Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma apologized yesterday for saying the US atomic bombings of Japan during World War II "couldn't be helped," a news report said, in an apparent move to contain damage ahead of parliamentary elections this month.
"I am sorry if my comments gave the impression I disrespect the victims," Kyodo News agency quoted Kyuma as saying at a news conference in Nagasaki, where he is from. "I will refrain from making such comments."
The US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II, in the world's only nuclear attacks.
Officials at the defense ministry and Kyuma's office were not immediately available for comment yesterday.
"I understand that the bombing ended the war and I think that it couldn't be helped," Kyuma had said in a speech on Saturday.
His comments drew sharp criticism from survivors and some opposition lawmakers called for his dismissal.
"The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed the two cities at once ... killing hundreds of thousands of people," said Terumi Tanaka, secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, an A-bomb survivors group.
"His remarks are nothing but verbal abuse ... We demand the minister retract his comments immediately," Tanaka said in a statement late on Saturday.
The opposition Social Democratic Party called for Kyuma's removal from office.
"We will question [Japanese] Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe's appointment of him and we will call for the minister's dismissal," party policy chief Tomoko Abe said yesterday on TV Asahi before the apology was reported.
The defense minister, who came under fire earlier this year for calling the US invasion of Iraq a "mistake," tried to quell criticism by saying his comments had been misinterpreted.
Kyuma told reporters late on Saturday he meant to say the bombing "could not be helped from the American point of view."
The embarrassment came as Abe's scandal-tainted government struggles to gain support from voters ahead of July 29 upper house elections.
Recent polls showed that support for Abe's Cabinet has plummeted to about 30 percent from 70 percent when he took office in late September.
Political scientist Jiro Yamaguchi said yesterday the incident underscores the lack of Abe's leadership and bodes ill for his government.
"This will damage the credibility of the Liberal Democratic Party [LDP] and Abe's administration as a whole and will become one factor to accelerate things to go in the wrong direction, if not dealing a fatal blow," said Yamaguchi of Hokkaido University. "The elections will be a tough one for the LDP."
On Aug. 6, 1945, the US dropped a bomb on Hiroshima, killing at least 140,000 people. Three days later it dropped another on Nagasaki, where city officials say about 74,000 died. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945.
Bombing survivors have developed various illnesses, including cancer and liver diseases, from radiation exposure.
In the US, the bombs were widely seen as a weapon of last resort against an enemy that was determined to fight to the death, but instead surrendered unconditionally six days after Nagasaki was attacked.
Critics -- including many Japanese and some Americans -- believe US president Harry Truman's government had other motives: A wish to test a terrifying weapon and the need to strengthen Washington's hand against Moscow in what would become the Cold War.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS