Japanese, Americans Still Apart over Atomic Bombings

Tokyo, June 2 (Jiji Press)--There is still a wide gap between Japanese and Americans in perception over the United States' atomic bombing of Japan in August 1945 during World War II, a U.S. opinion poll has shown. U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima on Friday was a historic event, making him the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in either of the two Japanese cities devastated by the atomic bombings in the closing days of the war. But a majority of U.S. citizens still apparently believe that the atomic bombings brought the war to an early end and saved the lives of many U.S. troops. According to a poll conducted last year by the Pew Research Center, 56 pct of Americans think that the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both in western Japan, were justified, against 34 pct who disagreed. In Japan, however, only 14 pct said the bombings were justified, versus 79 pct who said they were not, the poll said. Even after Obama's plan to visit Hiroshima was announced, U.S. officials, including Susan Rice, national security adviser to Obama, repeatedly said that the United States would not apologize for the atomic bombings and that Japan is not seeking an apology. The poll also found that 70 pct of U.S. respondents aged 65 or older said the use of the atomic bombs was justified, while only 47 pct of those aged between 18 and 29 supported that view. By gender, 62 pct of men and 50 pct of women saw the use of nuclear weapons as justified. A survey conducted by U.S. polling service Gallup Inc. in August 1945, just after the atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities, showed that 85 pct of the American public supported the use of the weapons. But its survey in 2005 found that the support rate fell to 57 pct. Still, the 2005 survey also showed that 80 pct of the U.S. people still think that the atomic bombings saved the lives of the citizens of their country by helping terminate the war. The survey said that only 41 pct of the U.S. citizens believe that the use of the nuclear weapons saved the lives of Japanese people, while 47 pct disagreed. END