August 6, 2026, marks the 81st anniversary of the use of the first atomic bomb in history. Each year, the dwindling number of survivors of the bombing are paraded in front of the world press, reminding people (as if we could ever forget) of the horrors visited on civilians that day.
The Japanese government has pulled off one of the greatest magic tricks in history. It has pulled a historical switcheroo and made America the villain in World War II while Japan is portrayed as a victim. All because America wanted to end the war as quickly as possible.
Just once, I'd like to see a mention of the cause of all the suffering: the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor that killed 2,400 Americans and forced a nation that was at peace to fight a long, bloody war.
Just once, include an acknowledgment of the up to 30 million civilians deliberately killed by the Japanese. The vast majority were non-combatants across East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific who died from massacres, aerial bombardments, forced labor, human experimentation, biological warfare, deliberate mass starvation, and disease.
Just once, I'd like to see a remembrance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki include the hundreds of thousands of women raped and, for the most part, murdered by Japanese soldiers. This unspeakable war crime included 100,000 to 200,000 "comfort women" forced into sexual slavery. The Japanese military established a state-sponsored system of sexual slavery across occupied territories. An estimated 80% of these women were Korean, alongside tens of thousands of Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian, Taiwanese, and Dutch women forced into military brothels.
The most prominent example occurred during the Nanking (Nanjing) Massacre in late 1937, where historians and military tribunals estimate that between 20,000 and 80,000 Chinese women and young girls were raped — and often subsequently murdered — over a six-week period.
Just once, I'd like to see a remembrance of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that includes an apology for the millions who died in Japanese terror bombings. Long before Hitler bombed London with incendiaries, the Japanese air force had perfected the practice of "terror bombing" major Chinese cities. They weren't trying to hit factories or military installations. They dropped bombs on Chungking, Nanking, and other cities where civilian populations were the most densely concentrated.
All of these facts are lost when the stories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are retold. There is no perspective offered in these remembrances, only a plea that it never happens again. Perhaps that plea should include a request that the Japanese government stop talking out of both sides of its mouth on the war and trying to play the victim card regarding the dead from atomic bombs. It has grudgingly acknowledged many crimes, including the "comfort women" issue and some other atrocities. But high-ranking officials in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), including former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have repeatedly challenged or reinterpreted these statements, arguing that the degree of state coercion in forced labor or wartime brothels has been exaggerated.
An example of the government talking out both sides of its mouth is its handling of the textbook approval system. Secondary school history textbooks are written by private publishers but must be screened and approved by the Ministry of Education. Critics in neighboring countries note that many approved texts use soft terminology (e.g., describing the "invasion" of China as an "advance") or relegate atrocities like the Nanjing Massacre to brief footnotes.
Recently, the government has tried to soft-pedal how "comfort women" were recruited. In recent years, the government has pushed back against international memorials and textbooks that state Japanese military authorities systematically abducted or coerced women into sexual slavery, maintaining instead that recruitment was handled primarily by private brokers.
Japanese cabinet members and lawmakers regularly visit or send offerings to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead, including 14 convicted Class-A war criminals. Neighboring nations like South Korea and China view these visits as an implicit endorsement of Japan's wartime aggression.
Finally, the Japanese government accepts the rulings of the post-WWII Tokyo Trials as a condition for ending the Allied occupation, but maintains the domestic legal position that those convicted are not considered criminals under Japanese law.
the most horrific and deliberate slaughter of civilians seen in any war, dating back to the beginning of warfare.
Just once, I'd like to see Japan called out for its perfidy in downplaying and even denying its role in the massacres of millions of innocents while piously invoking world condemnation of the U.S.
It's obscene. And it must stop.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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