Groups representing victims of the 1945 atomic bombings of Japan said Wednesday they demand an apology from President Clinton for his remarks that Washington owes Japan no apology for the attacks.
The Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs and the Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers, organizations representing bomb victims from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, said they have sent a written protest to Clinton for the remarks made last week.On Monday, about 50 atomic bomb victims and residents of Hiroshima had staged a sit-in in front of a monument to victims of the attack on their city, calling on Japan's government to seek an apology from Clinton for his remark, which he made to reporters last week.
Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama expressed regrets over Clinton's comment, but Foreign Minister Yoehi Kono tried to tone down the issue Tuesday, saying the Japanese government has no plans to protest.
"It is more important for the two countries to build up cooperative relations for the future," Kono said.
In August, Japan will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the world's only atomic bombings in an act of war, with vastly differing perceptions of the attacks persisting on different sides of the Pacific Ocean.
The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and the second was dropped on Nagasaki, another southwestern Japanese city, on Aug. 9. Six days later Japan surrendered.
More than 200,000 people were estimated to have died in the aftermath of the bombings, and at least 100,000 perished later from radiation sickness.
Late last week Clinton told reporters the United States does not owe Japan an apology for the atomic bombings of the two Japanese cities.
President Harry Truman decided to bomb Japan to speed up its surrender and to save lives, arguing that a prolonged war would have cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
Critics of the atomic bomb attacks said Japan was on the verge of surrender, and that Truman's real motive was to demonstrate U.S. power to the Soviet Union.
The commemoration of the end of the war 50 years ago has already triggered sensitive issues, including a proposed antiwar debate in the Diet, Japan's Parliament. Some lawmakers hope to apologize for the country's actions, but others strongly oppose it.
A furious disagreement has erupted on what should be debated in the motion, leaving Murayama's coalition government deeply divided and the issue remains undebated in the Diet.
"Many are calling for an apology from Japan for atrocities committed when it invaded large tracts of Asia during the war, causing untold suffering for many millions," said Roger Buckley, a history professor at Tokyo's International Christian University.
"There are also some Japanese who have significant, if not majority, support who argue it was a war of liberation against Western imperialism and communism."