16A018 A Draft Apology by Jim Davies, 5/17/2016    

Our President is shortly to visit Hiroshima, so I thought to offer to save his staff some time and draft him a suitable speech, as follows. The word is that he will not apologize to his audience, even though many in it will have lost family members in the nuclear blast, and though some will be survivors. Given that Japanese government spokesmen have on several occasions apologized for what their predecessors did in WW-II, I think that omission ought to be repaired:-

"Three score and eleven years ago, our fathers were engaged in a bitter war between our countries, which ended a few days after this great city was reduced to a fiery rubble in the most terrible explosion mankind had ever made.

"Your government at the time was far from blameless, in its arrogant quest for more people to rule on the mainland; but it posed no threat to America and my predecessor Franklin Roosevelt had not been elected to tell your Emperor what to do. He deliberately provoked your government by interrupting its supply of fuel, knowing that would cause it to attack the US Navy; and when that attack came, he with-held news of it from his commanders so that the disaster of Pearl Harbor would persuade the American people to support a war against Japan.

"I now offer you my heartfelt apology, that Roosevelt began that awful war.

"During its course, he also caused to be developed the fearful weapon of the atom bomb, and died in April 1945 without having advised his Vice-President, Harry Truman, how best to make use of it. So instead of preparing a demonstration which your Emperor could watch during a brief truce, and conclude that surrender terms must be negotiated at once, Truman ordered it to be dropped on this city, without warning. For that, I profoundly apologize.

"Truman's motive, we now understand, was not to slaughter over 100,000 men, women and children in this city who were unable either to harm him or to defend themselves, but (a) to cause your government to surrender a few weeks earlier than it would inevitably have done anyway, and more particularly (b) to warn the Soviet government that if it were to take control of Western as well as Eastern Europe, the USA would use this weapon on their armies. Your families here died, therefore, so that my country could dominate the world for the last three quarters of a century. For that, I offer my further, humble apologies.

"Japan has deservedly prospered since that War ended, and has lived in peace - which my country has not. As proof of how sincere is my apology today, I am announcing an end to America's foolish policy of trying to rule the world. We renounce war, as Japan did all that time ago, and I renounce government, which is always the source of war. After returning to my country I shall resign as President and do all I can to ensure that government at every level is dissolved completely. I encourage you to do the same."

Should Barack Obama make a speech like that? - of course. Will he? - not a chance, in my opinion. And if you agree, you just agreed that there is no way government will ever put itself out of business, and therefore that it must be helped. Here's how.