U.S. A-bomb dropping 'couldn't be helped': Japan's defense minister

TOKYO, Japan - Japan's Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma (in file photo) said on June 30 that he thinks the dropping of atomic bombs by the United States in the closing days of World War II ''could not be helped'' as it was aimed at preventing the Soviet Union from entering the war against Japan. ''I understand the bombings brought the war to its end. I think it was something that couldn't be helped,'' he said in a speech at a university in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture.

Sample
PDF Preview

Product Code
ILEA001123487

Registered date
2007/6/30 00:00:00

Credit
Kyodo / Kyodo News Images

Media source
2007 Kyodo News

Media size
1864 × 898 pixel

Resolution
dpi

Deployment size
158.80(KB)*

Special instruction

*File size when opened in Photoshop, etc.

Similar Images & Videos

78th anniversary of WWII ground battle in Okinawa

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (front) observes a moment of silence during a memorial ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, on June 23, 2023, the 78th anniversary of the end of a major World War II ground battle between Japanese and U.S. troops.

78th anniversary of WWII ground battle in Okinawa

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida walks to lay a flower during a memorial ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, on June 23, 2023, the 78th anniversary of the end of a major World War II ground battle between Japanese and U.S. troops.

78th anniversary of WWII ground battle in Okinawa

Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki (front) offers a silent prayer during a memorial ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, on June 23, 2023, the 78th anniversary of the end of a major World War II ground battle between Japanese and U.S. troops.

78th anniversary of WWII ground battle in Okinawa

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offers a flower during a memorial ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, on June 23, 2023, the 78th anniversary of the end of a major World War II ground battle between Japanese and U.S. troops.

78th anniversary of WWII ground battle in Okinawa

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a memorial ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, on June 23, 2023, the 78th anniversary of the end of a major World War II ground battle between Japanese and U.S. troops.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki mayors meet Japan PM Kishida

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui (R), Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue (L) and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pose for photo as they hold talks at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Feb. 14, 2023. The mayors of the two cities that suffered U.S. atomic bombings in 1945 asked Kishida to set up occasions for world leaders attending the upcoming summit of the Group of Seven nations in Hiroshima to visit A-bomb memorial museums in the cities or to talk with the victims on the sidelines of the summit.

EU ambassador in Nagasaki

Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue on Feb. 3, 2023, asks Jean-Eric Paquet, the ambassador of the European Union to Japan, and EU member state ambassadors for support for nuclear abolition during their visit to the southwestern Japan city, which the United States hit with an atomic bomb in the final days of World War II.

EU ambassador in Nagasaki

Jean-Eric Paquet, the ambassador of the European Union to Japan (C), visits on Feb. 3, 2023, the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum in the southwestern Japan city of Nagasaki. The United States hit Nagasaki with an atomic bomb in the final days of World War II.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in Nagasaki in 1991

Photo taken April 19, 1991, shows Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev offering flowers at the Peace Park in Nagasaki, the southwestern Japan city on which a U.S. atomic bomb was dropped in the closing days of World War II in 1945.

Japan marks 77th anniversary of WWII surrender

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a memorial ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II at Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo on Aug. 15, 2022. (Pool photo)