Japan, America And The War In The Pacific

EDM number 1227 in 1994-95, proposed by Harry Barnes on 12/06/1995.

That this House urges the Japanese Diet to bring forward a clear and unequivocal statement of apology for Japan's large role in starting the war in the Pacific, particularly its attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, its brutal occupation of many countries in the region and the widespread mistreatment of prisoners; also urges the United States Government to apologise unequivocally for its militarily unnecessary decision to use atomic weapons for the first time ever on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in which around 200,000 people perished; recognises that senior US officials acknowledged this in 1945; notes the views of the then US Commander in Chief, and future US President, General Eisenhower, that 'it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing,' and the view of Admiral Leahy, President Truman's Chief of Staff in 1945 that 'this barbarous weapon was of no material assistance in our war against Japan ... in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages'; and commends the work of former State Department official, Gar Alperovitz, whose book, Atomic Diplomacy, Hiroshima and Postdam - the use of the Atomic Bomb and the American Confrontation with Soviet Power, should be required reading on the issue.

This motion has been signed by a total of 25 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.