The Japanese:
I am quoting extensively from an article by Kiroku Hanai. Kiroku Hanai, a former editorial writer for the Tokyo Shimbun, writes on a wide range of issues, including international relations.
In his "War Without Mercy," John Dower quoted Charles Lindbergh as writing in his diary that U.S. soldiers thought nothing of shooting to kill Japanese prisoners of war and soldiers who had surrendered in New Guinea.
The Tokyo Trials did not take up abuses committed by Allied soldiers against prisoners of war. Furthermore, judges were appointed only from the Allied Powers and the trials were often used as a forum for taking revenge.
The Emperor, the supreme wartime leader, was exempted from the trials, as was the commander of the Japanese Army's Unit 731, which used humans in experiments with biological weapons in China, in exchange for data on the results of experiments. All this damaged the fairness of the trials.
Only the Indian judge, Radhabinod Pal, argued that Japan was not responsible for the war, but his opinion was not made public until 1952, after the Allied occupation of Japan ended. Pal later became a symbol of Japanese conservatives disavowing the Tokyo Trials. In June this year, a monument praising his conduct was erected at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the military war dead, as well as Japan's convicted Class-A war criminals.
If the Tokyo Trials had been conducted more fairly and openly with the participation of judges from neutral nations, Japanese conservatives would not be denouncing the trials as they do now. The conservatives' campaign was triggered by a row over historical perceptions in some Japanese history textbooks. The whole episode is highly regrettable.
Theories abound about why the United States decided to drop the atomic bombs on Japan, such as that the U.S.:
* sought to establish military superiority over the Soviet Union in anticipation of a rivalry in the postwar years;
* wanted to have the international community see the power of the bombs in a real war, with the hope of eventually placing nuclear weapons under international control;
* hoped to demoralize the Japanese and avoid the 1 million U.S. casualties expected if Japan was invaded; or
* was angered when Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki ignored the Potsdam Declaration at a news conference.
The third theory, purportedly based on a magazine article written after the war by former U.S. Secretary of the Army Henry Stimson with the aim of sidestepping criticism of the atomic bombings, is believed by many Americans. But in reality, according to some reports, the U.S. military had estimated the total number of fatal victims and the wounded from a ground war in Japan at 30,000 to 40,000, on the basis of battlefield experiences on Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
Torii says in his book that President Truman's priority was to intimidate Moscow and that Truman believed the U.S. should not let Japan surrender until it completed the atomic bombings of the two Japanese cities. For that purpose, Torii speculates, Truman schemed with Secretary of State James Byrnes to remove any assurances of retaining the Emperor from a draft of the Potsdam Declaration that set the terms of Japanese surrender. These accounts, if true, would imply that Truman had no conscience.
In 1996, the International Criminal Court came up with an advisory opinion that the threat or use of nuclear weapons contravenes international law regarding armed conflict, especially humanitarian law, and is generally illegal. However, the U.S. has never apologized for using the atomic bomb, history's worst weapon, in the 60 years since the war ended.
We *never* would have bombed any European city or country with an atomic weapon. It just wouldn't happen. For the most part, those people are our ancestors. The Asian population in the U.S. was extremely low at that time so it was easy for us to bomb them with a nuclear weapon as we felt no emotional or intellectual connection with them.
Bush: I believe Bush has: 1)lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq; 2) promoted the torture of prisoners of war by keeping them off U.S. soil and by establishing secret prisons in Eastern Europe; 3)has allowed and promoted domestic spying without a warrant, which is the legal "check" against government abuse.
I believe there is sufficient evidence for impeachment. All of this is much more serious than Clinton's stain on a woman's dress.
Barry
