Barack Obama in Hiroshima: Mutual apologies are in order
Warren Iwasa, a former editor of The Hawaii Herald, is a sansei, a third-generation American of Japanese ancestry.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this file photo, an allied correspondent stands in the rubble of Hiroshima, Japan, where just a month earlier the U.S. had dropped the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare, on Aug. 6, 1945.
In his memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” President Barack Obama invites us to share his longing to visit Kenya, his African father’s birth place.
I doubt if he has a similar strong longing to visit Hiroshima, my grandfather’s birth place. He’s going there because it plays a unique role in American history — and in the global mind. It’s where the United States gave birth to the nuclear age, committing an atrocity in the process.
No doubt, bad things occurred in Kenya. When I was a third-grader at Palolo Elementary School, the teacher asked if we knew what was the worst word in the English language. We didn’t, so she told us: colonialism.
On Aug. 6, 1945, something unspeakable occurred in Hiroshima. Obama has a nifty euphemism for it: “a flash of light.” He used the euphemism in his 2009 Prague speech, talking about the prospect of nuclear annihilation.
In an op-ed in The New York Times, Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer, said he can still see the flash. It was his home town, Hiroshima, that got vaporized when he was 7 years old.
There were news reports that a former American POW would join Obama in Hiroshima. The White House subsequently said that no invitation was made to Daniel Crowley, a survivor of the Bataan Death March.
Complicating the symbolism of Obama’s visit to Hiroshima with a victim of Japanese brutality and barbarism would have sent a mixed message. In fact, it would have been tasteless.
“Tasteless” is what British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent stunt in Syria. Putin had arranged for a leading Russian orchestra, conducted by a celebrity Russian conductor, to play Bach amid the ruins of the city of Palmyra.
The concert was a reminder that Russian culture and civilization was pitted against ISIS brutality and barbarism.
It was also meant to divert attention from Putin’s support of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s brutal dictator.
Increasingly, as weapons of mass destruction become more deadly, global battles are fought with symbols.
In our quest for symbolic resolution, we need to be honest. If Obama’s visit to Hiroshima is an apology of a kind, then a similar apology of a kind is required of the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
He needs to come to Hawaii and set foot on the USS Arizona Memorial.
Gestural politics is fine, but sincere, full-throated apologies are even better. Our country needs to offer a clear apology for the madness of nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Similarly, Japan must apologize for its wartime atrocities.
Americans of Japanese ancestry deserve an apology. The Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor overturned the lives of Japanese immigrants (issei) and their American children (nisei).
When the attack occurred, members of both groups, unless they had renounced their Japanese citizenship, were subjects of the Japanese emperor, with the nisei holding dual citizenship. Because Japan went mad, their loyalty to the United States was called into question.
To establish trust between the people of Japan and Americans of Japanese ancestry, the Japanese emperor — the symbolic head of Japan — should come to Honolulu and offer a heart-felt apology for the suffering endured by the issei and nisei following the Pearl Harbor attack.
17 responses to “Barack Obama in Hiroshima: Mutual apologies are in order”
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Maybe, Obama should not apologize. Maybe, he should just talk about the atrocities of wars. A good “Peace” speech would do much better and commend the friendship between 2 nations who once were bitter enemies!
Obama should not apologize and no need to. The bomb saved Japan from total destruction had we invaded Japan. Strategic bombing of Tokyo killed 300,000 and left 8 million people homeless more than the deaths by the A bomb. A high ranking member of the Japanese government remarked Japan would be a nation without cities. Not only that, their infrastructure would severely be damaged. Japanese culture is such that millions will die defending their homeland and also to commit suicide as experienced in Okinawa. The invasion would have been more destructive.
Russia declared war on Japan on August 8,1945 and invaded half of Sakhalin Island the next day. They owned the other half. Russia would have continued their invasion and Japan would more than likely be split north and south like Korea.
Operation Olympic the invasion of Kyushu was scheduled for November 1, 1945. I was to be assigned to one of the invading units. It was estimated by Secretary of War Stimson that there will be 800.000 to a million casualties of the American and allied forces.
It was also estimated that Japan would suffer 5 to 10 million deaths.
Operation Coronet was scheduled for January 1, 1945 to invade the Kanto Plain near Tokyo.. Initially two American armies, the 1st Army deployed from Europe and the 8th Army were planned for the invasion. Later there would be additional armies. The timeline was two months to invade Kyushu. In that time, the Russians would have conquered Hokkaido quickly because most of the Japanese defending forces were planned to be sent to Honshu to defend against Operation Coronet.
