Wikileaks: Obama attempted to APOLOGIZE for US nuking of Japan during WWII

[angus]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/10/12/141276162/wikileaks-japan-rebuffed-idea-of-u-s-apology-for-hiroshima

I surely hope this gets made public.

Wow, I hadn't heard this.  I do remember the president's visit to Japan well.  And I remember my wife saying she hopes he does not visit Hiroshima.  But your link does not say that Obama tried to apologize.  It just says the a Japanese minister advised against a visit to Hiroshima.

[angus]

Okay, now I've read over the thread a little bit.  My comments were unnecessary since everyone else seems to have noticed it as well.

or, is it more likely Obama floated the idea of an apology, but Japan replied, "Dude, are you for flippin'  real?  We have enough trouble with China and NKorea and the rest of the hood, we don't need you apologizing for kicking our arse 65 years ago."

Possibly.  And I agree that it would have been a bad idea for him to do so.  First, he had nothing to do with it.  (He hadn't even been born yet.)  Second, it would infuriate the Chinese.  Third, Japan seems to play ball pretty well with us already.  (They even started to put a few troops in Afghanistan over large protests in Tokyo, but that got nixed.)  Fourth, war is war.  You don't expect Obama to apologize to Georgia for Sherman's rape and pillage.  You don't expect Obama to apologize to the people of Dresden for incinerating them in WWII.  You don't expect Obama to apologize to Mexico for the US Army goading them into a war, then annexing half their territory to the USA, conveniently just in time for the California Gold Rush.  It's ancient history.  Leave it alone.  Fifth, the Axis powers commited some of the most brutal, atrocious acts in the history of mankind.  Chinese women and children were raped, old people were forced into labor, and ancient temples were razed.  The Japanese don't even teach that in the history books.  It's like then Japanese incursions from 1931 to 1945 just didn't happen.  Oh, we were just minding our own business, and one day the Americans and Russians and Chinese started bombing us.  I'm certain that their leaders know better, but the average grade school student doesn't.  If anyone owes anyone an apology, it is the government of Japan.  To its own people.  

Still, your thread title is misleading boss.  Be honest.  It's muckraking, and you have no evidence, only conjecture, that Obama wanted to apologize for nuking them.  

[angus]

Still, your thread title is misleading boss.  Be honest.  It's muckraking, and you have no evidence, only conjecture, that Obama wanted to apologize for nuking them.  

well, unless you think Japan just brought the subject up out of the blue (which would be highly presumptuous), what other conclusion is there?

Well, I started googling, and found a Fox News report that the White House released a press statement today that said Obama never had any intention of doing this.

How well do you know Mitoji Yabunaka?  Who can say why he sent such a cable?  Maybe somebody in the White House simply floated the idea of a visit.  You know, for old time's sake.  And Yabunaka-san just wrote back to say not to do it, adding on his own that an apology wouldn't be in order at this time.  It's quite possible.  We're a strange people in that regard.  Americans are always "Demanding an apology!" or, worse, giving one.  I imagine our nation's real First Black President never owned a slave in his life, but that didn't stop Bubba from apologizing for slavery.  It's a quirk of our culture, somehow, that we have become apologists for everything, and probably foreigners just think of as one of our weird ways.  So when the Obama cabinet member calls up Yabunaka-san and inquires about the possibility of a visit, Yabunaka=san assumes that Obama-san is planning to come to say Me so sorry for bomb.  And Yabunaka-san writes Obama-san and says, "Don't do.  We have enough probrem with China."  Or maybe Hillary just threw it out there and it got around to Yabunaka-san.  I don't know. 

But neither do you. 

[angus]

expressing a sorrow over drooping atom

To be sure, nothing quite evokes sorrow like a drooping atom.