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Japanese Government Nixed Idea of Obama Visiting, Apologizing for, Hiroshima
By Jake Tapper
Oct 12, 2011 1:03pm
In September 2009, US Ambassador to Japan John Roos reported to the Obama administration that the Japanese government did not think it was a good idea for President Obama to visit Hiroshima to apologize for the US having dropped an atomic bomb on that city, a secret cable published by Wikileaks revealed.
Roos wrote the cable after his August meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka, reporting to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the Japanese government felt “the idea of President Obama visiting Hiroshima to apologize for the atomic bombing during World War II is a ‘non-starter.’ While a simple visit to Hiroshima without fanfare is sufficiently symbolic to convey the right message, it is premature to include such program in the November visit.”
A senior White House official asserts to ABC News that there was never any plan for the president to apologize for Hiroshima. The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S. Rather, Roos writes that Yabunaka thought that following President Obama’s call earlier that year for a world free of nuclear weapons, anti-nuclear groups would speculate as to whether he would visit Hiroshima.
Yabunaka recommended that President Obama’s November 2009 visit be focused mostly in Tokyo.
The cable was first reported by the Japanese Times
Obama Hiroshima trip discouraged in '09: Wikileaks cable | The Japan Times Online
On August 6, 1945, the U.S. B-29 Superfortress bomber Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” — a 8,900-pound uranium bomb – 31,000 feet above the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing up to 70,000 Japanese citizens immediately, with another 70,000 speculated to have died from injuries including exposure to radiation.
On August 9, the US dropped a similar device on the Japanese port city of Nagasaki.
Truman on that day delivered a radio address in which he said, “I realize the tragic significance of the atomic bomb. Its production and its use were not lightly undertaken by this Government. But we knew that our enemies were on the search for it. We know now how close they were to finding it. And we knew the disaster which would come to this Nation, and to all peace-loving nations, to all civilization, if they had found it first…Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.
“We shall continue to use it until we completely destroy Japan’s power to make war. Only a Japanese surrender will stop us…It is an awful responsibility which has come to us. We thank God that it has come to us, instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it in His ways and for His purposes.”
Six days later, Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers.
Three years later, President Harry S Truman expressed misgivings about his decision to have dropped those bombs to Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission David Lilienthal, who recorded the conversation in his diaries, which were later published.
Truman Library - Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politic...-of-obama-visiting-apologizing-for-hiroshmia/
Of course, I believe what a WH spokesman says - it's the God's truth if it came from a WH official, especially if there is no way to support of rebut it.From your article:
"A senior White House official asserts to ABC News that there was never any plan for the president to apologize for Hiroshima. The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S. Rather, Roos writes that Yabunaka thought that following President Obamas call earlier that year for a world free of nuclear weapons, anti-nuclear groups would speculate as to whether he would visit Hiroshima.
Of course, I believe what a WH spokesman says - it's the God's truth if it came from a WH official, especially if there is no way to support of rebut it.From your article:
"A senior White House official asserts to ABC News that there was never any plan for the president to apologize for Hiroshima. The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S. Rather, Roos writes that Yabunaka thought that following President Obamas call earlier that year for a world free of nuclear weapons, anti-nuclear groups would speculate as to whether he would visit Hiroshima.
Of course, I believe what a WH spokesman says - it's the God's truth if it came from a WH official, especially if there is no way to support of rebut it.From your article:
"A senior White House official asserts to ABC News that there was never any plan for the president to apologize for Hiroshima. The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S. Rather, Roos writes that Yabunaka thought that following President Obamas call earlier that year for a world free of nuclear weapons, anti-nuclear groups would speculate as to whether he would visit Hiroshima.
The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S.
Right. It said it wasn't a good idea for Obama to 'apologize'.
From your article:
"A senior White House official asserts to ABC News that there was never any plan for the president to apologize for Hiroshima. The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S. Rather, Roos writes that Yabunaka thought that following President Obama’s call earlier that year for a world free of nuclear weapons, anti-nuclear groups would speculate as to whether he would visit Hiroshima.
The cable indicates the Japanese government was then effectively discouraging Obama from visiting Hiroshima despite growing expectations over it following his call for a world free from nuclear weapons in a speech in Prague in April 2009.
The cable, dated Sept. 3, 2009, and sent to U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton, reported Japan's then Vice Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka telling Ambassador John Roos on Aug. 28 that antinuclear groups would speculate over whether the president would visit Hiroshima in light of his Prague speech on nuclear nonproliferation
Of course, I believe what a WH spokesman says - it's the God's truth if it came from a WH official, especially if there is no way to support of rebut it.From your article:
"A senior White House official asserts to ABC News that there was never any plan for the president to apologize for Hiroshima. The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S. Rather, Roos writes that Yabunaka thought that following President Obamas call earlier that year for a world free of nuclear weapons, anti-nuclear groups would speculate as to whether he would visit Hiroshima.
Of course, I believe what a WH spokesman says - it's the God's truth if it came from a WH official, especially if there is no way to support of rebut it.
The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S.
The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S.
There is ZERO evidence that the President ever planned to apologize to the Japanese government for the horrible thing we did to them.
Just another ODS threads for the Obama haters to jack off to.
Right. Sure. There is a cable telling him it is not a good idea to apologize to the Japanese and a WH spokesman said there was no plan ever to do so.The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S.
There is ZERO evidence that the President ever planned to apologize to the Japanese government for the horrible thing we did to them.
Just another ODS threads for the Obama haters to jack off to.
"Its not God bless America! Its God d@mn America!" Jeremiah Wright, pastor, friend, mentor, and confidante to Barack Hussein Obama for some twenty odd years.
"This is the first time I have ever been proud of my country" Michelle Obama
"By their friends yee shall know them"
In November, 2008 America elected the most anti American president ever. He will do, and he has done, whatever possible within his power to degrade, debase, weaken, and undermine America whenever possible.
Poor Obama is obviously running low on people to apologize too.
Something about the respect of the world.
The cable does not state that the idea was from the U.S.
There is ZERO evidence that the President ever planned to apologize to the Japanese government for the horrible thing we did to them.
Just another ODS threads for the Obama haters to jack off to.
