U.S. Ambassador Visits Nagasaki

Based on what was known at the time, the US has nothing to apologize for.

We know now the Japanese high command, or at least the elements of it that had the power to make the final call, threw in the towel when the Soviets attacked.

In July/August of 1945 no one knew that.

In hindsight Nagasaki in particular was completely superfluous and unnecessary, and Hiroshima probably could have been avoided as well by just waiting another week for the Red Army to instill the fear of God into the Emperor and IJA/IJN high command.

But that is in hindsight.

Kyonid has it right – those who died during the last days of the war in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Manchuria and the Northern territories saved those who were left. Without the events of early August 1945 the war would almost certainly have dragged on longer, with an even higher death toll. Especially if invasion of some or all of the home islands became necessary.

If it was really that cut and dry, we wouldn’t still be here debating this issue 60 years after the end of the war, now would we?

And the US certainly can apologize, if not for dropping the atomic bombs themselves, for murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians with experimental, radioactive weaponry.

There is a huge difference between apologizing for fighting the war the way the US thought most effective to protect our troops and recognizing that we unleashed unspeakable horrors on people who should not have had to die. It’s stupid at this point to debate theoretical eventualities at this point, but we can at least be remorseful for the atrocities (warranted or not) that we committed.

@ Senor Science – And no, that is not playing devil’s advocate. The Japanese committed those atrocities in China. As someone from the US, it is our responsibility to understand the grave severity of what we did to win WWII. The Japanese can do all the soul-searching they want about events that occurred in China, but trying to justify the atomic bombs in that way is just disingenuous.