US Believes Bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki Justified – Chinese Professor

The United States won’t apologize for the atomic bombs it dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as Washington thinks its actions were justified, said Shi Yinhong, a professor of International Relations and Director of the Center on American Studies at China’s Renmin University.

From the American point of view, the use of nuclear bombs against Japan was an important strategic move to end the war on the Pacific front. The main thing US generals were worried about was reducing the number of American soldiers killed in the Pacific, Professor Yinhong told Sputnik.

"In this situation, the dropping of nuclear bombs on Japan was necessary for the US President," Yinhong said.

Since Washington believes its actions were justified, Japan shouldn't expect an official apology from the United States, the professor added.

Earlier, a Populus poll conducted exclusively for Sputnik revealed that the vast majority of Japanese people — 74 percent of those polled — believe that the bombings of the Japanese cities were not justified by the war.

According to Populus, some 60 percent of respondents in Japan think Washington should offer an official apology to the victims of the nuclear bombings, while only 11 percent say that an apology is not necessary.

On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a US B-29 bomber, dropped an atomic bomb that killed about 140,000 residents of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A second bomb followed three days later, leveling the city of Nagasaki and killing an additional 70,000 people.