Why would Obama go to Pearl Harbor and apologize for a war that was not started by America?  Apologizing for something that he has no idea what really happened seems to be something he is very good at.  America did not start the war with Japan – Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.  He also visited Hiroshima and laid a wreath at the Shrine.

If Obama is so interested in wars – why hasn’t he done anything in the Middle East. Maybe he should now go to Iraq and Afghanistan and lay a wreath where the Muslims have committed genocide on men, women, and children by killing and raping the women and children. And how many American soldiers have been killed and maimed?

Following the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the United States Navy established a base on the island in 1899. On December 7, 1941, the base was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy airplanes and midget submarines, causing the American entry into World War II.

One of the main reasons that Pearl Harbor happened was because the United States had major communication breakdowns among several branches of the U.S. armed services and departments of the U.S. government. This led to the surprise Japanese attack at the Hawaiian air base.   Even if American army and navy forces had not been surprised by the Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, they would have been defeated just as decisively.

There was no meaningful plan for the air defense of Hawaii, for American commanders had no understanding of the capabilities and proper employment of air power. As it was, had the Pacific Fleet acted on the war warnings it undoubtedly would have sortied and been at sea on December 7, where the major ships would have been sunk in deep water, making salvage impossible.  Shortly after the devastating Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor two American military commanders, Lt. Gen. Walter Short and Adm. Husband Kimmel were demoted of their full ranks. The two American commanders are now seeking to restore their reputations and full ranks.

Did Japan think America would stand idly by, after their attack – which killed many American serviceman?  What did they expect – a pat on the back?

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HIROSHIMA, Japan — Barack Obama on Friday became the first incumbent US president to visit Hiroshima, the site of the world’s first atomic bombing, in a gesture Tokyo and Washington hope will showcase their alliance and reinvigorate efforts to rid the world of nuclear arms.

Even before it occurred, the visit stirred debate, with critics accusing both sides of having selective memories and pointing to paradoxes in policies relying on nuclear deterrence while calling for an end to atomic arms.

The two governments hope Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, where a US atomic bomb killed thousands instantly on August 6, 1945, and some 140,000 by the year’s end, underscores a new level of reconciliation and tighter ties between the former enemies.

“We come to ponder the terrible force unleashed in the not so distant past,” Obama said after laying a wreath at the peace memorial.

“We come to mourn the dead, including over 100,000 Japanese men, women, and children, thousands of Koreans, and a dozen Americans held prisoner. Their souls speak to us.”

Before laying the wreath, Obama visited a museum where haunting displays include photographs of badly burned victims, the tattered and stained clothes they wore, and statues depicting people with flesh melting from their limbs.

“We have known the agony of war,” he wrote in the guest book. “Let us now find the courage, together, to spread peace and pursue a world without nuclear weapons.”

After speaking, Obama shook hands and chatted briefly with two atomic-bomb survivors. Obama and Sunao Tsuboi, 91, smiled as they exchanged words; Shigeaki Mori, 79, cried and was embraced by the president.

The city of Nagasaki was hit by a second nuclear bomb on August 9, 1945, and Japan surrendered six days later.

A majority of Americans see the bombings as having been necessary to end the war and save lives, though some historians question that view. Most Japanese believe they were unjustified.

The White House had debated whether the time was right for Obama to break a taboo on presidential visits to Hiroshima, especially in an election year.

But Obama’s aides defused most negative reaction from military veterans’ groups by insisting he would not second-guess the decision to drop the bombs.

Obama’s main goal in Hiroshima was to showcase his nuclear-disarmament agenda, for which he won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

“Amongst those nations like my own that own nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape the logic of fear and pursue a world without them,” he said.

Victims, perpetrators

Obama avoided any direct expression of remorse or apology for the bombings, a decision that some critics had said would allow Japan to stick to the narrative that paints it as a victim.

“We remember all the innocent killed in the arc of that terrible war and wars that came before, and wars that would follow,” he said. “We have a shared responsibility to look directly in the eye of history.”

For atomic-bomb survivor Eiji Hattori, Obama’s remarks provided solace.

“I think it was an apology,” said Hattori, 73, who was a toddler at the time of the bombing and now suffers from three types of cancer.

“I didn’t think he’d go that far and say so much. I feel I’ve been saved somewhat … For me, it was more than enough.”

Atomic-bomb survivors said earlier that an apology from Obama would be welcome, but for many the priority is ridding the world of nuclear arms, a goal that seems as elusive as ever.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has affirmed past official apologies over the war but said future generations should not be burdened by the sins of their forebears.

China and South Korea, which suffered from Japan’s wartime aggression, often complain that Japan has not atoned sufficiently.

“It is worth focusing on Hiroshima, but it’s even more important that we should not forget Nanjing,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on Friday, according to the ministry’s website.

China says Japanese troops in 1937 killed 300,000 people in its then-capital of Nanjing. A postwar Allied tribunal put the death toll at 142,000, but some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars deny that a massacre took place at all.

“The victims deserve sympathy, but the perpetrators can never escape their responsibility,” Wang said.

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Japan atomic bomb survivor: I’m not looking for an Obama apology
Akiko Fujita .

Remembering Japan and America’s wartime past.

Sueichi Kido describes the moment as “a flash and a boom.”

He was just 5 years old the day the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on his hometown of Nagasaki, killing more than 70,000 people.

Kido still remembers hearing the Enola Gay flying in, while he ate a cup of somen noodles outside, 71 years ago.

“I never saw the plane. I just heard it,” the 76-year-old said. “I remember saying ‘it sounds like a US plane.’ The engine was so lively.”

Moments later, Kido saw a flash light up the sky. Then, a loud explosion.

The impact threw him 100 feet away, and knocked him unconscious.

“When I woke up, I couldn’t even recognize my mother’s face,” he said. “It was completely burned. It swelled up immediately. She couldn’t see.”

Still, she carried him to a nearby bomb shelter where she collapsed. The images Kido saw on the way, still haunt him.

“I saw charred, dead bodies everywhere,” he said. “People kept yelling ‘give me water, give me water.”

Despite the horrors he witnessed, Kido says it took him 7 years to realize he had survived an atomic bomb. News was censored in the immediate aftermath of the attack. His family and friends never talked about it. He connected the dots, only after he saw a photo-book documenting victims.
“To say that I’m a hibakusha, to say that I experienced the atomic bomb took a huge amount of courage,” Kido said, using the Japanese term given to atomic bomb survivors. “Even in college, I tried to change the subject when people talked about the war. My friends never dared ask about my experience.”
Yet, over the last 20 years Kido has become an active member of the Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of Atomic Sufferers Organizations, in part because he knows the number of living atomic bomb survivors is dwindling fast. Just 180,000 remain.

“I have only a small story to offer, but my generation is the last that will be able to share it with the world,” he said.

Kido has traveled all over Japan, and shared his story at the United Nations in New York. And while he won’t be traveling to Hiroshima to see President Barack Obama visit the sight of the nuclear attack, he hopes the visit sheds new light on the horrors of war. A commitment to a nuclear-free world, he says, would be far more powerful than any apology.

“(The atomic bomb) was a mistake that humanity caused. It must never happen again,” he said. “We need to accept that. That’s the most important thing.”

(Mr. Kido has to understand – war results in bad things  Maybe he needs to blame the original perpetrator.  The Japanese soldiers and the leaders who treated the American prisoners with inhuman acts – so what is the difference.)

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