Operation Ketsugo, the Japanese plan to defend their homeland was never envisioned by the Americans as admitted in his book From Down Under to Tokyo by Lt. Gen Kreuger the general who planned the invasion of Kyushu. The Japanese had not only 12,720 kamikaze aircraft but a whole slew of other devices. Piloted torpedoes that can travel 20 miles, piloted bombs with wings, hundreds of mini subs to ram the invading fleet, several thousand speedboats and four thousand frogmen stationed in underwater lairs and slowly float to the surface with 3 meter bamboo poles laden with explosives. The beaches would be honeycombed with trip wire mines, booby traps, hidden underground suicides squads, howitzers, mortars, machine gun nests, barbed wire entanglements, I could go on and on and describe what they planned against us. I will not be here today had we invaded and so will a million other Americans. I read Operation Ketsugo, which revealed their last ditch effort to defend their homeland.
All the effort by the U.S. would be focused on Olympic. The launching of Coronet was dependent on the success of Olympics. If Olympic failed, it is highly probable that the Atom bomb would have been used to stop the war.
Simply stated, the bomb saved millions of lives on both sides and saved Japan from total destruction. No apology is needed. Japan recovered quickly from the help of the United States. Had we invaded, it would probably have taken a long time to recover.
Thank you for that articulate, correct, and timely reminder of what the 2 nuclear bombs dropped on Japan were all about. Far too many Americans (especially of Japanese ancestry) frequently forget the purpose of the nuclear bombs. It was an act to END THE WAR, not a decision that lead to continuing military action. But that isn’t what is taught in our schools, if at all. There is NO apology necessary from anyone. This PC issue needs to be put to bed once and for all. The fact that it is an issue at all has everything to do with the Obama presidency. His diplomatic “visit” to Japan is clearly a signal to the Japanese that he is there to apologize for the sins of Americans in the 1940’s. He doesn’t even have to say the words. The world has already witnessed a stream of Obama’s apologies, what’s the big deal with one more, right??? If an apology is coming from anyone, it by all rights should first come from those that chose to wage war on all the rest of the world, the axis powers. But only a fool would think that will ever happen or that, today, given the strife across the globe involving entirely new players, what is the point of an apology now? Put this to bed and move on. I’m sorry, but this writers belief that the US owes an apology to Japan now (whether Japan gives one or not), is simply wrong. We’re all entitled to our opinion. But not to our own facts and version of history.
Thank you for your compliment. I would like to add that the United States of America helped Japan attain a Nation State status in 1950. When the war ended our enemy became our beneficiary. We helped them recover quickly. We poured billions into their country.
The invasion would have lengthened their recovery by a decade. Unfortunately, the writer is a sansei or third generation Japanese. He did not contribute to the war effort because he was not yet born and probably ignorant of all the facts.
The nisei or second generation spilled a lot of blood to prove their loyalty and most do not share his ideology. Many nisei feel that apology is not needed. I had a friend a nisei, who is deceased now, and was in the U.S. Army. He fought the Japanese and received a decoration for his effort.
When the war ended, he went to visit his parents in Hiroshima. He found them alive and not too well but survived the bomb. He felt there was no need for an apology. He was stationed in post war Japan and knew of the United States effort to help the Japanese. I hope the writer reads my post comment.
Great reply! I studied Operation Olympic and following a long time ago. All I can say is we had very brave men to face the expected casualties within their ranks and Japanese civilian population. How to deal with school girls armed with sharpened sticks? Not a position I can fathom. But the comments I got from younger generations in Japan gloss over the many harsh details of the war the Japanese government was responsible for. Again, great commentary.
IF there was to be an apology, maybe it would mean more coming from a President that the world respected….red lines and all?
With clear thinking, apologies should proceed from each TO THE WORLD as having executed aggravated hurt to mankind as a whole. The quest for world dominion alongside the likes of Hitler and Mussolini violently terminating foreign lives and personalty cannot be excused. Too, nuclear retaliation terminating two densly populated cities is humanly questionable itself. What is this arrogance of the U.S. and Japan thinking themselves apart from the rest of the world here?
History happens. People make the best decisions they can at the time. It is best to learn from history what you can, but there is no need to apologize for it. Apologies mean nothing when coming from people who had no relation to the decisions that led to the events. Today’s President is welcome to speak about today’s ideals, and is even welcome to compare them to what has happened in history to show how we have progressed. He is not welcome to apologize for events that happened before his birth. It will simply dredge up further demands for more meaningless apologies. Acknowledge, learn, and move on.
So very much on point and so true, Dolphin743. Such apologies would be like crocodile tears. Very well said and wise. The issue is not apology. The issue would be whether differences over the matter of reparations can ever be reconciled.
When you challenge somebody to a duel, Pearl Harbor, you do NOT get to choose the weapons!
So true! I would use that notion as well, as a defense in criminal court. When somebody threatens me at Zippy’s brandishing a fork, I can grab my semi-auto UZI, grenade, or C4 dynomite to atomize his every molecule of every limb and connection of his body that is threatening to my peaceful existence.
I hope I’m not having lunch with you at the time.
Nah, my comment was really “out to lunch.” Still, it’s human nature to escalate offensively and rationalize it as defensive.
I agree!
I hope I’m not at Zippys when you’re there…..
Oh please! Just give them some food they will have indigestion and diareah!
Yeah, they could apologize for themselves.