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US Ambassador Skips Hiroshima A-Bomb Ceremony

Today was the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Prime Minister Kan attended this morning’s memorial ceremony, along with representatives from 68 countries. The United States was represented by James Zumwalt, deputy chief of mission at its embassy in Tokyo:

The attendance of Zumwalt appears to be aimed at demonstrating the resolve of the U.S. to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons at a time when the administration of President Barack Obama is facing criticism from atomic bomb survivors for conducting a string of subcritical nuclear tests, observers said.

Zumwalt’s attendance also appears to be aimed at calling attention to the strengthened friendship between Japan and the United States following the active participation of U.S. military forces in Operation Tomodachi to help the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, they said.

It is a very noticeable downgrade from last year – when the United States sent Ambassador John Roos to attend the ceremony. Why did he skip this year’s ceremony?

A press release on the U.S. Embassy’s homepage states that Roos did not attend because of a “previously scheduled” overseas trip:

U.S. Ambassador John V. Roos, who attended last year’s Peace Memorial Ceremony, will be out of the country on previously scheduled travel at the time of the ceremony. Ambassador Roos sends his deep respect to Mayor Kazumi Matsui and to the people of Hiroshima as they commemorate the 66th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

A check of Roos’ Twitter account reveals that he was in Japan as recently as August 3rd, when he handed out the trophy to the winners of a horse race:

So the trip was scheduled to allow Roos to attend a ceremony at a horse race, but he couldn’t stay in Japan a few more days and attend the far more important ceremony at Hiroshima. Those are some pretty strange priorities…

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44 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - August 6, 2011 at 7:58 pm

Categories: Politics Tags:

RMilner

He skipped it to avoid complaints about his security people wearing sunglasses.
Guy

Hey, the many Japanese involved in horseracing will sympathize with Roos on this.
Marcell

“Remember Pearl Harbour” again? lmao
Comment

I’m sure someone somewhere is OUTRAGED by this…
…for a few minutes until something slightly more important happens.
Which would be just about anything else happening.

Anonymous

They should be outraged that Obama didn’t make good on his promise for a world without nuclear weapons.

Comment

There’s something else right there. Thanks for proving my point.

http://twitter.com/miz_hydee Ashleigh Battles

*facepalm* WTF Really?!?!?
Anonymous

“and attend the far more important ceremony at Hiroshima”

Important to who? It’s practically ancient history and people are still having ceremony’s for it? Get over it already. Besides if I remember my history correctly, America won, so they can attend or ignore pretty much whatever ceremony they chose.

Maybe the guy had to go celebrate GM’s taking back the top auto manufacture spot from Toyota. Japan better start looking forward instead of living in the past.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr.S.

No… you bring nuclear hell to a people and you’re on the hook for all of history. Suck it up.

Anonymous

Maybe, but aren’t most of the people who “brought nuclear hell” dead? Not many people left for your hook really.

Hraesvelgr

Even if they are dead, it doesn’t matter to some people. There are people in China that still hate the Japanese for the things they did during World War II, there are people in America that still hate the Japanese for Pearl Harbor, there are still Japanese that hate Americans for Hiroshima and Nagasaki and these people tend to try to pass their hate on to the next generation to repeat the cycle.

Day-Bee-Toe

there are still Japanese that hate Americans for Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and these people tend to try to pass their hate on to the next
generation to repeat the cycle.

I’m sorry, but I don’t agree with you. As far as I know, there are very few Japanese who hate Americans except for some radical so-called liberals (read: commies), even in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They rather hate the war itself, and actually the monument at Hiroshima Peace Park says “安らかに眠って下さい、過ちは繰り返しませぬから” (Rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the misdeed). They as well as other Japanese take the atomic bombing as the sin of the mankind, not just Americans. They would be unpleasant if someone tries to justify the attack saying like “Japan began the war”, ignoring the fact that most citizens left in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were women and children who didn’t even have the right to vote in the manipulated elections.

In my opinion, this is the largest reason that there is a perpetual historical conflict between Japan and Korea and China. Koreans and Chinese are somehow relatively persistent to historical matters: actually Koreans still have resentment against the invasion of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1592 and 1597 and Chinese continue to spit at graves of Qin Hui (1090–1155), who allegedly sold the Song China to the Mongolian Empire.
Japanese will never understand such an sentiment deeply and we will just continue to say “I am desolate with what my country did decades before, but I can’t be personally sorry for what was done before my parents were born!” and the “issue” may remain unsolved forever, unfortunately.

I think it is natural that Americans, some of whom insist on the Pearl Harbor attack even at the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami, are rather like Koreans and Chinese, think in such a way, but I hope you understand that Japanese are not, good or bad, like you on such issues.

Hraesvelgr

I really rather doubt that, unfortunately. I don’t think that it’s common in any country, but every country has its share of loons that hate some unrelated people for something that never happened to them, their family or their ancestors.

