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| Nancy Pelosi Visits Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Memorial | ||
| 2008-09-03 | ||
| HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday became the highest-ranking sitting American official to visit ground zero of the world's first atomic bombing. The Democrat, who came to this western port city for a two-day annual gathering of Group of Eight legislative heads, joined other speakers in paying their respects at a memorial to the Hiroshima bombing. One by one, each bowed, then laid flowers at a white, arch-shaped monument containing the names of more than 200,000 victims of the nuclear blast. No serving U.S. president or vice president has ever visited Hiroshima. As speaker of the House of Representatives, Pelosi is second in line to the presidency after U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter stopped by the memorial in 1984, after his term, as a private citizen. Yohei Kono, leader of Japan's House of Representatives, said no decisions were made during the meeting on peace and disarmament, but he emphasized the symbolic importance of discussing the future of nuclear weapons in the city. "The fact that they all came to Hiroshima has significant meaning," said Kono after the group's daylong meeting Tuesday.
Barbaric Japs started the war killing and raping citizens of other countries at will. We ended it. My father was on a troop transport to the mainland where and estimated many American troop casualties were predicted. Those bombs saved his life.
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| Posted by:Flavinter Cherese8323 |
| #3 My father told me that at the briefings for the invasion of Japan, the Admirals were very forthright that they expected over 1.0 million casualties in subduing Honshu. As a note, the Japanese were being trained to attack us in mass Banzai attackes with spears and tools and farm implements. They had pulled back over 500,000 of their best troops into Japan and they had over 1,500 aircraft hidden away. The strategy was attrition, they threw cannon fodder at us and hoped we would tire of the fighting and go into a negotiations for peace. All in all I have read that over 5.0 million Japanese would have been killed in the fighting. The Enola Gay and Bock's Car killed 175,000 but saved almost 5.0 million by forcing the surrender. It wasn't racist or genocide, it was common sense the math speaks for itself. |
| Posted by: James Carville 2008-09-03 15:36 |
| #2 Should've taken a visit to Nanking as well. There's also a movie. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-09-03 12:16 |
| #1 Gee, Nancy, are you going to visit Manila? Didn't think so. BTW, that was an American territory that the Japanese devastated and decimated the population. They were already schedule for independence when the Japanese decided to add them to their Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere. Sorta of the pre-Puty replay of making friends and influencing people. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-09-03 08:25 |