Celebration of the Bomb

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Saturday morning, hundreds, perhaps thousands of Japanese gathered in Hiroshima's Peace Park, where they commemorated the exactmoment on August 6, 1945 that the first atomic bomb was dropped.

And the peaceniks gathered there as well, and they called for the complete banning of nuclear weapons. At least they were not calling for the United States to apologize for the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as has happened on previous anniversaries of this event.

However, let's look at both issues for a second...

One problem I often have with protestors or peaceniks is that they come up with aims and demands that are unrealistic. A complete banning of nuclear weapons is simply not going to happen. For example, the entire crisis in North Korea centers around that country's quest to gain nuclear weapons technology. The European Union is negotiating with Iran on how to curtail that country's nuclear ambitions.

As long as countries such as North Korea and Iran are looking to gain nuclear weapons technology, no responsible nation on the face of the planet will agree to getting rid of what might become an integral part of their defense.

So for the peaceniks to rant against nuclear weapons is akin to me or you shouting at the sky. It does nothing and it is a complete waste of time.

The Japanese issue is multi-faceted. For one thing, there is a movement to come up with a new constitution, and this is due to the realization that there are threats to the nation's security, and perhaps more can be done at home to defend the Japanese islands...if they remove the shackles that have bound the armed forces since 1945.

The situation is different in 2005 than it was at the end of WWII. Japan is faced with a resurgent and possibly hostile China, and North Korea has proven that they can hit Japan with long-range missiles.

Yet, under the current Japanese constitution, the armed forces are strictly limited. Japan needs to, wants to, and should contribute its fair share to its own national defense. This would allow Amreican forces to reduce their presence in places like Okinawa. So, Japan should be supported in its efforts to modernize its constitution to allow for a proper armed forces capability.

On the other hand, the Japanese need to grow a thick skin, and drop the whiney little pleas for an apology whenever someone so much as sneezes wrong in their direction. The Japanese rampaged across Asia and the Pacific from 1931 to1945, they were responsible for the rape of Nanking, death camps and forced marches in the Phillipines, the abuses of "comfort women" in Korea, and other atrocities. Where are the apologies from the Japanese government for these acts of inhumanity?

People have said a number of things about war, and the people who wage it. War is Hell. The purpose of an army is to kill people and break things. All of these are right, and that's why I don't expect an apology from Japan for anything that they did...because War is Hell, and because I know that war is something to be avoided because of the human suffering that ensues.

However, going back to my argument about nuclear weapons, perhaps Japan should issue an apology for the atrocities that were committed in WWII. As it is now, some nations see Japan as an irresponsbile nation that once again wishes to re-arm. Perhaps the leaders on Beijing or other countries in the area have nightmares about a recreated Japanese Empire. An apology from Tokyo will be a first step toward telling the world that a return to imperialism is not what is happening in this case, rather that a responsible nation is going to contribute more to its own defense.

John B.
Blog Guy