If you want to pretend that the Japanese are innocent of this type of behavior, then do as you please, but I fail to understand how you can with the things the right-wing nuts on 2ch post or the various things members of the LDP have said over the years.

http://www.billowykimono.com Senor Science

White supremacists all over the United States post racist diatribes on Stormfront. Does that mean all Americans are ignorant, white supremacists?

Give me a break man

Why are Japanese always held up to a different standard to Caucasians by Caucasians?

Hraesvelgr

It has nothing to do with “holding them up to a different standard” and everything to do with not denying that these people exist.

Day-Bee-Toe

Apparently you don’t understand “nuts on 2ch” and especially the LDP. The LDP was built by pro-US and pro-British politicians who were expelled from the power in the war-time and they are pro-US from the beginning. Actually, some right-wingers were anti-US but such a sort of them are in the verge of extinction.

Japanese right-wingers are traditionally anti-Russia (the LDP) and recently anti-Korea and anti-China (the 2ch), but either way they are not angry at the things what they were done but what (they believe) they are being done. The LDP politicians and sound-car right wingers dislike Russia because they did not return the Northern Territory (the Southern Kuril Islands) and some 2ch users hate Korea and China because they believe they are exploiting Japan using history cards.

I know no Japanese who goes anti-US on the historical issue unless they persist on the Pearl Harbor or justify the indiscriminate bombing on Japanese cities including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even in such a case, their criticism is quite rational and scarcely goes hatred against them. Few ask them an apology but just hope them to understand that the victims were civilians, most of whom were completely innocent of any kinds of war crimes.

Anyhow, it is not strange at all. Have you ever seen so many anti-US Vietnamese or so many anti-German Jews? If they don’t, why do the Japanese have to hate Americans?

Hraesvelgr

The only point I wanted to get across is that these types of people exist in Japan, too. Other than that, you undoubtedly know more about it than I do.

Also, if you thought I was implying that someone should be hated, that wasn’t my intention, nor was it my intention to imply that the Japanese have to hate Americans (what?).
Shouganai

That’s fine as long as you don’t make a false equivalency, For example the women’s world cup nastiness was for the most part 1 way. If you were to find a post from a single Japanese saying they wished another 9/11 happens it should not be looked as, oh see they also say it too so everything is equal now. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…objectivity over neutrality.
Hraesvelgr

If that’s what you got out of my comments, then I’m doing something wrong. Even if someone did say that, I wouldn’t say something about everything being “equal”. The only point I ever wanted to make was that unnecessary hatred exists in all countries. Nothing more, nothing less.
Greg

I think the more charged nature of this topic coupled with a few already-posted comments that come off as somewhat inflammatory are leading people to interpret some of your more ambiguous statements in their negative sense.

I honestly didn’t notice the negative interpretation when I first read your comments but seeing as how several people have, it seems that some portions could have been better worded.
Day-Bee-Toe

The only point I wanted to get across is that these types of people exist in Japan, too.

I don’t deny that some Japanese hate other people. What I meant to say is that Japanese hardly hate others for the past, but for the present, unlike Chinese, Koreans and perhaps Americans.

My point is that your claim “there are still Japanese that hate Americans for Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and these people tend to try to pass their hate on to the next
generation to repeat the cycle” is false and also misleading. At least it contradicts with what I feel and experience in my everyday life.

Day-Bee-Toe

Oh, one more question. Have you ever seen someone crying for another Pearl Harbor Attack or any other retaliation for the atomic bombings, as some Chinese “angry youth” are crying for wiping us out? If you did, give me an example please.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Important to who?

Important to Japanese people. It’s not ancient history to Japan. And that’s what matters in this case.

If the United States wants to make your dipshit attitude it’s official policy, it’s welcome to do so. But it won’t help its relationship with Japan.
Greg

Well I see skippy is back to his usual posts.

Though I don’t think this is as large an issue as it seems. I think it’s a good, symbolic gesture to have a U.S. official attend the ceremony each year, but I don’t think it needs to be the SAME official each time.
Chichi

広島・長崎の「反原爆活動」には国内外の様々な立場から多様な意見があるが、一つ理解してもらいたいのは、「NO MORE HIROSHIMA」であって、「REMEMBER HIROSHIMA」ではないということ。
国家主義的色彩は皆無。だから右翼には評判が悪い。

Anonymous

(my translation)

There are various opinions about the anti-nuclear bomb activities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the various places around the world. One understanding that I would like to present is that the phrase “No more Hiroshima” does not mean “Remember Hiroshima”. There is no implication of nationalism (in the first phrase), so if people are calling it right-wing, they are wrong.

Day-Bee-Toe

America won, so they can attend or ignore pretty much whatever ceremony they chose.

Seeeeesh. Say it to Iraqi people, you inhuman imperialist.
Anonymous

I could be wrong but doesn’t the US have a “Pearl Harbor Day” every year still? They should really get over it already, it’s ancient history.
Anonymous

I could be wrong but doesn’t the US have a “Pearl Harbor Day” every year still? They should really get over it already, it’s ancient history.

