Ridiculous speech. Implied apology. What the hell? This type of thing is indicative of his entire presidency and the entire phylosophical belief of leftists - symbolism and imagery and no substance and no concreteness. What the hell was the point of him doing this? What was the alternative to dropping those bombs? Leftists live in this fantasy utopian world. They criticize the way society does things and yet offer no feasible alternative.
I agree our PREZ should not be giving a speech like this on our Memorial Day (Although I admit I didn't listen to it or will I).
I used to feel the same as you about the atomic bombing of Japan. And I'm far from a leftist too, then and now.
I'll tell you the alternative. The USA should not have gone around claiming islands in the Pacific Ocean as our own in the first place.
What connections did they have to those Islands? None at all. And neither did England.
Also know that there was a lot of things going on prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Look it up, it wasn't just the crazy Japs out for blood like they taught us.
I personally believe Roosevelt and US intelligence and some top military brass knew Pearl Harbor was coming but said or did nothing to prevent it.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/McCollum/index.html
As far as the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima- I have no problem with attacking Japans military at any point once the war commenced, they were pretty nasty SOB's and committed a lot of war crimes and atrocities themselves. But I can't condone under almost any circumstance dropping atomic bombs on 2 heavily populated cities which was almost completely inhabited by civillians, mostly children, women and elderly.
Those people were burnt alive. How many was it?
There could have been a cease fire leading to a surrender or God forbid an agreement before that was done.
The US and England did the same to German cities too. In fact theyve carpet bombed many civilian filled cities in many countries and their still doing it.
Civilians according to the rules made primarily by The US and England are supposed to be left alone, not intentionally targeted.
You can love your country. Be patriotic , but understand we have done some sick shit to so many places in the last 100 years and it seems like they have no plans on stopping any time soon.