US Unlikely to Apologise for Japan Nuclear Bombings Soon

The United States is unlikely to apologize to Japan for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as Washington still tries to maintain the myth that its foreign and military policies are always right, analysts told Sputnik on the 70th anniversary since atomic bombs were dropped.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Darya Chernyshova — A Populus poll conducted exclusively for Sputnik revealed that the vast majority of Japanese — 74 percent of those polled — did not believe that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings could be justified by the war situation as it was apparent that they would entail the mass killing of civilians.

Populus interviewed a random sample of 1,004 adults aged 18-64 in Japan between 29 July — 2 August, 2015. Surveys were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all Japanese adults. Populus is a founder member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

"The US hasn't apologized to maintain the myth that its foreign and military policies are always for the good, and because the wartime propaganda about the necessity of the A-bombings has served as a primary ideological foundation for subsequent U.S. nuclear war preparations," Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee organization, which promotes peace, told Sputnik.

According to Gerson, who plays a leading role in global nuclear weapons abolition movements, several US officials, including then-general and future president Dwight Eisenhower, later said that the move was not necessary.

"I think the US government is generally willing to express compassion for the sufferings of civilians in World War II, but apologizing would be saying the US was wrong to do what it did at the time. And that is much more difficult for any government to do," Hans M. Kristensen, Director of Nuclear Information Project of Federation of American Scientists, told Sputnik.

Kristensen believes that the United States viewed Japan as an aggressor which "deliberately caused unspeakable civilian sufferings," making it necessary for US military operations to force Tokyo to stop.

"Of course the Hibakusha [survivors of the bombings] deserve an apology. I think they deserve reparations. Nonetheless we are far from the first step: The perpetrator must first admit it did something wrong… Neither the Congress, executive or Judicial branches of the USA have reached that recognition. One hopes that maybe the next generation will," Mary Olson from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) told Sputnik.

This week marks the observance and remembrance of the 1945 wartime bombings by United States Air Force that killed more over 130,000 people in two separate air raids on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9. Japan surrendered six days after the attacks.