with German during WWⅱ.

The only Japan offered apologies and compensations.
Ironically other nations involved with military exploiting women has been demanding more apologies from Japan while turning an blind eye to their own cases.

What Abe said there was no evidence that Japan was involved in the form of (3)(ⅲ）

English media was biased and misleading in this regard.

Aceface

“I’m sure if Japan showed sincere attitude of regret for what they did in WWII we wouldn’t be having this kind of conversation.
I’m sure that many people are willing to forget this issue in name of good relationship with Japan, but Japan is the only hindrance for this to happen”

I think Koreans are too smart for doing that. By no means they would waste the chance to play the “Victim” card,especially they are certain about Japanese do regret what they did in WW2 and intending to have good relationship at all costs.

leitmotiv

For all the shrieking and posturing in the US Congress about what Japan should do about lingering WW2 issues (even if some of may be justified), its astonishing that Pelosi is the first high-ranked official from US Gov’t to publicly visit atomic bomb memorial. Its seems way overdue.
morningstar

Only time we see Cheney is when he have to get a new battery for his heart.
Dr.Yu

Ponta,
You seem to be angry with my comments but you are loosing the point: Don’t ask others to pity you when you didn’t do the same with others.
The A bomb is just the result of what Japan did in the past, but Japan act hypocritically asking other to repent and show remorse while Japan does the opposite.
As I said before, Japan is the only hindrance to any attempt to solve the historical problem.

Kevin

So Dr. Yu, what do you suggest Japan do? What would it take for you to believe that the government has shown true remorse? Prime ministers have apologized many times, but if that doesn’t count, what does?
ponta

Dr.Yu
Don’t put words into my mouth.

Mister M

It is interesting that Dr. Yu and Ponta has diferent viewpoints of the history of Japan. I realized that there are in some degree bias from both pro-Japanese(Ponta) and the anti-Japanese(Dr. Yu). I am not Japanese, but I live in Japan and I studied Japanese History outside of Japan.

The truth of matter is that China and Korea failed to recover from their sufferings and their corrupt governments were not able to overcome their weakness. As Lee Teng Hui mentinoned before, Japan was able to overcome their sufferings which they suffered during the WW2 thanks to their moral tradional and historical values which came from Confucian Teachings. China and Korea were more concerned to recover their national pride, while Japan was more concerned to recover their economy and social status in the society. China and Korea always looked at the past, while Japan looked to the future by improving her people and other people too. Korea and China as well as Phillipines got a lot finalcial help from Japan as well as social and structural investments from Japanese government. To be honesty, Japan is still helping those countries today. The major financial donor of China is Japan followed by the US and Europe. Phillipines with his corrupt government dont go anywhere without foregner investment, and Japan is the one who help them to get rid of poverty. Korea has improved its economy thanks to Japanese money.
Dr.Yu

True repentance is what seems to be the one showed by the Japan emperor. It’s true that he never refers to this matter but at least he doesn’t not provoke Korea glorifying the past atrocities or trying to legitimate the crimes by pointing the finger to the Koreans. I heard that the emperor paid respect to American soldiers in Pearl Harbor and to Korean soldiers in some country in South Asia (Indonesia?).

Confucianism is stronger in China and Korea than Japan. The economic recovery of Japan is credited to the USA assistance rather than the “Japanese Confucianism”. Japanese financial assistance to Korea were investments made for profit. Look at the Korea-Japan trade balance now, Japan has a surplus of US$ 30 billion. It was never meant to be compensation or assistance.

Lastly, It may be off topic but I think Japan should return the ears and noses buried in Kobe (Mimizuka) to Korea, to be buried in Korean soil. That would be a proper way to show respect to the killed ones.

The Overthinker

“It’s true that he never refers to this matter but at least he doesn’t not provoke Korea glorifying the past atrocities or trying to legitimate the crimes by pointing the finger to the Koreans.”

So does the Japanese government?

The idea of returning the remains in Mimizuka is insane. First, can anyone imagine what a nose looks like after being buried for 400 years? Second, it happened over four centuries ago. It’s not like returning a stolen artwork from a Nazi hoard (personally I think the Stone of Scone should never have been ‘returned’ either). And third, the mound itself does show them respect. Have you ever been there? There is a detailed and far from self-promoting description of what it is, and in Korean as well.

So are you claiming that Japan just paid money to Korea so it could exploit it later? Is that what a trade imbalance automatically means? Was this sinister imperialism behind the Marshall Plan in Europe as well?
ponta

DR Yu
Aside from your　crap comment about mimizuka etc, let me ask you.

What is the justification for demanding endless apologies after several apologies and compensations from the government and Tennou, other than satisfying Chauvinistic Korean nationalism among many Korean ethnic people?

Mister M

Dr Yu

I really think that you should learn by history that Japan has been since the end of the war a pacific country that just care about the improvement of itself and other nations including Korea and China. I advice you to study about 1965 – The Normalization of Japan-Korea Relation and what they decided to do. Part of the treat was that Japan should pay compesation to Koreans. They paid compessation to Koreans; however, President Park and his government decided to use this money to urbanize and structurize Korea.
ZoneDaiatlas

Dear WGP,

The Russians got the Nazis V2 Rockets while Dr. Wernher von Braun and other Rocket Physicists and Astronautics Engineers defected to the US not stoled according to you, WGP. Dr. Wernher von Braun is known as the father of the United States space program for NASA.

Love from

The US frickin A
The Overthinker

von Braun actually only went to the US after the war. He didn’t exactly ‘defect’ as such. He surrendered to the US as preferable to the USSR, and was taken there. I doubt he was too upset by the prospect, however.
Kevin

Wow, a lot of ignorance in this thread.

US House speaker to visit Hiroshima A-bomb memorial

Recent Comments

Further Reading

Babies Born on March 11th Receive Special Present

Washington Times Freelancer Slams Former Employer, Fails to Ethically Disclose Relationship?

Christopher Johnson Attempts to Silence Criticism of His “Gaijin Gulag” Article (Legal Threats!!!)

Tabloid Reports About Yu Darvish’s Love Life: Kirara Asuka & Miho Koga?

Does K-Pop Group KARA Have Ties to North Korea?

Tokyo Gate Bridge

Sara Errani Admits She Avoided Tennis Tournament in Tokyo: Feared Radiation

Chinese Workers Who Survived March 11th Tsunami Return to Tohoku

Why’s Zippei So Quiet? TV Dog Had Vocal Cords Removed

UN: Fukushima Radiation Health Effects Will Be Relatively Small / Not At All Comparable to Chernobyl

Categories

Archives

Subscribe

Japan Blogs

Korea Blogs

Linkroll

Other Asia Blogs