President Obama: Visit Hiroshima...and apologize

This month, President Obama makes his fourth and final visit to Japan. He's never seen fit to visit either Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the two cities we nuked 71 years ago this August...but he should. If he does visit, he should apologize for our unspeakable acts of violence, using atomic weapons that killed tens of thousands instantly, and killed many additional thousands slowly and agonizingly over the decades.

The biggest lie to emerge from our self serving narrative of WWII is that those two nukes saved half a million US military deaths (Truman's guess, that George H.W. Bush inflated to a million) from an invasion to end the war. Having endured the incineration of 100 cites from B-29 dropped napalm, two more cities wiped up using nukes didn't push Japan to surrender. It was the Soviet invasion of August 8, 1945, plus the hope (eventually realized) that Japan could keep Emperor Hirohito. Why did we drop them? Because we could, and we needed to intimidate the Russians, likely triggering the Cold War that lasted for 45 years. Sadly, many in government today seek to re-start it.

It took 65 years for a US government official to visit Hiroshima. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Hiroshima recently and believes Obama should complete the ceremonial and healing process by the last guy in government to get the buck. And the last guy who gets the buck, gets to apologize.