Blog #112 – Apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
We spent a day last week discussing whether we should have dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. The author of the essay, “The Biggest Decision: Why We Had to Drop the Atomic Bomb”, Robert James Maddox said that there were a variety of reasons why we had to drop the bomb. You discussed the reasons, and I’m sure you came to your own conclusions. However, it’s a done deal. There is no time machine. Truman ordered two bombs dropped, and they were dropped. The war ended, the Japanese surrendered, and a horrific invasion of the Japanese mainland was avoided. But the question remains: where do go from here w/ our relationship with Japan?
“I will never apologize for the United States – I don’t care what the facts are.”
George H.W. Bush
President Obama went to Hiroshima back in 2016, and some people were clamoring for an apology to the city or the Japanese people for the dropping of the atomic bomb(s) in August 1945. An individual quoted in the New York Times written before the visit was quoted as saying that “an apology by the president ‘would set the tone of reconciliation that all nations can respond to.’”
In the same article, another person said that Obama could “lament the damage caused by the atomic bombs without apologizing for their use.” A third person said that the president shouldn’t apologize for the bombs because the bombs “saved lives by avoiding a [total war] military invasion of Japan.”
A fourth opinion suggested that Obama use his speech to get the Japanese to confront their troubled legacy from World War 2 and their atrocities in Korea and China. A fifth person suggested that since Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for advocating the reduction of nuclear weapons, he should announce his veto of a previously approved plan to spend $1 trillion on improving our nuclear arsenal.
When Obama gave his speech at Hiroshima, he said about the victims:
“Their souls speak to us. They ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become… How often does material advancement or social innovation blind us to the [truth that science allows us to bend nature to our will]? How easily we learn to justify violence in the name of some higher cause… Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us. The scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution as well… Mere words cannot give voice to such suffering [as at Hiroshima]. But we have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eye of history and ask what we must do differently to curb such suffering again.”
Please read the whole speech here: Click here.
Some things to think about:
– Does America have a moral obligation to lead the way with nuclear weapons since we were the only country to use them on a population?
– Would an apology open up the door to Japan asking for reparations for the bombing?
– Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for his country’s treatment of Native Canadians in the past. An apology “doesn’t cost anything… Has no effect on policy. It was just the nice thing to do.”
– America has apologized to Japanese Americans for their internment, to Rwanda for not getting involved in their genocide, for slavery, and for the treatment of Native Americans. But there are many, many things that America (the president, Congress) has NOT apologized for.
– Americans have been worshipping our war heroes, but the nuclear bombs makes it seem like they might have done something wrong.
– Japan hasn’t apologized for Pearl Harbor, but are the two acts comparable?
– It seems that liberals want to be transparent, self-critical, and ask “are we living up to our values?” Conservatives stress national strength and unity, they want to instill pride, and remember the great things that we have done as a country.
My questions:
1. Read over Obama’s speech. Do you think he apologized for the atomic bombings? Why or why not?
2. Using the “things to think about” section, which of these comments resonates with you the most? Explain.
3. Which of the five opinions from the New York Times article fits best with your own views on this issue? Why?
Former President Obama did not apologize for the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Obama did say that no tragedy like the atomic bombings should ever happen again, because of the lives that it took but Obama also recognized that it also saved lives. He talked about how we as humans must never allow a tragedy like it to happen again but he never apologized for it happening. Maybe, because he realized that it was the fact that American got better economically and placed at a higher and stronger ranking in the world, making America the way it is today almost. Obama describes the advances that were made in America after the bombs had dropped, but dropping a bomb on innocent people was an extent that America was willing to take at that time. Obama says that the technological advancements were essential for the war to stop, and to make America better, but there could’ve been a more civilized manner of soothing the war. Obama was sincere to the lives that were lost in the attack but made a point that it was for an advancement in America, making it better, even though they took innocent lives more lives could’ve been taken if the attack was withdrawn. “Technological progress without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us” (Obama). An advancement with technology is a huge step for human society because it takes a whole step or lunge forward, without policies or guidelines for the advancements it is either life or death like the atomic bombing which caused thousands of lives to be lost. Without guidelines or policies, any country an initiate any weapon at any points just because they don’t approve of the rules a different country is doing, but since we have guidelines and a mind to not attack any country whenever, and where ever.
I believe former president Obama did not apologize in his speech to the crowd at Hiroshima. Through the majority of his speech he talks about how war has been a part of human history since the first of man. He also talked about how the mushroom cloud served as a stark reminder that even though we’ve advanced in technology since the days of sticks and rocks we are still just as savage. Obama reminds us that “The scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution as well”. With such an advancement in destructible capabilities we must learn to be more careful and peace loving as the next war could be our last. He gives his condolences to those who were killed or lost loved ones but never said anything that hinted apology or regret as ”how often does material advancement or social innovation blind us to this truth? How easily we learn to justify violence in the name of some higher cause”. The president warns us that large advancement in technology or dedication to a higher cause such as religion or nationalistic pride can blind us to the cruelty we bring to other people.
The thing that resonates with me the most is “Japan hasn’t apologized for Pearl Harbor, but are the two acts comparable?”. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined claims over 120,000 mostly civilian lives not to mention the lasting effects of radiation. While Pearl Harbour claimed over almost 3,000 lives mostly military. Even though the two incidents are not comparable in casualties they are in effects. The atomic bombs were meant to end a war while the bombs dropped on Pearl Harbour were meant to start one. Pearl Harbor was what got the US involved in the pacific. That means every bullet fired from an american gun to every bomb dropped from an American plane was a result of Pearl Harbour. That is not to say that Hiroshima and Nagasaki had no such impacts, the impacts they left, though not claiming anywhere near as many casualties, threaten to annihilate the human race every day.
The opinan i most agree with is to“lament the damage caused by the atomic bombs without apologizing for their use.” Obama could use this as an opportunity to talk about the horrors of nuclear war and the long-lasting effects that come with it. He can also use it to encourage nuclear disarmament to ensure another incident like this, with hundreds of thousands of innocent lives extinguished in seconds, will never happen again. The decision to drop the bombs, as horrible as they were, was the best option the allies had at the time. It was this or stage an all out invasion of mainland Japan. This would have claimed over half a million american lives and countless lives of Japanese civilians. It would have also required the soviets to invade northern Japan which would have resulted in a communist north Japan creating a scenario similar to the one we see in modern day korea.