Japan minister says US A-bombs couldn't be helped

By Staff
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TOKYO, June 30 (Reuters) Japan's defence minister outraged survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings by the United States today when he said the attacks ''couldn't be helped'' because they brought World War Two to an end.

''My understanding is that it ended the war and that it couldn't be helped,'' Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma said in a speech near Tokyo.

''I don't hold a grudge against the United States.'' The minister's comments on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki drew swift criticism from victims and the opposition.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe defended his minister, despite an uproar that could dim his ruling bloc's prospects in an upper house election on July 29 that could determine his political fate.

''They are comments by those who do not understand the misery of A-bombings at all,'' Kyodo news service quoted Kazushi Kaneko, 81, head of a group of survivors in Hiroshima, as saying.

The Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, as well as the A-bomb survivors group Nihon Hidankyo, urged Kyuma to withdraw his comments. The leaders of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party denounced Kyuma.

Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue said: ''The use of nuclear weapons constitutes the indiscriminate massacre of ordinary citizens, and it cannot be justified for any reason.'' Abe stood by his defence minister. ''I understand that he was presenting the thinking of the United States in those days,'' Kyodo quoted the prime minister as saying.

''LITTLE BOY'' In the world's first atomic attack, a US B-29 bomber known as Enola Gay dropped a bomb nicknamed ''Little Boy'' on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

The blast killed about 140,000 people by the end of 1945 out of Hiroshima's estimated population of 350,000. At least 100,000 more succumbed to illness and injuries later.

Three days after the Hiroshima attack, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb nicknamed ''Fat Man'' on the southern city of Nagasaki. It instantly killed about 27,000 of the city's estimated population of 200,000.

Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945.

The 66-year-old defence minister, whose electoral district includes Nagasaki, said the attacks were a tragedy and later told reporters he did not mean to justify the bombings.

However, he reiterated that, from the US perspective, the use of atomic bombs was inevitable.

Noting that Soviet Union was preparing to wage war against Japan, he said the United States must have believed the use of an atomic bomb could prompt Japan's surrender and prevent the Soviet Union from doing so.

Kyuma's outspoken comments contrasted with Japan's traditional caution over the bombings.

Government officials in Japan -- the only nation to suffer an atomic bombing -- typically express sympathy for the victims, but avoid criticising the attacks out of consideration for Tokyo's ties with Washington, its closest security ally.

Defenders of the bombings say they hastened the end of the war in the Pacific. Critics accuse the United States of dropping the bombs to strengthen its position against the Soviet Union after the war.

REUTERS SBC BD1752

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