Comment

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/pearl-harbor-remembrance-day

Considering it is not a federal holiday, very few people bother to even acknowledge it, and that the vast majority of the population goes about their business just like it was any other day (many of them unaware of what ‘day’ it is), I’d say they pretty much have gotten over it already.

Shouganai

As they should since it was just a battle and not a massacre of civilians.

( This next part isn’t directed toward you Comment but to those who think Japan should just get over it.)

I wounder if the U.S.A. was the “bad guy” and the same fate that Japan experienced was befallen to the Americans if they would still be crying foul? I mean on 9/11 around 3k people died, and as terrible as that was, lets imagine if Al-Qaeda had a nuke and the same amount of civilians that died during the A-bombs and fire bombings of Japan happened. Do you think Americans will get over it after 60 years? Especially if people who went through it were still alive? Or if Japan had won the war, could they say to the Chinese get over the civilian deaths they did because in the long run it saved lives since it ended the war sooner?

When the day to remember the A-bombs comes around, most Japanese see it as a day to remember the victims of atomic bombs, to have world with out nuclear weapons and to have world peace. By most it’s not viewed as a time to blame Americans or to hate them. Of course there is the exception and there are racist and hateful Japanese but they are such a tiny minority that even on twitter something like remember Hiroshima/Nagasaki doesn’t trend in Japanese or English. (At least I have not seen evidence of such a thing.)

Guest

No one “wins” in a war, its just a blood bath of people (both civilians and soldiers) dying from unnatural causes.

http://www.talktotheclouds.com/ Lillian

He sent off or met new JETs a couple of days ago. You know, an ambassador does have rather a lot of things to do. I am in favor of the ambassador attending the ceremony, but as you noted, it’s not as though no US ambassador has ever attended this ceremony or even as though THIS ambassador THIS ceremony. So must he attend it every single year? Personally, I think not.
http://www.facebook.com/rallegretti Rob Allegretti

Is it that time of year again already?

*sigh*
http://www.facebook.com/rallegretti Rob Allegretti

Also, AmbassadorRoos sounds like a brand of formal-wear overalls…

BadWolf

My goodness, aren’t you the clever one.

Ponta

August 7, 2011 Embassy deputy chief Zumwalt to attend Nagasaki peace ceremonyTOKYO (Kyodo) — The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Sunday that Charge d’Affaires James Zumwalt will attend the peace memorial ceremony in Nagasaki on Tuesday on the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing as representative of the United Stateshttp://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110807p2g00m0dm018000c.html
Day-Bee-Toe

Personally I think it might be rather better that the ambassador was absent from the ceremony, which was hijacked by Kan and transformed into a place of his anti-nuclear power propaganda agitation (to those who don’t know, I am a Japan-born Japanese). They invited evacuees of Fukushima and claimed that they were hibakushas of another Hiroshima. They intentionally ignored the difference of 被爆 (lit. bombed) and 被曝 (lit. exposed), which I believe is a blatant insult against the genuine hibakushas, many nuclear engineers including those of Chugoku Electric Power Cooperation, which bases in Hiroshima, and many, many other people.

Despite the Fukushima accident, nuclear engineers have been working for the people’s wealth, not people’s death. Nuclear power is by no means nuclear weapon. If it were, fossil power, which gains energy from chemical reaction, would be chemical weapon and solar power would be hydrogen bombs.

If the U.S. ambassador thought he should not be exploited as a tool of the anti-nuclear power fascists, I rather support him.
DucTo

a little more dignity at least Mr. Zumwalt. Im sure it was a hot August day, but everybody else had their coats on! WTF, President Obama is the Nobel prize winning peace president–guess nuclear weaons are not important. The Mayor of Honolulu got himself there, why did the Ambassador of the US mess up his schedule?

flowby

Kool Bizz I guess.
lovely

and if it is hot why should they wear their coats? that`s just nuts. i think the more people doff their trappings the more that gets done. so much is just for “that`s the way it`s done” and that is stupid mentality. i say off with the jackets and on with the sunglasses if that is what makes you able to bear the heat/sun.

Anonymous

It’s not like the U.S. didn’t send anybody. We sent the “Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy, Tokyo”. That sounds a lot like “Vice-Ambassador” to me, the perfect person to send if the ambassador can’t go.

Also, this horse race was 5-6 days ago. The U.S. Ambassador doesn’t fly commercial airlines. Flying in and out of Japan isn’t an issue. Staying for a couple of extra days isn’t an issue. If he needed to, he or his staff could call up their pilot and have the plane ready in an hour or two to fly to Washington D.C. to meet with the President or whatever.

He had to be somewhere else (meeting with the President, maybe?). So he sent a polite message and sent his second in charge in his place. That’s as good as you can do.

Sounds like non-news to me.
Guest

His previous tweet was “sooo glad I skipped the hiroshima memorial, that would have been TOTALLY awkwaaard~!”
João

America is the most dangerous country now. We should avoid at all costs to ever get close to that damned land. Just see the many wars and shits they are doing for long time.

US Ambassador Skips Hiroshima A-Bomb Ceremony

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