A FORMER Worcester mayor has repeated his controversial views on the use of atomic bombs at Hiroshima days before the world remembers the end of the Second World War in Japan.
Coun Alan Amos once again used the VJ Day commemorations on Wednesday (August 15) to launch a stinging attack against the Japanese government for its actions during the conflict and in the years since.
The outspoken city and councillor hit the headlines in 2015 when he claimed the world should be ‘grateful’ the Americans dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima to effectively bring the conflict to an end.
And ahead of this year’s commemorations, Coun Amos said it was ‘shameful’ the crimes against humanity by the Japanese were ignored while ‘we are constantly every day reminded about the horrors committed by Hitler.’
“Most people will know nothing about it. It is not taught in schools and will be ignored by official and public bodies,” he said.
“The Japanese still refuse to apologize for their crimes. This is because they are not sorry for what they did, only that they lost the war they started.”
The United States carried out two bombings of Hiroshima in August 1945, during the final stage of the Second World War.
At least 129,000 people were killed in the attacks which remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history.
Coun Amos, whose father was captured as prisoner of war by the Japanese, claimed Japan was now changing its constitution to allow it to build up its armed forces, a policy currently forbidden.
“This will allow them to take part in military activities at a time when they are deliberately provoking China over disputes about the ownership of various tiny islands throughout the Pacific,” he said.
“Japan has falsified official school history textbooks by, for example, denying the murder of more than 200,000 Chinese civilians in the infamous Nanking massacre and the Japanese Prime Minister and others regularly worship at the Yasukuni shrine where the hanged Japanese war criminals are buried.”
“So, thank goodness the Americans had two atomic bombs – and it took two – and the guts to drop them to end the war and save the lives of an estimated two million allied troops and Asian civilians.
“Clearly, Japanese money can buy many people’s silence.
“How shameful the sacrifices of our troops are deliberately ignored and forgotten by the very country for which they gave their lives,” he added.
