John Roos attends Hiroshima Memorial

[rareboy]

John Roos, the American ambassador to Japan is the first Us representative to attend the memorial service.

http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&source=...roshima+memorial&gs_rfai=&fp=e152ff60f580dc26

 

[Centexfarmer]

I have mixed feelings about this and they're illustrated in this article:

Gene Tibbets, whose deceased father, Brig Gen Paul Tibbets, piloted the bomber, told Fox News: "It's making the Japanese look like they're the poor people, like they didn't do anything. They hit Pearl Harbor, they struck us. We didn't slaughter the Japanese. We stopped the war."

How many tens of thousands of peoples did the Japanese slaughter in China, Asia, and the Pacific during the nearly 10 years that they were at war with the rest of the world?

But that's not what the Hiroshima Memorial is about:

The prime minister, Naoto Kan, said Japan must continue to look to its ally for security in "uncertain times" – a clear reference to the perceived threat from a nuclear North Korea.
"I think that nuclear deterrence continues to be necessary for our nation at a time when there are unclear and uncertain factors," Kan said. "We share strong hopes for nuclear disarmament, but the reality is that nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction are spreading."

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was established to not only memorialize the victims, but also to establish the memory of nuclear horrors and advocate world peace.

So Ambassador Roos attendance can be viewed from about any angle I suppose.

 

[rareboy]

But that's not what the Hiroshima Memorial is about:

No. It is not.

If there were never reconciliation, we'd all still be at war with Germany and Italy too.

I think it is appropriate that the US have a presence at such memorial services. It only enhances respect for America and its people.

 

[jackoroe]

We made our peace with Japan after we defeated them. As we did the other Axis powers. I'm not comfortable having the US attend this memorial any more than I would be having the Japanese attend any Pearl Harbor memorial. It's just unseemly.

 

[rareboy]

And yet German officials attend holocaust memorials.

It could be argued that it is a moral necessity that for peace to truly inhabit men's hearts that they need to truly understand the impact of war on all people and to reaffirm their commitment to peaceful means of resolving disputes in the future.

The second world war was arguably the last great medieval war; where million and millions of innocent people were swept up in the antiquated imperial ambitions of tyrants.

Memorials should be about giving the innocent a moment of reflection and consideration.
It can only strengthen the good in our souls.

I think that I can say that for many of us in other nations, John Roos attendance raises our estimation of the United States people and government.

 

[laikaNYC]

And yet German officials attend holocaust memorials.

Apples and oranges. Estimations have said that an invasion of Japan would have cost more lives than 10 nuclear bombs would. And how exactly can the Nazi's atrocities against the world be justified?

 

[MercuryJones]

People are so reluctant to move on, still fighting old wars in their heads that are long since past.

 

[BostonPirate]

who cares. It's a sign of respect to our allies on a day of mourning to attend. Too much thinking going on here. Why should we hang our heads in shame and avoid the memorial.

It is what it is.

We are now their allies and we should express our support for their grief and loss. No one has apologized for anything.

There are japanese that attend memorials all the time in Hawaii. Does that mean they are apologizing?

I tend to think that this is not a one or the other choice, and this black and white thinking is just , well, simple.

You can share the greif of a former enemies loss while still knowing that it was needed... and that is an entirely different topic, as to whether the Nukes were needed. It ended the war expediently, and that was needed because it was expensive in cost and life. The greatest generation taxed themselves silly during that war just as they were coming out of the great depression JUST so that the debt of the war would not be passed on.

So the bombs may have saved untold lives and we probably don't owe an apology.... so why does that mean we cannot go and greive their loss????

I am not getting the line of thinking.

 

[MercuryJones]

I am not getting the line of thinking.

That's because you're not a sore-winner.

 

[rareboy]

Without going into detail, I am saddened that I was criticized and mocked outside this thread for 'preaching' peace.

The intent of the thread was to applaud the US for demonstrating solidarity with other nations in acknowledging the need to eliminate the potential for nuclear weapons to be used to settle conflict in the future.

I am not ashamed in the least to prefer peace to war and an end to the slaughter of innocents.

 

[MoltenRock III]

How many people on this thread have actually been to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum?

I think it should be mandatory that every President should have to visit this museum before being sworn in, if they haven't been already. Given, they are the ones responsible for possibly launching nuclear weapons they need to see exactly what these weapons do to a civilization and to human beings.

You need to see what a river clogged with bodies is like because all the blast survivors are burning up on the inside from radiation and are trying to cool down. You need to see what concrete looks like after a living, human being, is vaporized in front of it, thereby protecting it from some of the blast furnace. You need to see photos of thousands and thousands and thousands of people with blast and radiation wounds to their bodies. You will be haunted.

Claiming a President shouldn't go is like saying he also should go see the horror that is Dachau or Aushwitz. Sorry, but that chickenhawk nonsense doesn't fly with me.